Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger Featured Authors
January 7, 2021 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month, Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1950s Crime novels, Author Interviews, Chatting with Authors, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger
January Featured Authors
Janet Elizabeth Lynn was born in Queens and raised in Long Island, New York. She is the author of murder mysteries, cozy mysteries and with her husband Will Zeilinger, 1950s hard-boiled detective mysteries.
Will Zeilinger has lived and traveled the world and has been writing for over ten years. His novels range from mystery to romantic comedy and those 1950s hard-boiled detective mysteries with his wife Janet.
Partners in Crime
Together Janet and Will write the Skylar Drake Mystery Series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood of 1955. They have a free E-book How it Began: The Skylar Drake Mysteries available from Smashwords.
Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder and crime stories. In 2021, they will team up will a penname E.J. Williams for a new mystery series. The first novel in the International Crime Files, Stone Pub will be published in May.
Chatting With Authors
In addition to writing novels, Janet and Will have a YouTube Channel, Chatting with Authors featuring informal Zoom interviews with authors of various genres. Below is a sample of one of their chats, but we encourage readers to check out all their videos.
This creative couple lives in Southern California . . . and yes, they are still married, and they even blog together at The Married Authors.
Janet and Will’s Interview with Author Rebecca Forster
Rebecca Forster started writing on a crazy dare and found her passion. Now she is a USA Today and Amazon best-selling author of over 40 books. Rebecca’s thrillers, known for their attention to detail and deep characterization. She has taught at the acclaimed UCLA Writers Program and is a sought-after speaker, including three appearances at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. In her spare time, she court watches and travels the world looking for inspiration for her novels. She is married to a Superior Court Judge and is mother to two sons.
Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger Featured Authors
January 1, 2021 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month, Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1950s Crime novels, Author Interviews, Chatting with Authors, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger
January Featured Authors
Janet Elizabeth Lynn was born in Queens and raised in Long Island, New York. She is the author of murder mysteries, cozy mysteries and with her husband Will Zeilinger, 1950s hard-boiled detective mysteries.
Will Zeilinger has lived and traveled the world and has been writing for over ten years. His novels range from mystery to romantic comedy and those 1950s hard-boiled detective mysteries with his wife Janet.
Partners in Crime
Together Janet and Will write the Skylar Drake Mystery Series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood of 1955. They have a free E-book How it Began: The Skylar Drake Mysteries available from Smashwords.
Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder and crime stories. In 2021, they will team up will a penname E.J. Williams for a new mystery series. The first novel in the International Crime Files, Stone Pub will be published in May.
Chatting With Authors
In addition to writing novels, Janet and Will have a YouTube Channel, Chatting with Authors featuring informal Zoom interviews with authors of various genres. Below is a sample of one of their chats, but we encourage readers to check out all their videos.
This creative couple lives in Southern California . . . and yes, they are still married, and they even blog together at The Married Authors.
Janet and Will’s Interview with Author Lida Sideris
Lida worked as an entertainment attorney for a film studio, much like her heroine, Corrie Locke. Unlike Corrie, Lida has never been blackmailed, never investigated a suspicious death, an alien encounter, a catnapping, a missing corpse, or been involved in a low-speed car chase. Lida was one of two national winners of the Helen McCloy/Mystery Writers of America scholarship award for her first book.
Ending a Novel Series: Calling it Quits by Janet Elizabeth Lynn
September 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as hardboiled mysteries, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, Series novels, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger
My husband, Will Zeilinger and I co-write the Skylar Drake Mysteries, a hard-boiled detective series that takes the reader to 1950s Los Angeles and other areas of the west. Our new book, GAME TOWN, is set in Hollywood and exposes a scandal that rocks the toy industry in Los Angeles. GAME TOWN is the fifth and final book of the series.
Ending the Skylar Drake Mystery series was a heartbreaking decision for us. After all, the series has been in our lives for five years. It was difficult to end the relationship not only with Sky but his partner Casey Dolan, FBI Special Agent Olivia Jahns, and their secretary Lory Carrington. However, the time was right to let them find their own way.
So, the question we had to face was do we do a sequel or spin-off?
Doing a sequel would bring back the characters and more glimpses of 1950s Hollywood. Spin offs, re-orienting the characters we fell in love with and the villains who pushed the twists and turns of each book are still possible. I think it’s important that as writers and creators we assure our readers that everything turned out okay for the characters and they moved on.
