1.  SOFIE METROPOLIS, your newest book, is a major shift in writing for you both.  How has it been to write a mystery that will also debut as a hardcover book?

Now there's a question worthy of note! And one we don’t know exactly where to begin answering, if only because it seems like we haven’t had a moment to ourselves in the past year and a half to reflect on the experience. A part of us thanks you for the opportunity. Another flustered, deadline-ridden part thinks about the updates we have to make to our site, the many dangling details of our coming book tour, and our two adult sons Tony and Tim who’ve been complaining about how little time we’ve had to spend with them lately.

Still, it’s probably long past time that we’ve gained a little perspective on all that’s going on in our professional – and by extension our personal – lives. And this is the perfect time to do that.

Okay, where to begin... 

Let’s start with the wonderful fact that our first SOFIE title is being issued in hardcover. Hardcover. I swear I just shivered! We’re dancing Zorba excited. Feeling put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other pragmatic. Nail-gnawingly terrified.

I mean, think about it: Hardcover. Us. A husband-and-wife team that is so far known for writing series romance. It’s a dream come true, really. Let’s face it, for many of us, our first reading experiences are associated with the familiar sound of cracking open a brand-spanking new hardcover. Can you smell the paper? Feel the glossy dustjacket under your fingertips? There’s nothing quite like it, really. Personally, I still have cherished copies of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys mysteries, Heidi, and Little Women in my collection…all in hardcover, and all in almost as good a shape as when they were first bought. Actually, I picked up my copy of Little Women at a library sale and it’s twice as old as I am and still good for at least fifty more reads. 

While I’ve long outgrown these mentioned books, I hold the memories of reading them, stretched across my bed, summer, or winter, window open or closed, near and dear. 

To imagine someone else doing that with our hardcover…wow.

As for how it was to write a mystery…strangely, we don’t really view SOFIE as solely a mystery. In fact, we go out of our way not to describe her that way for fear of disappointing hard-boiled mystery fans. The Maltese Falcon or the many classic Christie novels SOFIE is not. Rather, we see SOFIE as embodying several of our favorite genres: romance, mystery, suspense, comedy, Oprah book club titles…the list goes on.

I know, sounds like a high order to fill, doesn’t it? And, trust us, it’s not an order we endeavored to place when we sat down to write SOFIE. Or any of our books, really. It may have something to do with our being a writing team, with two separate minds, two sets of interests, but we firmly believe that one of the reasons we fell through the cracks so consistently during our over thirteen year struggle toward publication was that our books refused to fit neatly into any one category. Even our series romances have elements that reach beyond pure romance. Our characters face situations in their careers, with their families and in their friendships that fully reflect real life. So that when you reach “and they lived happily ever after” you truly feel that they will. Not just as a couple, together, as soulmates, but as well-rounded human beings. And that the “happily ever after” doesn’t just apply to their love life, but their lives as a whole. Hmm…kind of how we view our own lives, I think.

2.  I know you both carefully plan the plot of your books and then let the characters take the story and run with it.  Was it any different writing a mystery versus a category romance?

Surprisingly, no. While we did occasionally have to stop ourselves from taking the strictly romance fork in the road (and our phenomenal agent Robert Gottlieb, as well as our Forge editor Melissa Ann Singer, had to yank us back), it was remarkably and frighteningly easy to permit ourselves to imagine all kinds of ways for Sofie to get into trouble, then allow her to take the reins then sit back and watch her ride into the great, Greek unknown. 

 We truly see SOFIE as a part of our ever-evolving writing career. She was a challenge because the scope of her stories is larger; a challenge we welcomed. But she shares a lot in common with the heroines who’ve come before.

3.  Were you tempted to put more romance into Sofie’s life?

Were we ever! Tony still bemoans the fact that Sofie and Jake don’t get to have sex in the first book.<g><g><g> It was extremely difficult not to allow their chemistry to take center stage. But the truth is it turned out that Sofie, herself, wasn’t ready for this kind of intimacy. Coming off a bad end of a long-term relationship that was supposed to be forever, she needs some space to heal. To find her way back to herself before she gives herself over to her attraction for Jake, even if she doesn’t realize that yet.

And, without giving too much away from what we plan for future books, Jake himself isn’t ready, either. If only because what exists between him and Sofie is growing to be something special.

We also had to keep reminding ourselves that this title is a first in a series, so we have more room for relationship and character development…and lots and lots of hot foreplay!

4.   I know that you are running a contest to find a title for the next book about Sofie.  How do you see that story progressing?

Actually, the book is already complete and we’re hard at work on brainstorming ideas (pulling together, really, since many ideas and threads already exist – damn that inventive Sofie and her family and friends!) for books two and three and ten. We love the connected nature of all the elements in the first book, and you’ll see a continuation of some of them in the second title, others in books farther down the line. The challenge of keeping so many balls in the air excites us.

