I asked these questions of the two women.
What was the process like of having two people write one book?
How did you work together?
What was easy?
What was difficult?
Their answer was:
Satan’s Chamber took 2½ years to research and write. Our friendship spans thirty-years prior to that: thus we had a pretty firm foundation for working together comfortably. Aside from a handful of face-to-face sessions, we developed a pleasant ritual of Tuesday morning phone calls to assess where we were and assign who was to do what next. That was probably the only constant in our process, which became largely a matter of trial and error and finally success! We invented the story together as we went along, then each took different parts of it to draft, then send to the other for expansion or revision. Several times we discovered that we had different conflicting notions of the same character: “Wait a minute! Bart would never say that!” Then we’d have to adjust and bring our two visions into sync. Overall the collaboration was energizing and inspiring, producing a wealth of creative suggestions: every brain burst was on the table and worthy of consideration. Once we had a complete, continuous draft, Molly did the final edit giving the story one voice. The only downsides to our process were logistical. Molly lives in Oregon, 3000 miles and three time zones away from Karetta on the East Coast. She’s not a morning person; Karetta is. We also had some crazy-making moments thanks to “version confusion.” Molly would be working on one version of a file while Karetta was making changes to a different version. Aargh! But our Tuesday phone meetings could turn into mutual support groups when necessary. In fact we were so habituated to them that we immediately embarked on a sequel to Satan’s Chamber, Hotel Limbo, and have almost completed the first draft.
Junior CIA operative Victoria Pierce is posted to Khartoum, Sudan, where her father vanished five years before. Obsessed with solving the mystery of his disappearance, she uncovers a horrific plot that threatens to ignite World War III. A fast-paced spy thriller, Satan's Chamber shuttles between Washington, DC, and war-torn Sudan, geo-political intrigue and ancient mysticism. It introduces a rich array of memorable characters, from Bart Wilkins, the bumbling but buff young supply officer at the Embassy, to Kendacke, one-eyed descendant of the female pharaohs, to Adam Marshall, one of the richest and most ruthless men in the world.
Molly Best Tinsley on the left below.
Air Force brat Molly Best Tinsley taught on the civilian faculty at the United States Naval Academy for twenty years and is the institution’s first professor emerita. Author of My Life with Darwin (Houghton Mifflin) and Throwing Knives (Ohio State University Press), she also co-authored Satan’s Chamber (Fuze Publishing) and the textbook, The Creative Process (St. Martin’s). Her fiction has earned two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sandstone Prize, and the Oregon Book Award. Her plays have been read and produced nationwide. She lives in Oregon, where she divides her time between Ashland and Portland.
As a businesswoman and entrepreneur, Karetta Hubbard has more than twenty-five years of experience in consulting, strategic management, and organizational change for companies throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. Having recently turned to literary endeavors, Ms. Hubbard credits her five grandchildren as her inspiration and encouragement to put pen to paper. As an active member of the Washington, DC community, Ms. Hubbard has held appointments at the Small Business Advisory Council (SBA), the Tyson Business and Professional Women Foundation (BPW), and the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. Ms. Hubbard attended the University of Virginia and received her B.A. degree from George Mason University. She also attended Catholic University’s Graduate School in Social Work.
Price: $19.95 hardcover, $14.95 paperback, $5.99 ebook
ISBNs: 9780984141210, 9780984141203
Pages: 294
Release: August 2009
Amazon buy link:
Fuze Publishing buy link
Amazon Kindle buy link
Barnes & Noble Nook buy link:
Lenore, thanks for hosting the dynamic duo of Molly & Karetta :)
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