by Grace Topping
This is the second in a series of interviews with
writers who write as a team.
Maddi Davidson is the pen
name for two sisters, Diane and Mary Ann Davidson. Living on opposite coasts, they
have written three books in their Miss-Information Technology Mystery series
and some short stories, and in their words, imposed
complex technology on unsuspecting customers.
After reading the opening
paragraph from Outsourcing Murder,
the first book in the Miss-Information Technology Mystery series, I knew I was
in for a hilarious read:
There are a lot of things you shouldn’t face in the
morning until well-caffeinated: the bathroom scale; any small-bladdered
French-named dog that fits into a handbag; trying on bathing suits; or
explaining to friends and family that you are a murder suspect.
I had to find out how
Diane and Mary Ann managed to work together three thousand miles apart, keep a
sense of humor, and still speak at family reunions.
It is my pleasure to welcome
Diane and Mary Ann Davidson to Writers Who Kill.
Grace Topping
Tell us about Emma Jones
and the Miss-Information Technology Mystery series.
 |
| Diane Davidson |
Emma is a
20-something IT consultant whose impulsiveness is both a virtue and a curse.
Bad luck may be responsible for her tripping over dead bodies at every turn,
but her actions subsequent to those discoveries lead to humorous, albeit
dangerous, situations.
What was it about working
in information technology that drove you both to write about murder? Have your
co-workers accused you of writing about them?
The
frustrations of dealing with technology regularly drive us all to
near-homicidal rage, so it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to writing about the
IT industry as a potentially murderous minefield. Some of the wackiness we’ve
experienced (yes, we poach work experiences for our stories) are better than
what we can make up (like the co-worker who wouldn’t take an online training
class he claimed contained a Satanic symbol).
No co-worker
has accused us of writing about them (and we haven’t), but we did sail close to
the wind with a character inspired by a detested ex-boyfriend, albeit 80 pounds
heavier and with 80% less hair. We enjoyed the effect, literarily speaking, of
course.
What motivated you to write
as a team?
 |
| Mary Ann Davidson |
Sharing
experiences about the lunacy we’ve experienced and seen in the technology
industry. As long as technology remains imperfect, we have literary fodder.
(Keep on putting software in household appliances: before long, some hacker in
Bulgaria will hold your wet laundry hostage.)
We look at the
world in the same way: through a demented sense of humor. We also feel we are
much stronger as a writing team than as individual authors.
Besides living on separate
coasts, what’s the biggest challenge you face working on the same project
(novels and short stories)?
Time
commitments. Diane is retired from the corporate world while Mary Ann still
holds a demanding position with a technology company, which limits the time
(and energy) she has for working on stories. Mary Ann tries to write in a
timely manner and Diane tries not to push too hard for progress (even when Mary
Ann moves slower than the average glacier).
Please tell us about your
process? How do you divide up the work?
We toss around an
idea until we think we have the makings of a good story. For a novel, we’ll
each write sections for the first draft, with Diane managing the overall
structure of the manuscript. On a short story, Diane will write the SFD (Sh#**y
First Draft), consulting with Mary Ann on plot hang-ups or ideas that aren’t
working.
For both novels
and short stories, we throw a Word doc over the wall when one is sick of
working on it and needs input from the other. Occasionally, there will be a
specific request (can you write chapter X, tart up character Y?). Recently,
we’ve been focused on short stories and have several underway at a time that we
swap back and forth.
Do you bring different
skills to the team?
Diane is the
structural engineer – planning the work, ensuring it is sound and the rooms
flow - and Mary Ann is the decorator – adding a pop of color (or a colorful
phrase) and tarting up the interior. Having different skills makes two halves
of a whole team.
Which one of you
contributes the humor, which is hilarious?
We both do.
Having grown up together – and had some of the same work experiences between
the Navy and the IT industry – we have the same offbeat humor. In some cases,
one of us is thinking about adding a particularly snarky comment to the
dialogue only to find the other one has already done so.
Do you ever disagree? If
so, who has the final say?
We try to be
brutally honest with our own writing. No matter how clever we think a bit of
writing is, if it does not advance the plot (or is bogging the pace down), it
gets nuked. If we can use it elsewhere, great; otherwise it goes to “bit
heaven.” In cases where we may not agree on a plot twist or a section of
writing, whoever wants it the most (or has the best blackmail material on the
other) wins. Our disagreements tend to be minor and are resolved easily (by the
one who makes the last edits to the story). J
What advice would you give
writers who plan to work together?
“Have your
wills in order.”
Do either of you write
separately under your own name?
Nope: we are
two parts of a whole. We write better together than either one of us does
separately. <Diane: Except I write the best parts.> <Mary Ann: As if!
>
You have some wonderful
characters in your books. My favorite is Magda Basilone, Emma’s landlady. An
Army brat, who married a Marine killed in action, and later married to an Air
Force officer, she is a firm supporter of the military. What inspired Magda?
I think she’s
our favorite character, too. We have known a number of Magda-like women, oft
married to big muckety-mucks in the military, but who were formidable in their
own way. No shrinking violets, these women took on the roles of mom, dad, chief
cook and bottle washer, plumber, mechanic, gardener, financial planner and more
when their husbands were deployed for ten months or more. It’s been a privilege
to know them.
Both of you served in the
Navy. Was it a family tradition? Did serving with people from all walks of life
and those hardship tours in Hawaii influence your writing?
Everyone in our
immediate family (except mom!) served in the military (our father and brother
were in the Air Force) and we did spend some of our formative years on a
military post. One of us lived in Hawai’i and we’ve both traveled there
extensively and been inspired by the beauty, people, waves, lovely music…and
the hallucinatory effect of one too many Mai Tais.
You now have three books
in the Miss-Information Technology Mystery series. I hope we’ll be seeing more.
What’s next for Emma Jones?
Emma is going
to join a startup and make a bazillion dollars by designing a mobile app that
tracks the timing of labor contractions and emails the results to family
members. Oh wait, that app exists. Darn. I guess we’ll have to keep Emma on
hiatus while we explore other characters and technology-related crimes.
“Vehicular
Homicide,” about a driverless car committing murder was published in the Summer/Fall
2015 issue of The Ghouls' Review. “Heartfelt” published in the Mystery
Times 2015 anthology centers on a hacked pacemaker. In the works are drone
killings and more technology mayhem. So much bad technology, so many deaths to
plot…
Thank you, Diane and Mary
Ann, for joining us at Writers Who Kill.
For more information about
Maddi Davidson and the Miss-Information Technology Mystery series, visit them
at www.maddidavidson.com
For additional information
about writing with a partner, visit their blog entry:
http://maddidavidson.com/2011/11/15/shall-we-dance-writing-with-a-partner/
