For someone who doesn't exist, Jennifer Lindsay has done well to get her first novel published. Especially when you consider that the writers behind this nom-de-plume hadn't even met when they teamed up for a Napoleonic-era romance.

The disguise mirrors the exploits of Jem Riseley, heroine of The Lady Soldier, who (like her 80's cartoon namesake) takes a truly outrageous step, masquerading as a man to join the ranks of Wellington's army.

Astonishingly Kate Allan and Michelle Styles collaborated over the Inter-web highway to get this thing done, adapting their craft (honed with prior individual works) to this joint effort. The result is a credit to the historical fiction genre, not to mention a masterclass in project management.

Looking at their own 'fast facts', the pair couldn't be more different. Kate's the high flyer; marketing manager by day and Features Editor for the Historical Novels Society. With The Lady Soldier, Kate has fulfilled an ambition to be published before she's 30.

Michelle's time is taken up with children, dogs and gardening. Originally from the Americas, she's been in the UK since 1988.  Michelle was instrumental in developing the roadmap that kept The Lady Soldier from going AWOL. She also mistypes solder solider soldier almost as much as I do.

Michelle and Kate spoke to us about their writing, and their tips for those thinking about writing historical fiction. We even learned that one of them is working on a Mills and Boon gladiator novel, which itself sounds rather stonking. Their answers are spliced together like a hideous historical-romantic chimera. It kinda works, but could probably do with a bit more subbing.

Great Writing: What led to the creation of Jennifer Lindsay? Had you both always intended to find a collaborator for a novel?

Kate Allan: The original concept for The Lady Soldier was mine and I asked Michelle whether she want to co-write it because to be honest I never thought it would be published - it seemed so off the wall from what's out there. So we commenced it as a fun project, rather than something serious to begin with.

Michelle Styles: We had met through an internet writing bulletin board and were critiquing each other's work for the Romantic Novelists' Association's New Writers Scheme when Kate came up with the idea. She knew from my work that I could write action scenes and proposed it. I had always been interested in women serving as soldiers through out history and so rapidly agreed to write the story. Neither of us started out looking for a collaborator. It was simply a happy coincidence.

GW: Why not publish under two names?

KA: We created Jennifer Lindsay as an historical adventure fiction author. It doesn't cause confusion as we are listed as individual authors on the dust jacket.

MS: Readers (or maybe publishers) seem to prefer the thought that only one person wrote the book. In addition it makes for easier shelving. As for signings, we have created numbered book plates which are printed with Jennifer Lindsay and that we both have signed. This means that we can do separate signings as we both live far from one another. It also means if someone  purchases a copy of The Lady Soldier from an online bookshop and contacts us, we are able to send out a bookplate.

GW: What drives you to write?

KA: I guess it's a desire to create and tell stories. I've been making up stories as long as I can remember.

MS: I write because my imagination demands it. My family tells me that I am an easier person to live with when I am writing. I love plotting stories, thinking up what will happen next, what if such and such happens, why is that person behaving in that manner. I love the whole process of creating a novel.

GW: Is there a point where you feel you've transitioned from struggling writer to successful author? Or is it one endless staircase?

KA: I think the moment you get a book published all kinds of doors open to you, but the struggle isn't over. I'll count myself as successful when I'm able to make enough money from my writing to support myself and write full-time.

MS: I agree with John Steinbeck. In the Introduction to Edith Mirralees, Story Writing, (Boston: The Writer 1962), he said "...I will go so far as to say that the writer who is not scared is happily unaware of the remote and tantalizing majesty of the medium." The wonderful and terrifying thing about writing is that there is always more to learn and it is always a struggle.

GW: You're both active on the Internet. Do you find that being in close contact with your readers helps you to write? To 'give the public what they want'?

KA: Being active online is simply part of my life. I love people and communicating and the internet is simply a great new mechanism for ideas exchange and community. The internet helps with research but it tends to distract me from writing, rather than help!

