Moraimag asked Charles Todd:

I was happy to hear Ian’s story will continue. I’ve listened to all the audiobooks more than once. Recently we mystery lovers lost Anne Perry and with her sad news we knew we also lost William Monk. Can you share more about how the book gets none? They are so well written! How did the collaboration with your mother work? I didn’t know you were a pair until I had read almost the whole series. Thanks!

Charles Todd Dear Morimag:

Homework! We believe you have to walk the ground in the places you write about. The "feel" of the place and the people can not be underestimated. Caroline received a BA in English Literature and History and a MA in international relations. She was an excellent teacher. Traveling with her as we visited every nook and cranny of England combined with learning the history made all the difference.

We believed a few things about writing together. Writing is another form of story telling. Her father and my grandfather exposed us to his wornedful story telling and the art of reading aloud. We also wanted to speak with one voice. No reason to confuse readers with different narratives in a story. We worked very hard to accomplish that. We recognised early on that we both needed to know the same things and worked on each scene until we were both satisfied. Then we would agree on the next scene and so on. I am still keeping the tradition of not outlining. Why tell a story when you already know how it ends?

We have written many articles and were on many panels speaking to this subject. The MWA Writers Handbook has an article we wrote about this topic. I don't want to fill this reply with pages about these great topics. You can email me at charles@charlestodd.com and I will direct you to the many articles we wrote.

All the Best,
Charles Todd

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