Interview JoEllen Conger

 By

 Joan Hall Hovey

l. You’ve both written various works separately, under your own names? What made you decide to write Queen of Candelore together? Is there a rivalry between you, or do you rather think as one?

Joyce: We have always been interested in writing.  Even as children we concocted stories together. It was one of our many ways of enjoying our togetherness. As we grew up our adult world interests differed. There is NO rivalry between us. As twins we often think the same thoughts, have the same ideas, experience the same events, that’s why we can write so well together.  My individual writing has been metaphysical self-growth manuals, landscaping & gardening articles, animal tales, and teaching others Chinese methods of self-healing. Writing fiction after the intense concentration of developing healing manuals and giving workshops and lectures is like the bite of sherbet between courses in a big meal. It clears the pallet to enjoy the next flavor.

Joan: Why did I write QUEEN OF CANDELORE? Well, my number one writing passion is Fantasy, and my editor at the time asked if I’d be interested in the project. I talked it over with my twin and we decided to go for it. So, when the project failed to materialize we decided to go ahead and finish the manuscript anyway. Camelot has always been one of my favorite historical periods, so writing a King Arthur parallel was pure fun. Joyce has always been my best writing partner, maybe because we think so much alike. Some people find it’s hard to find a compatible co-writer. We’re so fortunate because we’ve known one another all our lives. We’ve never felt compelled to compete with one another. Separately, we both write metaphysical material. Mine is published in a Santa Cruz, quarterly magazine called Community Seed.

2. How did you come up with the name JoEllen Conger?

Joyce: The name uses our maiden name with a compellation of our given names. Guess we could have gone for Jojo, or Joann, but JoEllen appealed to both of us.

Joan: Conger is a very unusual name. After our first book was published I once had a reader contact me to find out if we might be related. She was also a Conger. We used this name because we had it in common, although my twin writes Contemporary and I write Fantasy, we’ve always used our Maiden name as our author’s name for fiction. We each use different names for our metaphysical writings.

3. Do you have different strengths as writers?  For example, is one of you better at writing love scenes than the other?  Dialogue? Or did you write alternate chapters?

Joyce: We tried writing alternate chapters, early on, but learned that we each had very different writing styles, so now we each originate a story line and the other critiques, edits, and offers new and different ideas to embellish the storyline. We usually like each other’s suggestions and salt them throughout our work. We make a good team.

Joan: Yes, we did try writing the same work, only to discover we had very different voices.  This didn’t work very well.  So we agreed to each write her own material while the other critiqued it and suggested various plot changes. Also, we liked writing different types of stories, and yet, we work very well together.  Our next Wings release RITE OF PASSAGE was the very first fiction we ever wrote together.  It was a growing experience for us, and we’d blush to expose just how many years it was in the making.

4. Tell us a little about your beginnings as writers-in-the making.  Who were your influences growing up? 

Joyce: When we were little, one of us would begin a sentence and the other would finish it without a break in the conversation. People had to watch our mouths to see which one of us was speaking. Our writing together evolved in the same manner. The greatest influence in “my” writing history was an English teacher in Junior High. She had a way of guiding our imaginations to grander heights. No storyline was ever too far fetched. And with her encouragement, Joan and I would take turns writing as we spun grandiose yarns.

Joan: I laugh, thinking back on those days. While other little girls played dolls, my sister and I designed maps of the little villages we dug in the clay hillside. For each house we created the history of the people who lived there. As we grew older we became avid people watchers… and made up stories about what might be happening as we watched them, the emotions they felt, or mimicked what they might be saying to one another. In high school we had an English teacher who recognized our creative gift, and took the time to nurture our creativity.

5. Tell us about your book, Queen of Candelore.

Joyce: Developed around the theme of King Arthur, our queen elect is a young lady raised in the simplicities of a rural castle who is betrothed to a mighty king to bond two countries. Her escapades beside the king she learns to love dearly, and her royal companion, who she also adores, are bigger than life. She not only comes to the aid of her royal husband when he is felled in battle, but also saves her nation through her daring fetes.

Joan: I couldn’t have told it any better. What makes this version of Camelot different than any other is that we have kept the three main characters Pagan, instead of Christian. The queen and her appointed Royal Companion begin the story as teenagers; the high king of all Brightland is seventeen years her senior. Throughout this tale of triadic love, the queen learns to love and honor her king as well as the man who has been chosen to protect her.

6. What type of writing schedule do you have?

Joyce: When I start a project, I behave as though it were a job. After I finish my breakfast dishes, and quickly toss the house together, I write five to six hours a day. If I get ideas throughout the night, I’ve been known to tiptoe to my cyber-room at four in the morning and write like a mad person till six, then crawl back in bed before the alarm rings and try to convince my husband I’ve been in bed all night. (A trick I learned from my cats.)