5.   You are going on a major advertising tour this next month.  Is this your first extensive book tour?

Oh, yes! And we’re at the point right now where we’re anxious, eager and wondering what the hell we were thinking when we originally dreamed up the Baklava Express Tour.<g><g><g> Being the travel-lovers we are, we can’t wait to get on the road. Being the procrastinators we are, we’ve left many details to the last minute and are madly playing catch up now. Readers and on-line friends have been so generously supportive and we want to make a point of catching up with each and every one of them on the road, meet them face to face, thank them, connect with them in real life the way we’ve connected on-line and through our books. 

The tour is also the perfect excuse to unchain ourselves from our everyday lives, unlock the door to our office and remind ourselves that there’s a whole world out there chock full of colorful stories we can’t wait to discover, to tell, or look forward to encouraging participants of those stories to perhaps think of writing a book of their own. (We fully believe that everyone has at least one good book in them. And we’re huge advocates of journaling or diary writing. There are few things more satisfying than indulging in a dialogue with yourself. Just beware of what I call the “growth spurts” that come about as a result. You know, those moments when you wonder if you really know anything at all, and how you got along before without a specific piece of information you come across now.)

Life is about experiences. And we can’t wait to get out and bite off a huge chunk of life and see how it impacts us as individuals, human beings and writers.

Come…sit near us. Baklava? Now, share with us what you feel is the most defining moment of your life…

6.   Many readers are likely to compare Sofie to Evanovich’s Stephanie Plumb books.  I personally think that Sofie is much more interesting.  Any thoughts about that?

Blasphemy! Sacrilege!<g><g><g> I (Lori) am such an enormous, huge, colossal fan of Janet's Stephanie Plum books that my knee jerk reaction is to gape at you and ask, “are you nuts? How dare you compare anyone to one of my favorite writers!”

Then, of course, it sinks in that you’re talking about Sofie, our creation, our baby. I suppose if you’re going to compare any character to Stephanie…<vbg>

Wow. A better compliment I couldn’t imagine. Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you for even mentioning Sofie in the same sentence as Stephanie Plum. We're flattered beyond words.

Absurdly enough, when we originally brainstormed the first Sofie book, we bent over backwards trying to make it as unlike Janet's Plum books as possible because we were both afraid some of my fandom would bleed over into our stories. We wrote the first three chapters in third person. Played her down. Perhaps were even afraid that Sofie would emerge a pale imitation. And, given this mindset, I’m sorry to report that our first attempt was exactly that. But our agent Robert Gottlieb (who, coincidentally also happens to be Janet’s agent), saw the seed of what Sofie could be and he, along with a number of wonderful agents at Trident Media Group, and helped us let Sofie grow into what she ultimately became and will still become. Which we hope is a woman capable of not only handling herself among the likes of phenomenal characters such as Stephanie Plum, but claim a unique spot all her own.

Having said that, the maxim “imitation is the purest form of flattery” comes to mind. And it’s with pure humility that I say that we hope Janet is flattered by our Sofie, who we imagine could be Stephanie’s Greek cousin across the rivers in Queens.

7.   Do you see yourselves continuing to write the category romances that have been the mainstay of your work over the past several years?  Can you plan to write both mysteries and cats?

 Funny you should mention that, because we're in the middle of writing the second book in our next Blaze miniseries now. Due out later this year, the three-book series is entitled Dangerous Liaisons and is set in New Orleans. We're having a blast writing it! The thick heat that permeates the city, all that wonderful spicy food, the uninhibited nature of many of the inhabitants, well, fascinates us. And the format of Blaze gives us license to explore that fascination in our own creative way.

We owe much of our current success to our category romances, but, truth be told, we’re finding it ever harder to fit our stories into the restrictive guidelines. Although we do have to say that Harlequin has been amazingly permissive in our ever-expanding desire to push the boundaries of our writing. Although, I do wish they would have let us write that bisexual heroine…<g>

 I guess the answer is we’ll see. We haven’t really planned any of what we’re currently experiencing (we gave up trying to do that long ago), so to say what we’ll be doing tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, is too much to wrap our minds around just now.  We love our relationship with our Harlequin editor Brenda Chin and with Harlequin itself. They’re the ones who generously gave us the opportunity to not only do what we love, but to live our lives in a way that surpasses anything we could have imagined when we rolled that first piece of fresh, white paper into our old manual typewriter so long ago.

Besides, the last thing we want to do is anger the writing gods by presuming to think we actually have any kind of control over what’s happening. We’re having way too much fun enjoying the ride!

Lori & Tony

Enter Hot Drawings!
http://www.toricarrington.com * http://www.sofiemetro.com

Harlequin Signature Select Miniseries - From McCoy, With Love - March 2005
Harlequin Signature Select Saga - A Real McCoy - April 2005
Harlequin Signature Collections Anthology - That's Amore - I Do, Don't I?- May 2005
SOFIE METROPOLIS - Series Launch Title - Forge Hardcover - In bookstores 6/7/05!

Many, many thanks to Lori and Tony for this wonderful interview.  I’m sure TRRC readers will agree, with me, that we can’t wait to read those future SOFIE METROPOLIS books and all the other books that this talented pair of writers will be producing!

( Click here for a review of SOFIE METROPOLIS)