TEAM WRITING THURLO STYLE
A lot of you are interested in how a wife and husband can work together and live together too.
The dynamics of it can be complicated.
David sees things as they are. I see things as I wish them to be. Let me give you an example. Recently we both saw a wonderful cover that had a very sexy man wearing a cowboy hat sitting on a motorcycle. It was evocative and said it all -- cowboy, macho. David looked at it and said, "he can't wear that hat on a motorcycle. It'll fall off unless he goes five miles an hour."
This is why I do the love scenes and he does the action scenes. He's really, really good when it comes to figuring out the logistics and moves in a shootout or fight, what they're doing and why. I stink at that. Some of you may have heard the story about the time I wrote the rough draft of an action scene but got IUDs mixed up with IEDs.
Sticking to what we do best has advantages. The obvious one is for the reader. They get a better character driven story with plenty of action and emotion. Here at home - well, it means we still talk to each other at the end of the day.
It's not always easy. Writing together can put a lot of stress on both of us. The good part? It can also make us both laugh, as you can see in the examples above. That's really the key. If you can laugh at each other and with each other, you'll never have a lasting problem.
Note the word lasting. Problems will appear. Writing isn't something that happens in a direct line, like when you're reading the published work. When creating the story, you may go from point A to point B at first, then decide that point C makes a better point B. You follow me? Often, during the process, it becomes like arranging quilt squares to get the best pattern - in this case, story.
Or you may end up really disagreeing on something - anything from what constitutes sexy to how do we word our hero's dialogue to make him real and believable to our readers. Would a guy say that? Or more likely, how would a guy say that?
It's a lot more fun to write with a partner. I think it was Bette Midler who said that the hardest thing is to find someone who can be happy for you. Partners know how hard it is to create a book. When good things happen, like a great review, or a quote from a colleague, you always have someone there to celebrate with. That sounds like a small thing, but unless you share the good times, they don't seem quite so special.
Writing as partners has many facets, but it's great rereading a scene you wrote together months or years ago and being able to see your words, his words, and that great sentence that you don't remember who wrote - only that it says it all.
TAKE OFF THE CHILL
We thought that we'd talk about our favorite topic today -- Food.
David, as many of you already know, teaches science which means our writing and work schedule is normally crazy.
When it comes time to take a break and unwind, we like going to our favorite restaurants or cooking here at home. (I have to admit that David's far better at cooking than I am. I tend to worry more about the state of the kitchen, while he worries about the actual food!)
This coming weekend, we'll be fixing our favorite all-time dinner, which coincidentally is our most requested recipe, since it appears often in our Ella Clah books.
We hope you'll enjoy it!
GREEN CHILE STEW
Saute 2 large chopped onions and 2 chopped garlic cloves in two tbs canola oil until clear. Remove these from the skillet, then flour and brown 1 1/2 to 2 cups of cubed beef or pork. Place the meat, cooked onions and garlic into a large stew pot, then add 2-3 cups chopped green chile, 3 cups chopped tomatoes, 1-2 tsp salt, and about 2 1/2 cups water. Heat to a boil, then simmer for one hour or longer until the meat is done and the kitchen smells wonderful. Serve the stew with tortillas or fry bread.
Note: we've discovered that frozen green Hatch chile, barely thawed, is superior in flavor to the canned variety. We usually prefer medium chile, but in the winter, spicy hot hits the spot.
SOLD OUT
Please write me at ADThurlo at aol dot com, specify in the subject that you want to enter our drawing, then Feb. 29th we will announce the winner. Good luck to everyone!
Power of the Raven Reviews
The reviews for Power of the Raven are starting to come in, and they are great!
"Thurlo's fast-paced plot is loaded with page-turning action and romance, all against a sumptuously appealing background of Navajo traditions and legends."
Traditions, Navajo Mythology, and Raven
When you write stories that focus on places and the people who live in them, as we do with our novels about the southwest, people often want to know how we get ideas for the next book.
Our February release for Harlequin Intrigue, “Power of the Raven,” is a story that came to us when we were walking around Old Town in Albuquerque and saw a small, beautifully carved fetish in a storefront window and stopped to admire it. According to tradition, a fetish is more than just a carving. It's a symbol that is said to capture the essence of the animal and impart those qualities to its owner.
Out of that moment came a storyline about a hataalii, a Navajo medicine man, Hosteen (mister) Silver, who fosters troubled Navajo boys, giving them a new life and future. On their sixteen birthday, each of the boys receives a gift - a special fetish carved for them. Gene Redhouse, the hero of Power of the Raven, carries a bear fetish. A bear fits Gene because bear's power is made strong in solitude. Though Bear has a dark side, he also stands for confidence and inner stillness.
“Power of the Raven” centers around Gene, now a man, on a path that will test the limits of his courage.
I've always had a special affinity for animals, and the lore that surrounds each fetish is something I find particularly fascinating. One of my favorites is Raven.
Raven's magic brings the power needed to take your dreams, give them time to form, then make them a reality. Raven belongs to the inner world, that place where we protect the part of us that's often injured by the sting of rejection. Raven becomes a powerful ally who encourages us to embrace the shadows because they're also part of who we are.
I find that especially beautiful, because as authors we have to dig into memories of pain as well as triumphs to make our characters come alive. The process can be difficult and leaves you feeling vulnerable at a time when you most need to protect yourself. Not everyone will see what you want to do in the story you create and the words you use to do it. There will be harsh comments, and judgments. You have to be able to take the blows, smile, and keep going. It can hurt - badly - but like a famous teacher once said, 'It doesn't matter how many times you fall down - only how many times you get back up."