For now, we have no plans for a sequel or spin off.
Some series can standalone. Others may be ruined by a sequel because the readers wanted to remember the characters the way they were.
Whatever the future holds for those in the Skylar Drake Mystery series it’s been fun creating great characters, clever plots, fun subplots and making up the twists and turns, and devious red herrings too.
What’s in the future for us? We’ll be writing more books, short stories, and more separately and together.
For now, we are a little depressed. We understand that this is par for the course when ending a series. And the best cure for the depression, they tell me is to move on and keep writing. So, stay tuned…there is more to come.
GAME TOWN is the fifth in the series and yes . . . we are still married!
Website: Janet Elizabeth Lynn
Website: Will Zeilinger
The Skylar Drake Mystery Series
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Starting a Novel with a Partner
May 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as hard-boiled mysteries, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger, writing partners
My husband, Will Zeilinger and I have been writing together for more than five years. We co-write the Skylar Drake Murder Mysteries, a hardboiled detective series that takes the reader to 1950s Los Angeles and other areas of the west. Our newest book, GAME TOWN, the fifth in the Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series, was released April 15!
Without organization, writing with a partner can be a disaster. Some partners just start writing and go paragraph, by paragraph each checking the paragraphs as they go. With this method, a book would take forever to finish, like a millennium!
So, outlining is the best way to get started on a novel with a partner.
But there are things you need to prepare prior to outlining. The important part is that you both agree and see the story in your heads as it unfolds.
Here is the process we follow:
1. Discuss when and where the story will take place. We chose to follow the seasons of the year. SLIVERS OF GLASS, which started the series, takes place in winter of 1956. Our latest book GAME TOWN takes place in early spring of 1957, with three books in between following the seasons of the year.
2. Research locations both of you would like to use, then pick one. This, we find, is where many stories fall apart. Many partners we know who write together can’t seem to agree. We usually pick 3 locations, Google them for the 1950’s, and pick one that we think will be the most interesting to the reader and us as writers. If we can, we visit these places.
3.Character Development is another thing that partners seem to have difficulty with. We each come up with a couple of character personalities and see which personalities we can use or combine into one. Usually we end up laughing over some of the characters we come up with. Then we get serious.
4. Outlining starts with me. I follow the three-act method. I rough it out then give it to Will. He goes through it, adds scenes, changes a few things and gives it back to me. This “back and forth” continues until we are satisfied, about ten times.
It is important to understand that an initial outline doesn’t mean it is carved in stone. The outline and story morphs as we do research and as the story unfolds. But the outline is something you both agree to then watch it develop.
The results, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series, SLIVERS OF GLASS, STRANGE MARKINGS, DESERT ICE, SLICK DEAL , and just released GAME TOWN.
Janet
The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series
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Will Zeiling & Janet Elizabeth Lynn April Featured Authors
April 14, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Featured Author of the Month tagged as hard-boiled mysteries, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series, Will Zeilinger
Published authors Will Zeilinger and Janet Lynn wrote individually until they got together and created the Skylar Drake Mystery Series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood of 1956-57. Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder and crime stories. This creative couple is married and live in Southern California.
The next Skylar Drake Mystery, fourth in the series, GAME TOWN is available now and yes … they are still married!
Biltmore Hotel
We started researching our book GAME TOWN, in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. This time we were looking for a nice hotel for our PI and hopefully a future girlfriend to meet for lunch. We checked the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, it was called the Biltmore Hotel in 1957. We visited the historic hotel and were amazed at the fine craftsmanship in the lobby and hallways!
The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, originally named the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel is a luxury hotel located across the street from Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles. Opened in 1923, the Los Angeles Biltmore was the largest hotel in the U.S. west of Chicago, Illinois.
In 1969 the Biltmore Hotel was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument by the City of Los Angeles. The hotel has 70,000 square feet (6,500 m) of meeting and banquet space. Of its original 1500 guestrooms it now has 683, due to room expansion and reorganization.
Walking through the lobby we found a great place for a high priced but fabulous brunch or dinner for that special someone. Instead, we used the lobby for a clandestine meeting between the FBI and Skylar Drake and partner Casey Dolan.
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