Do authors collaborate?

 Michael – Alternate Thursdays

Stanley and I have written multiple times about our collaboration together that has led to nine books with the tenth in the pipeline. Last week, Karen told us about her book A Trace of Deceit and how, in a different way, she collaborated on that work. (By the way, I’m greatly enjoying the book, and ebooks are only $2.29 right now.) Her collaboration involved working with two friends who are artists and she credits them with helping her develop her protagonist into a living, breathing painter.

She finished her piece by asking writers if they collaborate. That made me think that almost all authors do so in multiple ways, and, I believe, their books are better for it. I suppose Karen might have called her collaboration “research” – which, of course, it also was – but I understand that it was deeper than that. It wasn’t just facts but the way painters feel. What is embedded in their characters. What they might think, what they might say.

Stan and I once had a wonderful afternoon driving around Gaborone with the director of the CID. He was a great character who arrived to meet us in cowboy boots and hat. We learned facts a plenty but we also obtained an insight into how the CID in Botswana operates. And that their offices were raided by baboons who came down from neighboring Kgale Hill.

We became friends with the head master of the wonderful Maru a Pula school. He seemed to know everyone and introduced us to the police commissioner and several amazing women. All of them became collaborators in our work. Without them we might have had the facts right (thanks to the internet and our own travels), but we wouldn’t have had the people right at all.

Another collaboration is the one an author has with an editor (or certainly should have) and may have with an agent. We are fortunate to have had editors who operate at multiple levels. One is the broad sweep. On reading our second book, our editor at Harper Collins scrawled in the margin: “What are these two characters doing in the book?” We tried to draft a reply, indignantly defending them … and realized that the characters weren’t doing anything important at all. However, they occurred throughout the book, so we had to rewrite the whole novel. Without that collaboration, the book would have been longer and not as good. At another level, the copy editor corrects wording and catches mistakes. The translator of our books into German caught an important error in the description of a boat between pretty much the first chapter and pretty much the last chapter. (By the time it was translated, the English version of the book had been through two editors and two copy editors, to say nothing of multiple rereads by the two authors.)

We are also fortunate to work with a writing group in Minneapolis. We read each other’s latest work and comment and then discuss the material. Those outside perspectives help steer the book, catch badly drawn scenes, add momentum to the writing. I always recommend groups like this to new writers. In addition to the collaboration, they add enthusiasm and create some sort of timelines to work to. And they’re fun.

Then, like Karen, we have friends who are readers of mystery fiction who will read the work and give us valuable insights into the full book. These readers are invaluable, but you need to be sure they’ll really give you honest, critical comments. One recently did so, causing us to make quite extensive changes to our current book.

Of course, eventually the author calls the shots. There are some who won’t allow anyone to read any of their material until the book is in final form. South African Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer was one. I guess if you’re that good, maybe you don’t need any help.

The rest of us collaborate.

Rails to Trails: Steps on the Tracks of Time

Ovidia--Every other Tuesday

I’m in a liminal space, writing-wise, right now. My editor, the wonderful Krystyna Green, is retiring at the end of this year.
Krystyna has been my editor ever since she acquired my books for Constable/ Little, Brown/ Hachette and I will always owe her more than she can ever know. She's cheered, encouraged as well as reined me in over the years and made my books better than they could have been otherwise and it's a little unsettling knowing she won't be casting an eye over any future books!

Thank you, Krystyna!

I hope very much we'll stay in touch, but it's not just personal. It also means my tree history mysteries will be orphaned--I've just handed over the last book of the current contract and, unlike previous occasions, haven't yet signed a new one.

I still hope it'll happen, of course. But things move on and times--and things--change. I feel like the path ahead is uncertain yet exciting. It helps that I've been walking a lot along the Rail Corridor, ever since I found a new 'secret' access route to it.

These are the steps up at the end of Hindheade Walk. Not so easy to find... I've lived here for years now and only been able to get on the Rail Corridor at the Rail Mall or opposite Bukit Timah Plaza (both 30 minutes walk in opposite directions) but this is just ten minutes away from my front gate--greenery, away from the sight, sound, smell of urban traffic and buildings!

And yes, I'm well aware that its insulation is both cause and consequence of its few access points!

The Singapore Rail Corridor is a 26km long right-of-way, along the railway lines that linked trains from the Malaysian Peninsula to Singapore for almost a century.

Now it's a recreational walking route and full of greenery--three times the size of our Botanical Gardens and a space conservationists are hoping to preserve!

I really enjoy walking on the gravel of the former railway lines, especially with the cooler weather we're getting now.

It's ironic that this peaceful space only exists because of the trains and tracks constructed to transport tin, granite and labourers.

It's a good reminder that transformations, however uncomfortable, can birth new value and joy.

In that spirit, even as I hope Su Lin's history tree mysteries get a new contract, I'm already working on ideas for two new books and looking forward to all that this new month and the coming new year will bring.

Right now I'm looking forward to meeting Christopher Grenier-Deferre who'll be in Singapore 3 to 6 Dec to explore locations for filming the series. (I'm not involved, just excited!) and also there's the Science Cafe Murder event coming up this Friday evening-- life is almost too exciting!

I'm only wistful because it feels like I'm coming to another crossroads and this is/ has been such a wonderful phase of my life and I almost don't want to move on because I'm so happy and blessed right now...

But stagnation is death, right?

So we'll move on. But always remembering that a firm foothold in the past is the best foundation on which to step into the future.

As summed up by two of my favourite Yip Yew Chong murals at the Rail Mall--

Happy December Everybody--may this last month of 2024 be your best month yet!