Each of the Copper Canyon stories will feature a hero and heroine who has, or will receive, a very special fetish in the course of the book. As the characters learn about their new spiritual brother, the reader will go on their journey with them, and maybe some will find their own fetish - an animal carving that will remind you of your own uniqueness, and the power that resides in each of us.
To celebrate its publicaton we're having a very special giveaway - a handcarved raven fetish signed by the artist, Amos Pooacha. Mr. Pooacha is confined to a wheelchair and makes his living carving these very special fetishes.
Please write me at ADThurlo at aol dot com, specify you want to enter our drawing, then Feb. 29th we will have the drawing. We'll announce the winner on our web page, and of course, the winner be immediately notified by e-mail.
Working as Partners
It takes two - at least in the Thurlo household - to create a novel. Our collaboration works because the two of us make one terrific writer.
Our partnership began after a long conversation where we each acknowledged our individual strengths and weaknesses as writers. We wanted to produce the best novels possible, so teaming up professionally seemed the logical way to go.
The subsequent years became a continual learning process. Writing a book is an incredibly uneven, unpredictable process that often takes us on a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. Adapting to your partner’s eccentricities is a must. Taking into account that each of us has our own set of skills, voice, and method of working, we knew right away that we’d have to establish certain ground rules.
Sometimes, as it was in our case, it’s obvious who does what best. For example, my action scenes are horrendous. One time I got IUDs mixed up with IED’s. If David hadn’t caught it in time, our readers would have been rolling on the floor with laughter and our credibility lost forever. I also have no sense of direction, as evidenced by my driving skills. Without looking at my hands and/or wristwatch, I still have no idea which direction is left or right. Don’t even ask me to choose east or west. As a result, we decided right off the bat that David would choreograph all the action scenes and handle those details.
However, there’s also a yin to that yang . David’s weaknesses as a writer are precisely where I excel. My strengths lie in dialog, characterization, and in bringing out the emotions, essential to any compelling storyline.
Our latest Ella Clah mystery, Black Thunder, (Oct. 2011) is a perfect example of how our styles blend. In this suspenseful mystery Ella and her ad hoc investigative team have to track down a possible serial killer before he or she can strike again. At the same time, Ella struggles with pressures from home. Her little girl is now a teen with a mind of her own and those pesky, raging hormones that complicate every mom’s life.
The reviews for Black Thunder, our seventeenth southwest mystery, have been excellent. PW said it was an "insightful portrait of a native culture still evolving between tradition and modernity." Booklist, the Journal of the American Library Association, also gave it a favorable review, calling Special Investigator Ella Clah a "compelling character", and promised that our story "should keep readers on their toes until the final pages."
We also have a brand new romantic suspense novel coming out Nov. 1, Winter Hawk’s Legend. In this story Holly Gates must hide out with Daniel Hawk, the security expert sworn to protect her. She finds herself falling in love with him though, unlike her, he craves no home or family - just the same freedom as the great hawk. This is a story about the power of family, of hope, and the courage to defy the odds.
Winter Hawk’s Legend is a landmark book - our 30th for Harlequin Intrigue. To date our publisher has sold more than a million copies of our Harlequins.
Romantic Times gave Winter Hawk’s Legend 4½ stars, which means "in a class by itself." My favorite review, however, came out in Genre Go Around. The reviewer said, "Winter Hawk’s Legend is a superb Native American mystery starring a woman in peril who has no concept as to who wants her dead or her unknown adversary’s motive. Thus readers have an innocent doing an innocent thing leading to her danger mindful of Alfred Hitchcock. Readers will relish team Thurlo’s enchanting New Mexico thriller."
To be compared to Hitchcock, at any level, made our year.
I believe what makes David and I such a strong writing team is that we’re two very different people. We’re opposites in almost every way imaginable. For example, I take things way too personally. A mediocre review can put me either in the dumps or have me diving headlong into chocolate. David is calmer by nature, and his objectivity often helps me maintain an even keel.
Even our approach to writing is different. I can spend countless hours working over a paragraph and have the ability to shut out all distractions when I’m on deadline. Unless the kitchen blows up and I find myself without coffee, I stay on target. David, on the other hand, has a hard time sitting still for long periods of time. He usually plots our books while on the move. Afterwards, I go over the details of the storyline and fine tune it. Once again, though our styles are different - or maybe because of it - we balance each other.
Though our team has been very successful, our collaboration isn’t always smooth. The very fact that there are two of us working on the same words, pages, and story almost guarantees that there’ll be disagreements somewhere along the way. Since our first priority is the novel we’re working hard to create, we’ve agreed to settle those issues in a manner we believe is most beneficial to the work. If it’s an emotional or characterization problem, I have the last word, but David’s opinion takes precedent on any aspect of the plot or the action scenes.
The rewards of working as a team are clear. When it’s time to celebrate victories, you’ll always have someone who understands the sacrifices it took to get that starred review, or that new multiple book contract. Yet, as a married couple who also works together, achieving balance remains our greatest challenge. Pressure can wreak havoc on a partnership, be it business or personal, so it’s crucial for us to find time to do fun things together, too. On Saturdays or Sundays we might choose to watch a football game together while eating gobs of popcorn. At other times, we’ll take our trio of standard poodles for a walk in the bosque, the wooded banks of the Rio Grande, or go for a long car ride down country back roads.
Teamwork takes work, but in the end run, I’ve got to say I’d never trade it for a solo act. As Ella Clah, our Navajo tribal police investigator might say, "When you’ve got good backup nearby anything is possible."