MS: The Internet puts you in contact with people who love books and who love to write. It makes it easier to understand what is happening in the marketplace and easier to reach people who might be interested in the sorts of things you write. It means that market knowledge is no longer the preserve of the large mainstream book publishers.

GW: Was collaborating over the Internet a logistical nightmare? How did you maintain cohesion? Was anyone 'in charge'?

KA: The internet facilitated our collaboration. It was extremely easy because we had a master manuscript which we e-mailed between us. We had sketched out the plot vaguely, and the central characters in depth before we started writing. Neither of us was ‘in charge'. It was completely a joint project.

MS: Once we had sorted out the ground rules, writing on the internet was fairly easy. We started by each creating a character and I then formulated a basic plot or bible to follow. We then started writing. I tend to write in the morning and Kate writes in the evening. When one of us was finished for the day, we would email the master copy back to the other person. Each only worked on the current master copy and each could edit with impunity (i.e. change things). Once things were changed, the other person could revert to the original but had to work with the changes. It helped that neither of us is too precious with our words. As we wrote, the plot evolved from the original outline, and we each contributed to it.

GW: Was the creative process different from your approaches to your individual writing?

KA: There is a quicker development of ideas.

MS: As we have slightly different approaches, I would say yes. Sometimes Kate would come up with a motivation that I had not thought of, or I would come up with a plot twist based on something she had written the night before. It was very much give and take and we were able to bounce ideas off each other. It was wonderful to share the excitement of creating the book with another person as we were actually creating it.

GW: Do you think the end result is different to what either of you would have done individually? Did you attempt to emulate each others' style to prevent the writing sounding like the work of two people?

KA: We both knew each other's styles as we had been critique partners of each other's work before we began writing together, so we developed a style somewhere in the middle of our own styles. But yes I did find myself using words which I knew Michelle used.

MS: The book is very much the creation of both of us. It is different than a book either of us would have created individually. The Jennifer Lindsay voice, if you will, lies somewhere in between our own writing. Kate told me that she tried to write like me, and I found myself using words and sentence structure I would not normally use. As we were both committed to creating the best possible story for Jem and Tony, our main priority was that the book read smoothly.

GW: What have you learned from the experience?

KA: I learned to push the boundaries of my writing. We encouraged each other to write the scenes we initially lacked the confidence to write.

MS: I learnt a lot about editing as well as deciding the essential part of a scene; that part which makes the story unique.

GW: Why were you drawn to the historical romance genre?

KA: I love history, have done since I was a child, and I took my degree in History. I'm also a romantic.

MS: I love history and I love romance. I think the genre is a good way to get people interested in history. History happened to real people with emotions and problems, much like today.

GW: What are the hallmarks of good historical fiction?

KA: Good historical fiction must absolutely draw the reader into a world that resonates with ‘the present', and yet is undoubtedly a reflection of ‘the past'.

MS: For me, a good piece of historical fiction combines accuracy of time with a strong narrative that keeps you turning the pages.

GW: Is there a danger of wanting to use all of your lovingly-researched detail, only to find it getting in the way of the story?

KA: Not really. Actually, I tend to write and research as I go along. My motivation is to write a compelling story, not a history book.

MS: It is one of the skills a historical novelist, learning how to weave in the details without creating an information overload. Every detail has to move the story further and can't be there simply because the writer has done the research. If the reader wants to learn more, there are always non-fiction history books. Above all, historical fiction has to have a good story.

GW: Is this kind of story, i.e. one set amongst historical fact, particularly suited for distance collaboration, since there are more inarguable details than found in some other genres?

KA: Again, not really, because to be honest very little history is hard fact. Yes, there are details of costumes and battles and geography to get ‘right' but people's stories and motivations are always open to interpretation.

MS: Being able to collaborate depends on getting the ground rules right in the first place. It is a matter of getting the bible correct to begin with. There is no reason why a collaboration of this type wouldn't work in other genres.

GW: How did you come to sell the novel? Is the process any different as a duo?

KA: I actually think it's harder to sell a co-written novel. Editors and agents are more suspicious because almost all novels are written by one author.

