SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: I'm delighted to introduce the lovely Kate Flora. She's one of the five ( ! ) authors from the blog Views from the Muse, who together wrote the culinary thriller BEAT, SLAY LOVE: One Chef's Hunger for Delicious Revenge together. New York Times-bestselling author Charlaine Harris says: "For anyone who’s ever watched CHOPPED or even stopped in at Williams Sonoma, “Beat Slay Love” is the perfect read. An incredibly sly mystery, it has everything you’d want when you bite into a dish: suspense, spice, and a new take on an old classic." Take it away, Kate!
KATE FLORA: When a group of the authors who blog together at Views from the Muse https://thaliapressauthors.wordpress.com decided to write a novel together, anything could have happened. How could five people who live in different parts of the country, don’t know each other well, and write wildly different types of books possibly do it? How would the process work? How would we even figure out what we’d write about?
There’s an old expression
that goes “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” Definitely not true in this case.
With over a hundred years of writing and publishing experience, and more than
75 books among us, we might be taking on something entirely new, but we all
knew how to write, edit, discuss, and collaborate. We quickly agreed on our
theme: a serial killer who was knocking off famous TV chefs. Without much more
of a plan than that, we embarked on what came to be called, Beat,
Slay, Love, a send-up of the journey toward self-discovery, and
Americans’ obsessions with celebrity culture and food, by the imaginary Thalia
Filbert.
The writers:
Gary
Phillips writes hardboiled tales of flawed characters and their pursuit
of hollow dreams. In addition to being part of the Beat, Slay, Love crew,
he is co-editor of Occupied Earth, an anthology of life and resistance under
the boot heels of the alien Mahk-Ra. http://gdphillips.com
Katy Munger has written
fifteen crime fiction novels, including series in the cozy, private eye, and
modern noir genres. She was a co-founder of Tart Noir. http://katymunger.com
Lise
McClendon writes mystery and suspense, celebrating 20 years in print last
year. Her series include an art dealer in Jackson Hole, a private eye in Kansas
City, and a lawyer with five sisters in France. She also writes thrillers as Rory
Tate (PLAN X) and co-owns Thalia Press with Katy Munger. http://lisemcclendon.com
Taffy
Cannon has written a mainstream novel, thirteen mysteries, an Academy
Award-nominated short film, and The Baby Boomer's Guide to SibCare. http://taffycannon.com
Kate
Flora writes two series—strong, amateur, female PI in her Thea Kozak
series and cops in her Joe Burgess police procedurals. She’s published more
than fifteen crime stories. She’s been a publisher at Level Best Books and
teaches writing at Grub Street in Boston. http://kateflora.com
The process was simple: each
of us would write a section, then pass the book along to the next author.
Sometimes there was a pause while extra chapters were added in, or a discussion
about the order of various events. Barbecue in Texas before or after lobsters
in Maine? Sometimes different writer’s versions of the same character needed to be discussed and revised—was Jason Bainbridge a schlump or a hipster? Would he ever get together with the icy FBI agent? Or might she thaw? How hefty was our protagonist? Was it possible so many had done her wrong, and how had they done it?
Still, even though it took a couple years, and involved a lot of work at the end to smooth it out and find just the right ending, it proved, as one writer observed, to be a lot more fun than we’d imagined.
The result? A book we’re all
proud of. Read an excerpt here: http://wp.me/P2PnOF-2j
To celebrate we’ve put together a cookbook of party recipes
called Thalia Filbert’s Killer Cocktail Party. To get a copy, send a quick note
to Thalia (our pseudonymous five-person author) at thaliapress@gmail.com.Beat Slay Love: One Chef’s Hunger for Delicious Revenge
by Thalia Filbert
Thalia Press October 1, 2015
• To order the book for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015BQUZCK
• To add it to your Goodreads shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26258450-beat-slay-love
• To request a paperback at your local independent bookstore: ask for ISBN: 978-0-9819442-1-0
• To buy a paperback online: https://www.createspace.com/5737186
SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Thank you so much, Kate! Reds and lovely readers, do you think you could write a novel in collaboration with others? (I keep thinking of the phrase, "Plays well with others".... ) Do you do best solo or as part of a team? Please tell us in the comments!
