So what inspired you to write about older women – a much neglected group(speaking as one!)?
Karen: Jean and I have been good friends for about eight years. We were on holiday together in Northumberland with two other writerly friends when the idea for The Silver Sex Kittens Series first came about.
Jean: During an excellent meal in a pub in Alnmouth, we had a good moan about the fact there were hardly any novels starring women of our own age having fun without a man in tow. Most single, middle-aged female characters were portrayed as either eccentric or miserable and were only happy when a new romance blossomed.
Karen: But we both know many successful and fulfilled, single women aged over fifty, who are doing remarkable things and leading fun-filled lives. We’re talking about women who launch new business ventures in later life, go travelling to remote pockets of the world or take up that hobby they’ve always fancied.
Jean: Fifty is the new thirty. Most of our single female friends lead busy, adventurous lives. Even their disasters are impressive.
Karen: But modern fiction doesn’t reflect this. We decided that the world needed some cosy chick-lit featuring some of these remarkable women and the characters of Carys, Moira and the rest of the girls were born. In this first story, Carys and Moira take up fishing.
How do you write together when Jean lives in France and Karen in the North of England?
Karen: We decided to write a series of short stories first and finally found time to start work on Life After Men this spring. This first book was what you could call an experiment in working together –
Jean: She means ‘Total chaos’. After Karen wrote a scene to kick things off, we refined the plot and characters and ‘talked’ by email, Facebook messenger and live skype.
Karen: We have a shared Dropbox folder for all the detail about characters, setting, plot and updated manuscripts files.
Jean: Karen had the brilliant idea that I should collect photos of the characters to put with their descriptions in Dropbox. We both edited the Word files online to add backstory and details. All of a sudden, I knew we were writing about the same people, in the same story and from that moment on, everything worked.
Karen: When we’re in creative mode, we might send a dozen emails in a day and if even one goes missing, that can cause big problems (and misunderstandings) so for quick chit-chat we’re using Facebook messenger.
Jean: We both know York and Yorkshire really well so locating the story in ‘a fictional village near York’ anchors events in an authentic setting. I collected images of the settings too so we’re working from the same visual impression.
Karen: When I was looking for a name for the village, by complete chance I came up with the name of the village where Jean mis-spent her teen years. She was horrified at the thought of using that and arousing the wrath of past ghosts.
Jean: You said you wouldn’t mention that.
Karen: Don’t worry. I won’t tell them that the real village is Nether Poppleton.
Jean: You rat! I could tell readers the story behind the name you chose… Nether Monkton … but I’m too nice to mention your phobia about monks.
OK, Ladies, break it up! What method do you use to share the writing (eg alternate chapters/POV). What are your do’s and don’ts for anyone contemplating co-writing?
Jean: This has been a voyage of discovery, a case of life being a journey not a destination, writing to see what happens next …
Karen: She doesn’t plan. Total nightmare.
Jean: She’s right. But WE quickly learnt that we can’t co-write without planning so, for the next books, we have outlines. I’ve discovered LOTS about our different strengths and potential. Karen is brilliant at structural editing and planning and I had no idea that I can write like a clockwork toy – now Karen points me in the direction, says ‘write that scene’ and I love doing it.
Karen: I’m just stunned that I can write modern fiction – and I’m really grateful to Jean for showing me the way. Everything I’ve written before this has been set in the early nineteenth century so this has been a fascinating learning curve. I’ve also loved the lyricism of Jean’s prose. Like most of the Welsh, she’s a natural poet. While I’m busy focusing on plot and structure, Jean moulds and shapes the language, mine as well as hers. The collaboration works.
Jean: In the end, we did write different scenes but we discuss and edit so intensely that all the scenes end up written by both of us.
