Episode 45 – Co-Authoring with the Writers Behind C. K. Wiles

Mark Leslie Lefebvre

8 years ago

https://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP45_CoAuthoringwithCKWiles.mp3?_=1

Mark interviews authors Kerrie Flanagan and Chuck Harrelson about the steamy romantic comedy novels they have been co-authoring under the name C.K. Wiles.

Before the interview, Mark shares a personal update explaining why he isn’t participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, even though he loves it. He talks about how he will be using the month of November to get caught up on previous unpublished NaNoWriMo novels – in an effort he is calling NaNoComMo (National Novel Compleition Month) as well as a few other outstanding book projects he has in the works, including print and audiobook versions of two of his recent books on writing & publishing, The 7 P’s of Publishing Success and Killing It On Kobo.

He then thanks new Patron of the show, Mary Jo Rabe as well as the other existing patrons via www.patreon.com/starkreflections for their support, then gets side-tracked into remembering television shows like Romper Room and The Polka Dot Door, then gets onto a sidetrack about Polkaroo.

After playing a short audio clip from The Polka Dot Door featuring the Polkaroo song, Mark manages to get back on track.

This episode is sponsored by Findaway Voices . . .During the interview, Kerrie, Chuck and Mark talk about:

How Kerrie and Chuck first met, about ten years ago, via a developmental editing project
The support Chuck has offered in helping hold Kerrie accountable for various writing projects over the years
The strategic decisions behind the collaborative C.K. Wiles project
The origin of the psuedonym
The process of how they brainstorm, map out, outline, and write each of the novels
How Chuck uses AutoCrit’s web-based editing software (which provides automated recommendations for improving your manuscript in over 20 areas – categories like poor dialogue, use of adverbs, and relying on cliches)

The cast and universe of characters that they have created and draw upon for each novel in this series
The interesting and unplanned story arc that is beginning to reveal itself as they were working on the third book
The logistics of how they published the C.K. Wiles books to the various retail platforms
The co-author contract/agreement that Kerrie and Chuck created regarding this author name and series
The importance of trusting one another and “having no ego” on a collaborative work – looking at the work as “ours” as it is being worked on and re-written
The different elements that Kerrie and Chuck each bring to the narrative that make it better
Plans they have for promotions and attention for this series

After the interview, Mark reflects on one of the elements that Kerrie and Chuck mentioned, which is playing off one another’s strengths. He considers teamwork and the importance of recognizing strengths and weaknesses when working with others, and even shows off the fact he is a Canadian by ruminating about hockey.

Links of Interest:

Kerrie Flanagan is a freelance writer with over 20 years’ experience and is the author of Guide to Magazine Article Writing. As a writing consultant, she works with writers, giving them the encouragement, support, resources and tools to find success on their writing journey. She is the author of 8 books under her label, Hot Chocolate Press.

Chuck Harrelson resides in Denver Colorado and is an active member of both the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and the Northern Colorado Writers Group. His past manuscripts won the 2014 Top of The Mountain Book Award competition, the Ballot Press Competition and one was a finalist at the 2016 San Diego Writers Conference.

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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