Q&A with the Authors!

Now that we've written one book and are in the process of writing another, we figured it was high time to share some of our experiences writing the Perri Mistero series. Erica's answers are in green and Jonni's are in pink.

How did the Perri Mistero series start?
Jonni had told me about how she was writing a novella that somehow incorporated the Phantom of the Opera and asked me if I would be interested in co-authoring. As they say, the rest is history.

Me and my sister had a dare to write a story for "The Phantom of The Opera." She was going to write a love story, but I wanted to try  something a bit different. So, I came up with Perri and what she does. I wrote a chapter and decided that, hey, I want to do this with someone. So, I asked my bestie, Erica, to join me on this adventure!

What is your favorite quote from the series so far?
That's a hard one! I'd have to go with "I've handled worse than a dead Romeo." in chapter one of the first novella.

Oh, jeez. I love writing Perri's one liners, so I am not sure. I think my favourite is in the first book. Everyone always presumes that Perri is married, so she says," Fame doesn't promise you a diamond ring on your finger." Take that, Mrs. Chagney.

In your opinion, what are the biggest benefits of co-authoring? The greatest challenges?
By far, the biggest benefits of co-authoring is that we are forced to mix the character of Perri. If I was left unchecked with Perri, she'd probably be a serious, methodical, boring sleuth. Working with Jonni to create Perri gives her the humor and dynamic personality that is Perri's best asset. The greatest challenge we face is watching for discrepancies in the story. We each have a different view of the story and sometimes we mix up details such as the name of town or otherwise. 

Definately the biggest advantage of co-authoring is...everything! Erica is so great at writing details, and adding intelligence to characters, while I love bringing out the humor and personalities of it all. We both compliment each other so greatly, it's insane. I can come up with something, and she will just run with it with ideas. We both make it come to life! I think the only problem is that we sometimes get confused with where we want to go. That's it really. 

Do you have a system you use for the series?
Typically, we alternate writing chapters and edit each other's writing. I designed the blog, though we both write for it, and Jonni handles the Twitter. We collaborate on the covers. Mostly our system consists of bouncing ideas off of each other. :)

Perri is on my mind 24/7. I am always thinking of  new ideas. But, so does Erica. We take turns with each other. I write a few chapters, and then she will write a few chapters. We are trying to get on pace more, but we are trying to make a system where I write a chapter, then she, then me, and etc. 

If you had to describe your co-author in one word, what would it be?
Perspicacious, which means 'having a ready insight into and understanding of things.' Jonni always seems to know what we can do to make the story more interesting, exciting, or pertinent. I don't know how she does it! ;)

A perfectionist. Erica perfects everything she writes, and she truly makes it perfect. She adds the perfect amount of suspense, the perfect amount of dialog, and so forth. She just knows exactly what she is doing, and how she does it. Without her, I wouldn't stand a chance. I am no where near her perfection of writing. :D


Have any more questions for us? Comment below and we'll do our best to answer them! Or, you can tweet us @PerriMistero!