Two Authors Writing as One

 

Nothing to do with my post. This is one of the beautiful bouquets that arrive every month - last year's Christmas present from my mother.

 

I am fascinated by the idea of two people writing a book together as one author, as in the novel ‘The Hypnotist’ by Lars Keppler (which my husband is reading) – in which a Stockholm family is brutally murdered. The investigators of the case decide to hypnotise the family's teenage son, who is critically ill, in the hopes of leading him to provide clues as to the identity of the murderer.

I recently found out that Lars Keppler is a pseudonym for the husband-and-wife writing team of Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril.

It's fascinating to hear how they work. Apparently, they sit side by side at a desk with two computers. Each writes a scene and then after about twenty minutes they email each other their writing which they then add to and edit. This happens over and over again until they forget who’s written what.

A fascinating interview with them can be watched on the  Richard and Judy Reading Groups for Everyone site.

 

I asked my husband if he could imagine writing a book with me this way and his reply was:

'No, because you would edit and cut everything I wrote, whereas I wouldn't dare change anything you'd written.'

 

How well he knows me!