Two Authors Under One Roof

The two authors under one roof I’m writing about today are my husband and I; Bobby and Barbara Underwood.   You might be wondering about the dynamics of two authors married to each other, so I’m about to tell you!  First of all, let me explain how we met:

In this age of internet and email connecting everyone across the globe, it’s easier than ever to find someone who is your perfect match, and that’s how it was with Bobby and me.  Bobby was living in California and actively writing amazon reviews, but what he really wanted to do was pursue a writing career.   Having a full-time job made that dream seem almost impossible, so writing reviews for classic films and books was the next best thing.

And I was living in Sydney, Australia, where I had already written my first novel but didn’t know what to do next.  So I was keeping busy by writing amazon reviews for films and books, too, and that’s how we connected – on amazon.com.  Back then it was easy to find like-minded reviewers and contact them, so that’s when Bobby and I began corresponding by email and the occasional ‘snail-mail’ letters and cards.

That’s how Bobby ended up coming to Australia where we were married, and later moved from Sydney to a country town in NSW.  These changed circumstances allowed us to have much more free time to finally pursue our dreams.   Bobby was finally able to put down on paper a life time of stories he had inside, while I worked on a sequel to my first novel (Rhuna, Keeper of Wisdom).  Bobby was writing about a dozen books to just one of mine!

His books also cover more genres, such as Mystery and Detective, Science Fiction and Dystopian, Romantic Fantasy, Pulp, Noir and Western while my books are part of one large fantasy series.

Although our books are quite different, we still have the many fundamentals of writing in common, such as going with the creative moods or dealing with discouragement and ‘down days’.  We know when to give each other the necessary peace and space to write a while, and then balance the rest of the day’s activities around our writing periods. 

One of those other activities is taking our dog, Cisco, to the park at least twice a day, which is actually a very good break mentally, not to mention keeping us physically fit!  While doing these other things, we often talk about what we are writing at the time, or plan to write next.  Other times we discuss reviews we’ve received for our books, as well as other books we’ve enjoyed reading, discussing the aspects we like best and can learn from.

Bobby and Cisco in the park by the river

Being Independent Authors, we don’t have deadlines to meet, and this is a good thing we feel, because we don’t have any pressure which would make us rush our work.  Quality is definitely more important than speed or quantity of books!  On the other hand, we still give ourselves a realistic goal to meet, as well as a bit of structure to the planning of our books and their marketing.  When a book is finished, we often proofread each other’s work, but after that we go our own ways where publishing and marketing are concerned.  For example, all of Bobby’s books are available exclusively on amazon, at the discount price of 99cents and on Kindle Unlimited.

Bobby and I are not competitive, but I can imagine that other couples in the same profession might be, and in their case it can be a good thing.  In our case, we usually inspire and encourage each other, and Bobby’s success with many sales, particular his Western series, all year so far make me happy rather than envious or jealous.  

So this is our story - of two authors under one roof.