First of all I must say how delighted I am to be on Sherry’s fabulous The Heart of Romance Blogspot. Had I seen your tagline before Riverside Lane went out Sherry, I might have had to borrow it! “Blends heartwarming romance with mystery, history and intrigue,” pretty much sums up the novel Riverside Lane, which I co-wrote with my friend and neighbour Gaynor Pengelly.
Although I am, at the moment, in the process of promoting my latest children’s novel, I am here to talk about the wonderful process of co-writing a novel.
Thank you for visiting The Heart of Romance today.
Riverside Lane Blurb:~
A mysterious American arrives in a quintessentially
English village claiming to be on holiday but not all the residents are
convinced by the handsome stranger's story. Behind perfect privets and brightly
painted front doors, the lives of Riverside Lane's residents slowly unravel,
until it becomes apparent that the American may not be the only deceiver in
their midst. Tension begins to mount in this quintessentially English community
- now revealed to be a labyrinth of deception - and culminates in an unexpected
death. The villagers threaten more than his anonymity with their mutterings and
meddling and when religious zealot Ivy Midwinter challenges him in the church
she learns that Luca Tempesta will stop at nothing to protect his secret. Set
against the cinematic backdrop of a gastronomic village by the Thames,
Riverside Lane is a thrilling, vivid page-turner that seeks to understand human
behaviour hard-wired for desire, power, love and possession in a traditional
society threatened by extraordinary challenges.
About the authors...
Gaynor and I formed our writing partnership
wondering around our village, Bray, walking dogs and dropping off children while
observing the rules and nuances of the village social structure. We began to imagine,
what would happen, for example, if you dropped an international spy into the
midst of such a quintessentially English community? How would a conman or an art thief fair among
the curtain twitching complexity of a typical English village.
The plot for our first novel, Riverside Lane,
grew organically through these conversations and we decided a house swap would
be a good vehicle to introduce different protagonists through a series of
stories.
Once we agreed to write together our nom de
plume came early, dreamed up by Gaynor’s mother to whom Ginger Black was an
obvious choice; Gaynor has ginger
hair, mine is dark and my maiden name is
Blackburn. In some ways, having a
‘brand name’ spurred us on, making us feel professional and like a team. While I had written novels before - mostly children’s - I had never submitted them for publication
and as a national newspaper journalist Gaynor was used to being published, but had not written
fiction.
We developed the characters for Riverside Lane
pacing the Thames path with Rumpole, my British Bulldog panting in our wake. Pretty soon stuff needed to be written down
so we committed to a regular Monday meeting.
Here we would plan for the week and then leave armed with a brief for -
depending on where we were in the process - character development, scene
breakdown or copy for the next scene. We set a midweek deadline to file copy to
one another and edited the work, emailing it to and fro before signing it off
the following Monday.
And so we progressed, step by step along the
towpaths, word by word onto the page until we completed our first draft. While every word, character and plot point is
a collaboration, we each bring different strengths to the Ginger Black
partnership. Gaynor is good at seeing
the big picture and excellent at pace and shape while I sweat every word and
comma and obsess over continuity and credibility. She is patient with my pedantry and I am
grateful for her vision.
Once we finished our first draft we filed it to
the bottom draw and worked on promoting the Ginger Black name much as we did
the writing; discussing what needed to be done at Monday meetings and dividing
the work between us. We developed website
and social media identity, then set about building a digital presence and that
all important mailing list to give us something - as well as our magnum opus -
to make us a marketable prospect to agents and publishers. And then we rewrote the manuscript. Like all the other jobs, we shared this one
but instead of working in parallel Gaynor edited the entire novel, then I did,
and then we each did it again, and again, and again!
We are often asked how our writing partnership
works and I think the short answer is with a similar work ethic, a sense of
humour and complete trust. We take the
discipline of writing seriously - in three years of partnership we have rarely
missed a deadline - but a healthy dose of self-deprecation and irreverence has
definitely smoothed our path while guaranteeing terrific fun along the way.
I feel fortunate to have
met Gaynor and found a kindred spirit and writing partner. I have just finished
writing a middle grade novel for children alone, and while I have enjoyed the
writing process, it has not been as much fun as writing with Gaynor.
Riverside Lane is available in paperback at all good bookstores and
libraries. There is also an ebook version available on Kindle.
Author contacts:-