So tell me about yourselves – let’s start with Jean
I’m the author of the award-winning Troubadours Quartet, historical fiction set in the 12th century, like Game of Thrones but with real history. A photographer as well as a writer, I live in the south of France with two scruffy dogs, a Nikon D750, a beehive and a man. I taught English in Wales for many years and I’m published in a variety of genres, both with conventional publishers and self-published.
As mother or stepmother to five children my life has been pretty hectic.
Working with top dog-trainer Michel Hasbrouck inspired my bestselling novel Someone To Look Up To. With Scottish parents, an English birthplace and French residence, I can support the winning team on most sporting occasions.
And what about you, Karen?
I’m the best-selling author of The Detective Lavender Mystery Series set in Regency London, and featuring Bow Street’s Principal Officer, Stephen Lavender and his humorous side-kick, Constable Ned Woods.
Like Jean,I was an English teacher, but now write full-time – except on Thursdays when my little grandson, Bruce and I trawl the streets of my tiny, Yorkshire fishing village looking for adventure.I have two grown up children and was widowed in 2013 and my counsellor advised me to accept every invitation that came my way – so I ended up with my pub quiz team on the BBC’s famous Quiz Show, ‘Eggheads’ and much to my surprise, we won!
Does it help or hinder to be friends!?
Karen: It wouldn’t be as much fun if we weren’t friends so that makes it. Although at times it’s been more like a marriage than a friendship.
Jean: I agree and I hadn’t realised how intimate it would be to write like this with someone else. When I’ve co-written before there’s been more distance because it never reached editing and publication. Karen now knows all my strange little writer foibles and anxieties. But that’s OK; it has deepened the friendship.
Karen: Having fun with a friend and calling it work has been the best part of this experience.
So, what’s been the hardest part?
Jean: Disagreements. I love the moments when we’ve read each other’s minds about the story and characters. Equally, I hate disagreements, even though I know they’re part of creating the best book we can write.
Karen: Like I said, it’s like being married to each other at times – and the disagreements are part of that. We have two very different styles of writing and finding the common ground has caused painful moments for both of us. We’re both also very strong characters. But it was worth it in the end; the book is written in one voice,
Jean: Karen-and-Jean. That’s why it works.
Is ‘Life After Men’ going to be part of a series and have you mapped out several books already? Or are you heading for divorce!
Karen: We’ve already got another short story, Moira’s Highland Fling planned for 2019. We think we might do three novellas in total and then write a full-length novel, possibly where all five of our ‘Silver Sex Kittens’ go on vacation.
Jean: I think we will respond to readers’ reactions so that if, by Christmas 2019, we can see that The Silver Sex Kittens are popular, we will keep finding time to have fun writing the stories.
How do you both balance it with your other writing?
Karen: That is an important question. Neither of us can focus on writing stories set in two different worlds at the same time.
Jean: We were very deeply into The Silver Sex Kittens when we finished Life After Men and it hurt to stop.
Karen: We’re hoping to complete the next two in between my Lavender books as I’ve got a commitment to that series with my publisher – and because I love writing about Lavender and Woods.
Jean: I have solo projects too and am just about to start a new series, after a year of short stories. Balance? What balance!
Tell us a bit about the book. What type of reader will it appeal to?
Jean: The central character is shy, recently-widowed Carys Newham, who with her friend, Moira, takes up a challenging new hobby– going fishing in the Yorkshire countryside.
Karen: After all, if ten year-old-boys can do it, how hard can it be?
Jean: As Carys and Moira try to catch their own supper, secrets are unearthed, young men are scandalised and maggots are liberated. In their determined quest for pan-fried trout, the two women narrowly avoid both the bomb disposal unit and arrest.
Karen: If you liked Calendar Girls, you’ll love this. A reader described it as being like a cosy Thelma and Louise without the cliffhanger.
Sounds very funny! Where can we get it?
You can pre-order now at only 99c or 99p – publication day is 26th October.
from the Amazon USA store – amazon.com
or the UK store https://amzn.to/2zHRcb0
and from other stores https://books2read.com/LAM
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