Welcome Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles: Working Together, Mother and Daughter and a #giveaway

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By Liz, so delighted to welcome mother/daughter cowriting team Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles! Their new Molly Murphy mystery is In Sunshine or In Shadow, and they’re here to talk about their cowriting gig and their process. Let’s give them a Wicked welcome!

Rhys: When Clare first came to me at the beginning of the pandemic and said she’d like to continue the Molly Murphy series with me I was a tad skeptical at first. I mean, what if it didn’t work out? I knew Clare was a good writer but if our styles didn’t mesh? If we didn’t think along the same lines? I would hate to have to tell her it wasn’t working.

But we gave it a try. Clare came to it with brilliant and fresh ideas, Molly’s voice perfectly in her head. We work together so smoothly—talk through where we are going next, one of us takes on the next chapter, the other adds, smooths for continuity, and on we go. At the end I can’t tell you who wrote which scenes.

I’ve been asked so many times what it’s like writing with my daughter. I think the answer is pure joy. Would you agree, Clare, or am I really a pain?

Clare: I agree! While we began writing our first novel together I was nervous, wondering if my work would be good enough. But Rhys and I enjoyed reading each other’s scenes and the book flew along. And now we have just finished our third novel together, IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW. Molly Murphy and her friends journey up to the Catskills to an early Jewish bungalow community. 

Rhys: Clare and I have such fun conversations planning out the twists and turns of each mystery.  And we never fight or argue. Clare is the most even-tempered person in the world but we never seem to find something to disagree about. She’ll suggest something and I’ll say, “Oh, great idea. Let’s do it.”

Clare: Many mothers and daughters talk every day, but not many of them talk about different ways to murder people and get away with it!

Rhys: At an event last year I was asked how we hooked up. I replied  “I made her.” 

The best thing about working with Clare is that she loves the research and is so good at it. Tell the readers how you approached the research for this book, Clare and what gems you discovered that totally enriched our story. 

Clare: I do love to research! And of course, writing a series set in the early 1900’s every page needs research.  As I looked deeply into the Catskills in 1909 I found not only information on the beginning of what would become the ‘Borscht belt,” but also a bohemian community with professional women, blue stone miners and new park rangers who reported to the NYPD. What a wonderful setting for a mystery! 

 Rhys: So the book just kept getting richer and more complicated, and more fun! We’ve already finished our fourth book together, exploring the early silent picture era. And the best thing of all… it’s a great excuse to chat every single day!

Readers, would you do a big project with someone in your family? Have you already? What was the experience? We definitely want to hear – leave a comment and Rhys and Clare will choose one commenter for an audiobook version of In Sunshine or In Shadow.

About the authors:

Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of the Anthony Award- and Agatha Award-winning Molly Murphy mysteries, the Edgar Award-nominated Evan Evans series, the Royal Spyness series, and several stand-alone novels including In Farleigh Field. Born in England, she lives in San Rafael, CA.

Clare Broyles, who is Rhys Bowen’s daughter, is a teacher and a musician. She began collaborating with her mother on the Molly Murphy mystery series with Wild Irish Rose. She has worked as a composer and arranger in the theater for both Arizona Theater Company and Childsplay and was nominated for an Arizone ‘Zoni’ theater award. Clare is married to a teacher and they have three children.

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Published by Cate Conte / Liz Mugavero

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in the Boston area with her rescue pals.

44 Thoughts

  1. I’m hoping to get together with my cousin Pam to plan a cousins reunion and any other family members from my mothers side of the family. I haven’t seen most of them in many years and want to do this before I get too much older. Pam and I are the too oldest of the cousins. My mom had 8 siblings so there are lots of cousins and most had kids and grandkids now. We live all over the place so should be fun finding a date that will work out for everyone.

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  3. The year our daughter died, I needed something to occupy my mind. My Mom and her mom before her were excellent in the kitchen. I was gradually learning some of their baking skills. But I realized that most of the handed down recipes either weren’t written down at all and adaptations from recipes in cookbooks without the adaptations written down. I set my goal to create a family tried and true recipe cookbook.

    It meant spending a lot more time with my mom, which wasn’t a problem at all. In fact, it became a highlight of some of my visits. Since you can’t cook all the dishes at once, my cookbook evolved over several months. Mom would cook something with me beside her. When she measured something in her hand or started to just put an ingredient in a bowl, she would pause and I would actually measure the ingredients. Then the next time we cooked that dish, I would make it with mom’s supervision making the tweaks she required to make it her dish. When I finally created the dish from my recipe and got mom’s thumbs up approval, it was printed up and put in my cookbook.

    Each page was typed up and put into protective sleeves. I had the recipes divided into categories like pies, casseroles or meat. I even added helpful hints that I found from mom and many old cookbooks I went through on measurements, spices or household hints on anything from laundry to flowers. When I was done I had a large three ring binder full and I added a dedication page where I said the cookbook was dedicated to Jenet, our daughter. Then acknowledged the fabulous help Mom had given me and stated where a lot of the family recipes came from.

