Please join me in welcoming Lydia Dare to my blog.
Tina: Behind the name Lydia Dare is a writing team of two women. Would you introduce yourselves to my readers and give them a little insight into your backgrounds?
Jodie: Hi, Tina! Thanks for having us today. I guess I’ll start. I am Jodie Pearson. I am currently the President of Heart of Carolina Romance Writers and I bring my knowledge and love of Regency England to the table. I began screenwriting way back when, but now focus on novels.
Tammy: Hi! I’m Tammy Falkner and I am a mom of two boys, am self employed, and started writing romance about seven years ago when I had my second child. I am the quintessential sports mom who likes nothing more than being a huge embarrassment to my children when I cheer from the bleachers.
Tina: A writing team seems to face other challenges than an author who works on her own. What do you think your greatest challenges are?
Jodie: Not killing each other. Just kidding. We get along great, but we are very different from each other. Our ideas aren’t always in sync, but we have a ton of respect for each other and have somehow made it work thus far.
Tammy: Honestly, I thought it would be much harder than it is to write with a partner. When I came home and told my husband about the idea he scoffed and said, “I know how long that will last…” But, in reality, we’re each strong where the other is weak, and we each accept where the other knows a little more and are willing to defer. Of course, there’s always the stopping point where one of us says “I just can’t write that.” Then we have to rethink and keep going.
Tina: When you write a novel, does one of you write from the Hero’s point of view and the other from the Heroine’s point of view? Or how do you decide who writes what?
Jodie: We write linearly. One of us will start a book and write the first 5-10 pages, then we’ll send them off to the other, who will edit those pages and then write the next 5-10. We go back and forth like this until we get to the very end.
Tammy: It’s kind of nice to be able to send the pages off to another person when you get stuck. Then you get them back and you know exactly where to take it next. It’s kind of like shipping the kids off to Grandma’s. You never know what they’ll do when they’re gone, but you’re happy to hear about it when they come home.
Tina: Was A Certain Wolf ish Charm the first book you wrote together?
Jodie: A Certain Wolf ish Charm was our first collaboration. We wrote it in two months and two months later we finished Tall, Dark and Wolf ish.
Tina: You’re published by Sourcebooks, the largest women-owned publisher in the US
Jodie: I can’t say enough good things about Sourcebooks. Deb Werksman is wonderful to write for and Dominique Raccah is amazing and so full of energy. Whenever we are with them, we feel like we’re part of the family.
Tammy: Dominique won us over at her spotlight at RWA Nationals three years ago when she gave her presentation about the company with such enthusiasm. She still carries that excitement over today. And Deb Werksman, we can’t say enough about her. She knows and loves our characters as well as we do. And we have enjoyed every minute of our work with her.
Tina: I’m sure many readers don’t know how much work goes into one single book. What is your writing process like, and how do you cope with editorial input you receive from your publisher?
Jodie: How do I cope with editorial input? I cry and curl up in a ball. Again – I’m kidding. Though that part is always a little stressful. As far as how much work goes into the book. This is the process: After we write the manuscript, we send it off to our amazing agent Melissa Jeglinski. Melissa will read through it, perhaps make a suggestion or perhaps not, and then she’ll send it off to Deb Werksman. Deb will read the manuscript and come back with editorial changes she wants made. We’ll make those changes using track changes and send it back to her. Then we get copy edits and read back through the changes and either accept with the suggested changes or explain why we don’t want to make the change. Then we send it back. And then, we get the final in a .pdf and go through it once more. This is our last chance to tweak anything or catch any stray Scottish brogue. We’ll send it back and then we are done with that particular book. But so many other people work on each book.
Tammy: The writing process is usually just a trade off of pages back and forth. But before we start writing, we do have to have a really clear picture of what our characters look like. So, we actually cast our characters. We use stock photo sites and go through hundreds of photos until we agree that the one in the photo looks like what we both envision. It can be difficult agreeing on that. Once that part of the process is done, we dive in and don’t look back.
Tina: All books in your Regency England
Jodie: The first trilogy is out there on the shelves. We have a connected book coming out November 2nd – The Taming of the Wolf . Then next year, beginning in April, we have another trilogy featuring witches from Elspeth’s coven and some very sexy vampyres.
Tammy: Then we’ll be off to write more wolves, we hope!!
Tina: When you read for fun, what kind of books do you like to read?
Jodie: Oh, I wish I had time to read. These days I’m so busy that I thumb through research books. But if I am able to take a vacation, I will be bringing with me the latest releases of Sabrina Jeffries, Deb Marlowe, Claudia Dain and Liz Carlyle.
Tammy: Historical romance has always been my favorite read. But I also like Elizabeth Lowell, Kresley Cole, and some other contemporary writers. Right now, we’re so busy writing and editing that I haven’t had time to crack a book in quite some time.
Again, thanks so much for having us! We’re having a lot of fun writing these stories, and hope the readers love the characters as much as we do.
Tina: Thanks to both of you for your time and giving us a great insight into your work.
For more on Lydia Dare, please visit her website: Lydia Dare
