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.

The Writing Process: Some Advice and How to Unwind

My writing process is fairly straight-forward, combining practical common sense with a bit of unbridled creative passion!  First of all, I glean all the information on my next topic (eg Rhuna in Ancient Egypt) from my stash of historical, New Age, spiritual, pseudoscientific books and take notes of the points I like.  From about 50 such points, however, I might only end up using half or less, but that’s fine.  In the beginning, I don’t have a clear idea of what I’m going to use, but if I have a nice long list of ideas/topics/facts/myths to choose from, then it’s easier to grab one as I’m going along.

Before I start writing, I formulate a general plot in my head.  Since this a series, I have a definite starting point (the cliff-hanger from the last book) and end point (the cliff-hanger leading to the next book).   I have some definite ideas what will happen between both points; not just in terms of events but how characters will be affected.  

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Once I have a fairly solid base line to follow, I allow myself to develop and add things as I go along, and this often happens almost by itself from Part II onwards.  Often I have Part One clearly defined in my mind before I get started, and this helps me lay the groundwork for the rest of the book, such as setting the scene, raising the new issues or problems Rhuna will be facing, and creating some suspense as to what will happen.

Usually I write to story in sequence, but at times I’ve been overwhelmed by new ideas or a description of feelings or events that happen further along in the story.  That’s when I let the creativity flow freely, and later I connect those scenes with the ones written in chronological order.

Some advice I’d gladly pass on to new and aspiring authors are these:

·        Be yourself.  Don’t try to write in the style of a popular author, or even your favourite author.  You have to find your own inner voice and then let it shine forth.  

·        Every word you write should come from your heart and soul – not your brain dictating how you think it should read.  If you do this, readers will instinctively feel it and have an emotional response to your book.

·        Remember that books are like people: with some you immediately ‘click’; with others you just can’t gel.  This goes for the books you read yourself, but also what to remember when readers don’t like your book.  Not everyone is going to like it, just as not everyone is going to like you personally.  That’s just the way it is.

·        If you are being yourself in your creation, then continue to be true to yourself.  Keep writing and growing while doing the necessary promotion and marketing of your books, and your readership will grow:  slowly but surely.

Being creative can be more mentally exhausting that you realize, so it’s important to make yourself have a break before you feel the brain fog or mental block developing.  In my case, I have another creative outlet, namely art: sketching, oil painting, acrylic, watercolour, still life, portraits or whatever grabs my fancy.  I meet with other artists at the local Art Society’s studio once a week, and this is already a great little break when I’ve been writing or thinking a lot about a book.  Other times, I feel I need a week or two away from writing and just do paintings and sketches around home.

When I’m out of creative gusto, I play games: jigsaw puzzles (on the computer nowadays – much easier!) some hidden object mystery games and Super City on Facebook.  Other times just going to the park with hubby and the dog is enough unwinding for a few hours.  And believe it or not, doing some necessary chores and housework can also help to unwind mentally just by giving you some distance from the work you were focussed on.

What inspired me to write the RHUNA series

You might be surprised to learn that I was only 10 years old when the first foundations were laid for my RHUNA series.   It was a distinct turning point in my life, and I remember it very vividly, even now.  No, nothing strange or other-worldly happened.  It was just a normal day, and my father took me to the movies, just like normal.  Only the movie we saw that day was Chariots of the Gods – an early docu movie based on Erich von Däniken’s book by the same title.   It was the first theory about “Ancient Astronauts” ever put out there back in the early 1970s, but it wasn’t the idea that our technology came from aliens that grabbed me.  It was simply seeing ancient wonders like the pyramids in Egypt, strange statues on Easter Island, and many other mysterious megalithic structures that we today can’t truly explain or understand.  

 

 When we left the movies that day, I asked my father all about them, and was simply gobsmacked that they were “mysteries” – and above all, why hadn’t I heard about all this before?! (in all my 10 long years of life!?)   Needless to say, I dragged my father to go see it again…and again.  And as life went on, I was always drawn to subjects like Ancient Egypt, Stonehenge, and ancient mysteries of all kinds, picking up books about them along the way.

Then, nearly 20 years after first seeing Chariots of the Gods, and a few years after my father had passed away, I was going through my father’s old books and came across Thor Heyerdahl’s Aku-Aku: The Mystery of Easter Island.  Perfect!  But I knew it was there because my father had told me several times over the years that I should read it, yet I was never in the right frame of mind before.  This time I was, and it was a revelation like Chariots of the Gods all over again, only ten times more poignant.  I knew there and then that I had to read, not just every book by Heyerdahl, but any other book that was remotely similar.

And so I devoured all these books about ancient mysteries all over the world – and they truly are all over the world.  Thanks to Heyerdahl, I learned that there are even pyramid ruins on Tonga – a small South Pacific island group many people have never even heard of.  I went there on my next vacation to see them for myself, and continued to develop a ‘theory’ about it all as I went.  By this time, my choice of books on the subject had veered into the New Age/Esoteric area, which thrilled me even more because I was reading about Atlantis and how legends tell of its advanced technology spreading across the globe, leaving mysterious megalithic structures everywhere. 

At this point in my life, I came to a junction of sorts because my writing had become more than a hobby, and I had begun to consider writing a novel of some sort.  But about what?  The answer was obvious:  the subject that had fascinated me the most since I was 10 years old.   It was meant to be!  There was no turning back or looking aside after that.  From then on, it was a simple matter of creating characters in the world I had already mapped in my head from reading all those New Age-Esoteric-Ancient Mysteries books.  Four books and several short stories on, I’m nowhere near running out of material for RHUNA, so expect to be seeing more of her around in coming years!