Becoming a bestselling novelist involves more than an epiphany and a typewriter.
Caroline and Charles Todd learned that first hand while they were carefully crafting their first novel 14 years ago and now, the bestselling mystery writers are coming to the Hockessin Library on Sept. 11 to share some of their wisdom.
The mother/son authorial duo, writing as Charles Todd, are best known for penning a 12-book mystery series of New York Times bestsellers featuring Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge.
Their love of history, mystery and England all play into their work, Charles said, and they gather inspiration while wandering through villages in the British countryside.
“You have to walk the ground,” Caroline, of Wilmington, said. “Ambiance isn’t something you can pick up from books.”
After many trips, the two have gathered a file cabinet-full of potential plots, which led them to launch a new series of murder mysteries revolving around British World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford. They’ll be signing copies of the second and newest book in the series, “An Impartial Witness.”
It’s always fun to meet fans and hear ideas for new plotlines, Caroline said, and they try and share advice with aspiring authors during their trips.
The hardest part of novel writing by far is finishing a book and many beginning writers struggle to translate their great idea into something readable, said Charles, of North Carolina.
“I’ve heard a million great ideas for books, I’ve seen hundreds of first chapters, but it’s not a book until you have your 400 pages of manuscript,” he said.
He and Caroline still read, even more often than they write, he said, and that’s the best advice he can give a person who wants to someday crack the bestseller list.