MS: We sent The Lady Soldier off to a number of publishers and eventually Hale said yes - within three weeks of receiving the requested full! We took it in turns sending it out. I started, then Kate sent it out to a number of agents and publishers who were interested but ultimately decided no, and then I took over again and sent it to Hale. One great thing is that when you do get rejections, you are slightly removed if the other person is actually opening the envelope. Hale did not have a problem with having two authors on the contract. After all, many non-fiction books are written by teams of people.

GW: As women masquerading under an assumed identity, did you feel empathy with Jem Riseley? Do you think that 'getting the breaks' in publishing is any different for men or women?

KA: I'm sure The Lady Soldier would be received differently were its author called ‘James Lindsay' but I think there is a place in historical adventure fiction for female authors and so we stuck with our gender.

MS: I think we both felt empathy with Jem. To one degree or another people are always hiding behind masks. With publishing, it depends on the type of publishing as to whether or not women have an easier time of it then men. In Romance writing, many men hide behind a feminine name. Gill Sanderson who writes Medical Romance for Harlequin Mills and Boon is really Roger. Jessica Stirling's first name is Hugh.

GW: Do you feel responsible for your own marketing? Is self-promotion something more authors should do?

KA: I think if you are serious about your career as an author then promotion is a part of the role. If you simply to write the book and then sit back and expect your publisher to promote it for you chances are you'll be disappointed. Most books in a publisher's catalogue will not have marketing plans or budget. It's really up to you to get your career off to the best start possible, and this means notching up some sales!

MS: Kate is the PR expert! Most authors, even authors with big name houses have to do their own marketing these days. Sometimes it seems that writing the book was the easy part. Self-promotion is a vital tool for an author these days.

GW: What's next for you both? Will writing individually be a welcome break from the collaboration?

KA: We've both been writing individually since The Lady Soldier and have sold novels to other publishers. I'm currently finishing revising an historical romance set in the Regency period and then we are due to kick off with the writing the next Jennifer Lindsay very shortly.

MS: I have just sold a gladiator novel to Mills and Boon Historicals. It is a departure for them and it is a bit more mainstream than their general historical novels and is due to appear on the shelves in May/June of next year. I am hard at work on the next one. Kate recently sold a Regency to DC Thomson for their My Weekly Story Collection. She is hard at work on a spy story set during the Napoleonic War as well as completing a requested manuscript for Hale. When our writing schedules permit, we plan to write the next Jennifer Lindsay and are in the midst of doing preliminary research for it.

GW: Is collaboration something you'd advise other writers to try for a first novel? Or is it better to have experience of completing individual works?

KA: Both Michelle and I had already completed individual works and sold novels before we sold The Lady Soldier but because of differing publishing schedules it's ended up being our first novel. I'm sure there are no hard and fast rules however. Learning novel craft is an ongoing process. The only danger I could foresee is if a writer collaborated with another and ended up being significantly carried. Our partnership is a 50/50 one.

MS: It is something that works best if you have completed at least one novel first. A writer learns so much in completing their first novel. But after that, if you are comfortable with the person you are collaborating with, it can be a fantastically fun way to write.

GW: What advice would you offer to those wanted to try their hand at historical fiction?

KA: Read, read, read all the historical fiction you can get your hands on. And join the Historical Novels Society to network with publishers and authors and see what's being published and by who.

MS: Read, read, read and then be prepared to put a lot of hard work in. Successful writing requires: desire, dedication, discipline and determination. You have to be persistent.


Yes, they really did both say 'read, read, read' independently, so I guess it must be true. If you want to do just that, then you can start with the the book in question, The Lady Soldier, available from Amazon and that. And then there's the clutch of websites the ladies have between them:

Michelle Styles' site is here, Kate Allan's blog here, even Jennifer Lindsay has her own website. There's also the one for the book itself, Kate's other site, and finally the book's blog. No, really. That's possibly just overkill.

Whether historical romance lights your candle or no, the ladies' efforts are certainly a useful lesson in DIY promotion. And may I say just one more time, "Mills and Boon Gladiator novel". Wo-ow.