Joan: I get discouraged very easily. It takes my twin pushing me to keep me on target. QUEEN OF CANDELORE was the first book that has really kept me on track. We wrote it in six months. When I wrote this one I worked it six to ten hours a day. It was like escaping to wonderful, other world.

7. For you, what is the best and worst part of collaborating on a book?

Joyce: Best part: sharing time with my sister. Worst part: Waiting for her e-mails to come back.

Joan: The best part is when everything is clicking together: The worst is impatiently waiting for the next chapter to be emailed.

8. How long did it take you to write the book?

Joyce: So sis how long did we take? How many rewrites?

Joan: Well, we were really motivated on this one. I used the grid method to plot the work, and we finished writing the first draft in six months.

9. Tell us your publishing experiences.

Joyce: WOW! I don’t think you’d want to make this interview that long. I studied with a small publishing house during high school. Learned set-up, edit techniques, format, lay out, etc. I’ve ghost written for newspapers/magazines, and topical newsletters. Also written byline articles, manuals, ad copy, pamphlets, short stories. Written stuff I’ve self published. Had manuscripts under contract which weren’t published, and sold them again after rewriting and had them published. All in all, I think my publishing career has been a regular roller-coaster ride like most writers who hang in there long enough to get published.

Joan: Let’s just say my twin and I are seventy, a lot happens in that length of time. I also have dealt with a number of other publishers… not all happy experiences. But let me say this, I’ve met many editors I enjoyed working with, even when the work wasn’t published on schedule. And we’ll just let it go at that.

However, the work I do for Community Seed Magazine is a real treat. It makes up for all the disappointments and struggles I’ve had with other publishers.

10. What can we find you doing when you're not penning wonderful books?

Joyce: Talking with my roses (have 45 roses-and know each one by name), loving my three cats and two dogs, whistling to the wild birds in my back yard, singing in the church choir, spoiling my husband of 33 years, or teaching people self-healing acupressure, reflexology, and Oriental breathing techniques.

Joan: The past ten years I’ve volunteered to judge RWA writing contests. The thank you notes that come to me make it worth the time it takes to judge and critique new writers. I also have two young grand daughters living in the house. Between them and my ancient Siamese cats, they keep me feeling well-loved.

11. What advice do you have for the novice romance writer?

Joyce: Research--study--listen to the pros, but stay true to your own voice. God made only one of you, and no one knows better how to express your thoughts than you do.  After you learn style and technique, heart makes a story memorable. Always express from your heart.

Joan: Besides taking every happy and sad experience in your life as a guide to make your writing fuller, the one thing I can’t stress too much, is this: When you’ve discovered your own voice… BELIEVE in yourself! There is nothing more disappointing than other people trying to change your voice, your style, or your vision. These are the very things that make your work different than anyone else’s. They are dear. Hold onto them.

12. Where might fans and readers contact you, and where can they buy your book when it is released?

Joyce: at our web site:

or e-mail: joellenconger@yahoo.com

Joan: We also plan on having a website at www.CongerBooks.com .

13. What’s your next writing project?  Tell us a little about it.

Joyce: I’m rewriting a storyline first penned over ten years ago. Yesterday’s Widow (working title) about a woman who arrives home after disappearing ten years earlier when she learns her husband has been killed in a plane crash returning home for Christmas.  She finds her home sold and her whole estate seemingly lost to her because she has nothing to prove her identity.  Then Victoria learns of her second identity, lived during the lost ten years. Having no recall of the man she was married to during that period, who has been recently murdered, or her relationship with his family, she returns to this unknown household to help solve the murder assisted by the charismatic new owner of her former estate known as Haven House.

Joan: My wip is titled THE FUTURE KING OF BRIGHTLAND.  It will be a continuation of Queen of Candelore. She and her Royal Companion have sired a love child, which reappears in the second book to become the Royal Companion to High King Anthony’s issue by a Christian Lady in Waiting. The adventures of the two boys will be many as Prince Anthony II and Gallagher, trained to be a Druid, grow up together while the young prince trains to become king.

What has the experience of writing a novel together taught you?

Joyce: How to give and take ideas with an open mind. How to incorporate my sister’s visions of imagination without losing the identity of my own writing voice, while enjoying our exchanges and time working together on each project.

Joan: I think the art of “ghosting” another person’s voice takes talent and time to mature. Tolerance in not having your suggestions incorporated into the work is also a sacrifice that must be met graciously. Plus taking an idea that doesn’t quite fit what I had in mind, and making it work smoothly.

I’ve ghosted other people’s work beside my twin’s and have had the author admit he or she couldn’t tell what I’ve added. That’s quite a compliment.