    In later years, I was extremely happy I had worked on this project with my mom because the ugly disease Alzheimer took mom’s memory of recipes and the ability to cook. It makes the time spend together perfecting recipes and still being able to fix mom’s recipes as well as past generation’s recipes passed down to her. I have sent added recipes that I have found that are also tried and true keepers to the cookbook. Hopefully someone will continue to use them for generations to come.

    Since it was getting closer to Christmas, I decided that our present to both my mom but also hubby’s mom was going to be copies of my cookbook. So there are 3 copies of the cookbook. After my mom’s passing, her copy went to my best friend and hubby’s mom’s copy after her passing when to her daughter. So the recipes are being continually used and enjoyed.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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    1. I’m so sorry for your daughter’s loss. That sounds like an amazing project. My twins are both newly moving into apartments and off the neal plan and I think I will make them a cookbook of all my favorite cheap but filling recipes from when they were growing up.

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  4. Congratulations on your latest collaboration, ladies! Thanks so much for giving us a look behind the curtain. My wife brainstorms plot ideas with me, which helps me a ton. No writing together, though. At least not yet!

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    2. I can’t imagine brainstorming with my husband! We’d kill each other! That’s why brainstorming with Clare is so productive. We spark each others creativity.

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    1. We’ve done those too! The most extensive was splitting a back room down the middle with a closet to make two rooms for our boys. The whole family pitched in and for two weeks in the summer we through mattresses in the u finished room every night and every morning put back on our grimy work clothes and kept drywalling/plastering/sanding painting until it was done. We have kids with skills!

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    2. That’s also impressive. John and I have planned various home improvements but left them to the professionals to complete.

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    1. You would be surprised how much of the publishing world is collaboration. We collaborate with agents and editors whose feedback makes the work stronger. We also get feedback on the cover design and ideas for publicity. And everyone is so upbeat and professional. It’s a wonderful process. I’m not the sort of writer who feels that the book will be ruined if one word is cut and neither is Rhys! We both look at words and scenes like tools to get the job of telling the story done. If some don’t work we can use others. I do have to say that I was a little sad last week during edits for Molly 21 to cut some seeet domestic scenes to get to the action faster. The editor was absolutely right but it was sad to see them go.

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    2. It wouldn’t work for everyone, that’s for sure. It requires an enormous amount of trust in the other person

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  8. There’s only my brother and he loves to talk so much that we’d never get anything done. ckmbeg (at) gmail (com)

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  9. I don’t have a daughter to write with, have a son who is now a published writer, but who has a wonderfully different style and writer’s mindset from my own. But knowing Rhys and Clare, I’m not surprised how well they work together – two wonderful people!

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  12. “Many mothers and daughters talk every day, but not many of them talk about different ways to murder people and get away with it!”

    I absolutely love this statement! Thanks for visiting the Wickeds Rhys and Clare and best of luck with In Sunshine or in Shadow.

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  13. I think I could work successfully on a big project with my sister. She’s two years older, and we have always been pretty close friends. For the past 10 years we and our husbands have wintered together for 7-8 weeks in the Phoenix area and have gotten along well. Several friends have told me while they love their family members , they could NOT spend that much time together and stay congenial. We do well together. 😊

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  14. I’m so glad you started working on these books together. It’s wonderful to be able to visit Molly again. (No need to enter me in the giveaway since I’ve already enjoyed this book.)

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  16. Super congratulations, ladies! I am amazed at your collaboration! My husband and I have tackled many extensive home remodeling projects together and find that we love the process! I have often wondered about a joint writing project with one of my sons who is interested in such things. I suspect we would have a great deal of fun at it!

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  17. All the anonymous replies have been Rhys. For some reason it wouldn’t let me reveal who I am

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  18. I am happy to hear of a successful mother daughter team. I don’t have a creative side to use for collaboration unless you count planning a day trip.

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  19. I admire your teamwork and adore the resulting book!! I’ve not attempted anything of that scope, alone or in partnership, but I have helped niblings and friends with editing of papers. I always remind them that it’s still THEIR work, and my input is only suggestions.

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  20. I would bake with my Mom. We never tried any crafts or writing together. I do not have any siblings. Thank you so much for sharing. Congratulations on the new book. God bless you.

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    1. My daughter is the baker in the house. She came home from
      college and made us macarons 🙂

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  21. Yes, my twin sister and I think very much alike, so we are always collaborating on something or other. Working with her on any chosen project is a pleasure. We make a good team.

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    1. I have twins! They do the dishes well
      together but apart from that they are very different!

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  22. Thanks to everyone who posted! Rhys and I will pick a winner today and let you know!

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      1. I spend a lot of my time promoting Literacy through a volunteer historically based organization. My latest project is a challenge for our State groups to read more about the contributions of the Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. It is also open to the public through our local library. I worked with several people who have helped to the program on the road so to speak. I had the technical and research support to put it together. It was never tedious to balance our thoughts and additions. It was enriching in itself. Collaborating made it exciting.

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