Evelyn David

(Evelyn David is the pen name for authors Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dorsett)

How did you two hook up to co-author a book series? 

R: We met on the Internet via an on-line fiction writers group. We were both writing short stories for fun. I liked Marian's tales and she liked mine. We decided to try a joint effort and the rest of the group was very complimentary. Positive feedback is very addictive! 

M: After writing successively longer stories, we finally decided to try our hand at commercial fiction. After many <sigh> rejections, Woman's World purchased one of our favorites – Pipe Dreams. 

R: It was one of the most exciting days of my life – the day I got the news about the sale. 

M: Me too. I'm pretty sure that Rhonda could hear me squealing before I picked up the phone to call her. 

R: While we were waiting to hear about our short stories, Marian suggested that we try writing a book – a mystery – together. We discussed it for a few weeks, then decided to jump off the cliff and give it a try. A year later we had our first draft of Murder Off the Books.

 

Where did the idea come from for MURDER OFF THE BOOKS?

R & M: We started with Mac and Whiskey – a retired police detective opening his own P.I. firm and a big dog that he used as a sounding board. The actual mystery – the embezzlement idea came from a similar incident at a small college back east.  Everything else just kind of appeared as one scene moved to another.

 

What is it like to write a book with another author? Ever have any creative clashes? 

R: I've never written a book without a co-author so it's all I know. Writing with someone keeps you from giving up when times it tough. And it did get tough about midway through the first draft. We lost direction and kind of floundered around for a month until we did some outlining. We didn't have any serious clashes over the writing – sometimes we didn't agree about a character or a scene, but we learned to defend our views and if we couldn't defend something – we realized the scene probably wasn't going to work. 

M: I write nonfiction books for my "day job," and have always been told that the first rule of collaboration is: Don’t do it! I've heard horror stories from fellow writers who have had miserable experiences collaborating. But working with Rhonda was fun and, as she said, surprisingly free of any creative clashes. I think two of the essential ingredients in making this partnership – or any partnership – work is that we both have similar work ethics AND have long since recognized that humor gets you through most of the tough times in life.

 

Tell us the pros and cons of co-authoring a book.

R: The best thing is having someone to bounce ideas back and forth. Also nice to have someone tell you that you're brilliant. Marian is good at doing that! The only real con is that decision making is shared – you can't just run with something for a few hundred pages to see if it works. Well, you could, but if your co-author is doing the same thing at the same time – someone's writing is eventually going to get the axe. It's kind of like being in a sack race. You have to coordinate your actions – no fast individual moves. 

M: The best thing about co-authoring this book is working with Rhonda. She is smart, funny, and is a terrific writer. She's also the brains behind any of the technology stuff – our web presence is her creation. In fact, that is one of the bonus perks of this book. Using Rhonda's cheat sheets, I can now blog with the best of them! 

 

What writing have you done apart from each other?

R: I've just done short stories – stories not for publication. Marian has a whole list of non-fiction credits to her name. 

M: I've written eight nonfiction books on parenting, education, and business topics. My newest book is due September 1. It's on veterans and I'm frantic to make the revisions. (Actually, I've collaborated with a veteran on this book and it too has been a marvelous experience.) Visit my nonfiction website  here.

(thanks to Rhonda for helping create it!). 

 

When will the next book in the series be released?

R: We're working on it now. But we don't have a date yet.

M: Fingers crossed, hopefully late next year.

 

What is your writing schedule like?

R: I like to write in the evenings after work. Marian prefers the morning. But we send notes back and forth throughout the day – mostly about plots or clues.

M: I'm an early bird – up before six most days. I find those early morning hours the best time to write.

 

Tell us something about your characters, behind the scenes, that we may not know.

R: We fell in love with our original killer and had to change horses midstream. We wanted to keep the character around for books two and three. We also had to delete almost a whole village of characters in order to get the book to a manageable size for publication.

M:  At the last minute, we also had to change the name of one of the characters in the book. I kept thinking the name sounded so familiar and then realized – it was a neighbor's name. I just couldn't face the thought of running into this perfectly nice gentleman and having to explain that this unsavory character was not a reflection of what I thought of him!

 

Is Whiskey a purely fictional dog or was she patterned off of a dog you've known? 

R: Whiskey is a fictional dog based on a photo we saw of a real Irish Wolfhound. We got permission from the real dog's owner to use the photo for our cover and promo items.

I don't have a dog now but grew up in a family that always had dogs, not Irish Wolfhounds, but a variety of smaller dogs. I think Whiskey is a compilation of the dogs that both Marian and I have known over the years. 

M: Clio, my dog, is an Irish Terrier and shares Whiskey's love of food.

 

Why a dog sidekick? Why not human?

R: I wanted to give Mac a sounding board that didn't talk back too much. 

M: I thought a dog would soften Mac – humanize him.

 

How has your life changed since you've become a published author?

R: I'm much poorer. My family misses seeing me. I have office supplies stacked in my living room. And my flower gardens are looking pretty rough. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done – and worst of all – I don't have time to read more than one or two books a month. I used to read 3 or 4 books a week!

M: All of what Rhonda said, but I would also add, that I'm having the time of my life. I've always wanted to write a mystery and to actually have one in print – wow!

 

What is the best part of writing a book?

R: The satisfaction of creating something from nothing is the best part - plus finding a friend to share the journey.

M: See why I'm glad we wrote this book together? Yep, what she said.

 

What is the worst part? 

R: Editing and promotion are the worst. Editing because it's hard to cut scenes you love and promotion because I'm basically an introvert. I'm the kid who hated selling Girl Scout cookies.

M: I don't mind the editing so much because I'm also a freelance editor. But I do worry that we are spending so much time on promotion that we're not getting as much writing done as we both had hoped.

 

What would you like to say to your readers?

R and M: Thank you so much for buying Murder Off the Books. And don't forget books make great gifts! Too much? Okay – thanks for reading and please check out our website –  Better? How about some thin mints?