I have always been an ardent fan of Tony Hillerman’s writing. His books transported me to one of my favorite landscapes in the rimrock country of the Navajo and Hopi reservations. I was working on getting an introduction to him by a good friend around the time Tony passed away, and I was sorely disappointed I couldn’t have shared a chat with him. Meeting a hero is a big deal to most of us. I was fortunate to meet C.J. Box and I’m working on Craig Johnson as my next target. Not as a stalker, I just appreciate their immense talent. But back to Tony Hillerman… Currently, I am reading Anne Hillerman’s third book in the continuation of the Leaphorn/Chee series that her father made so famous. I find it intriguing that his daughter has taken up the flag and carried it forward. She’s done it with astounding talent, too. I had the opportunity to meet her and chat for a while, and found her gracious. I told her how happy I was with her writing and how much her father had affected my decision to write. I confess I was surprised by his daughter’s ability to step into his shoes and fill them…and then I wondered why on earth I thought that when I had the exact same thing in my own life with Wendy writing with me. I didn’t have time to go into all that with Anne at the time, but I would like to ask her if she had the kind of working and thinking relationship that Wendy and I do.
Team writing is admittedly a little different than writing your own follow-up continuation of what another person wrote, but you still have to be connected in a way that is different from any other author. I have read books by unrelated writers who choose to carry on a character, like those who imitate the late great Robert Parker, or those who attempt to do what Roddenberry could. They fall short. I guess I am lucky then, to have a writing partner like that who can have the same vision and way to express it that I do.
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