Carolyn Rose and Mike Nettleton met in the early 80s. It was love . . . uh . . . like . . . er, um . . . mutual respect . . . eh, well, it was not complete loathing at first sight. They eventually hooked up (long before hooking up became MTV trendy) and discovered a mutual passion for writing, good food, and baseball.
They write individually and as a team--an undertaking that ranks right up there with roller skating on a calving glacier during a moderate earthquake.
Carolyn's background includes writing poetry, 2 years with Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), writing commercial and promotional TV spots, newswriting, news producer, and professional editor.
Mike's background includes essays, poetry, creative writing, 40 years of radio broadcasting, and narrative voiceovers (including 3 books of the Bible for a company producing cassettes for worldwide distribution). He fought the transition from typewriter to computer, but managed it, eventually.
Carolyn and Mike's mysteries are set on the Oregon Coast (the Devil's Harbor series), New York's Catskill Mountains (HEMLOCK LAKE), Portland (the two-book Paladin series), and New Mexico (the three-book Casey Brandt series). They fictionalize about the places they've lived and worked in their careers in TV and radio.
They have co-written and published THE HARD KARMA SHUFFLE, THE CRUSHED VELVET MIASMA, and THE HERMIT OF HUMBUG MOUNTAIN (fantasy). They took a break to tackle individual projects and then teamed up again to write THE BIG GRABOWSKI, the first of the Devil's Harbor series. SOMETIMES A GREAT COMMOTION, the second in the series, released last year. The third book involves a TV reality show and will be out later this year.
Working together isn't for the faint of heart; arguments over characterization or use of excessive adjectives sometimes threaten to escalate beyond mere verbal assault.
They teach writing classes through Clark College Continuing Education in Vancouver, Washington, and support local monthly writers' mixers. They started the mixers in 2006 as a way to bring writers together to mix, mingle, and find support. By the next year, they'd morphed into free mini-workshops featuring writers and writing coaches offering advice on aspects of craft.
