My Dearest Fellow Conspirators,
I think we often think of writing as a solitary exercise: some lone man or woman hammering out page after page in the quiet isolation of a study or tucked away in a book-cluttered office.
There’s definitely some truth to that. Most of my series were created with me at the kitchen table at four in the morning, my faithful (and occasionally flatulent) golden retriever snoring at my feet.
But as I got deeper and more involved in the craft and began publishing extensively, the isolated “me” slowly morphed into a team of “we.”
My writing team currently consists of a brand manager, a marketer, a content editor, a proofreader, a researcher, a graphic designer, and an audiobook narrator!
They’re the ones responsible for the professional look of the books, the clarity, the consistency, the robust depth, and the fact that the books, either in digital or in paperback form, wind up in your hands at all.
Coordinating all of that involves serious time and effort. There are countless back-and-forth emails, phone calls, and, now, Zoom meetings as we do what we can to ensure we’re on the same page.
And us being on the same page helps to ensure that our characters are on the same page.
This applies across the string of books, from Recruitment and the Conspiracy Ennealogy to Athena’s Law and to the Seeker’s series.
Vega and Callum don’t work unless they’re fully fleshed out people. Kress and Brohn can’t enjoy watching their relationship develop until that relationship has been shaped by people in the real world with real relationships of their own. Marion and Victor can’t hold their breath on their collision course with each other without a very creative crew behind them.
And those are just some of the main characters in three different series currently on the go. All the other characters and the dense, intimately detailed worlds they inhabit exist as a result of a team of dedicated people staying up late, chugging their coffee, straining their eyes, wringing their hands, and wracking their brains until they develop these incredible books and, possibly, an eye twitch.
But the end result makes it all worthwhile.
So this is a blog about a certain element of the writing and publishing process, but it’s also a shout out, a hearty “Thank you!”, and a great big ol’ bear hug to all the members of my writing team at Travel Duck Press!
Technically, the writing itself would be possible without them. The panache, the elegance, the precision, the hearty fullness and fluidity, and the high-quality of the end-product you wind up reading wouldn’t be.
Thank you for reading!
Conspiratorially yours,
— KAR