How did you start writing together?
We are L. Barnett Evans and C.V. Rhodes, co-authors of the Grandmothers, Incorporated book cozy mystery book series and we’re delighted to let our readers know a little more about us. As for how we started this writing partnership. We both have our perspectives:
CVR ANSWER
I’ll let Lillie tell you about the story she shared with me, but using that idea as the backdrop we created a storyline about three widows, in their sixties, who are under the illusion that they are amateur sleuths. We then added the cantankerous mother-in-law of one of them as their constant critic and the formula worked. As we were developing the story we laughed the whole time we were writing. That’s how we knew Grandmothers, Incorporated was funny.
LBE ANSWER
I had an experience in my family that involved two grandmothers doing some investigating. I thought it was funny but kicked around the idea of writing a serious detective novel. Crystal thought that since the idea was funny why not write a comedy? The result was our book, GRANDMOTHERS, INCORPORATED, which, I believe, reflects how much fun we had writing it.
When did each of you first start your writing careers?
CVR ANSWER
I’ve been writing since I was eight years ago. As an adult, I started out writing plays. I’ve written over twenty plays all of which have been produced, not counting the two plays co-written with Lillie featuring characters from our Grandmothers, Incorporated series. One of those plays was performed Off Broadway. I didn’t start writing novels until 1995. I chose romance as the genre of choice because it’s so popular. It took years to develop my writing style and I received a lot of rejection letters until I finally got published in 2000. My first published romance suspense novel is titled Sin. It’s about a female minister renowned in her community for her anti-drug crusade and she unwittingly falls in love with a man involved in the drug world. It’s the first book in the Sin series. I’ve had eight romance suspense titles published in that series. Then, of course there are the three cozy mystery novels co-written with Lillie that have been published. So I’ve had a bit of success as both an author and as a playwright.
LBE ANSWER
That’s hard to say. I first was interest in journalism in high school and wrote for my high school newspaper. Over the years I’ve written for newspaper and magazines. I wrote for a start-up magazine for a brief time. I settled into writing sporadically for special projects. I never considered fiction writing because I pictured myself as a “just the facts” type of writer. Also, I was not aware of many African American writers. I’ve been spinning yarns ever since I was able to talk. I was always shy and didn’t talk much--unless I was spinning a tale. I have the knack for telling the most outlandish things and have them taken as truth. Sometime in the late nineties I launched my career as a story teller after winning a prestigious storytelling contest. So, I’ve always had the stories and performed them, and now I’m a published author and playwright.
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