Dwayne Alexander Smith is the
author of Forty Acres, which is in development at Netflix, with Jay-Z attached
to produce. Pamela Samuels Young has been widely published across genres, and
Netflix is also developing her work, having optioned the first two books in her
Vernette Henderson series. Both authors received NAACP Image Awards, for Forty
Acres and Anybody’s Daughter respectively.
AO: What brought the two of you together?
PSY & DAS: We’d known each other for a few years after becoming familiar with each other’s work. We’d see each other at book events from time to time and eventually became friends. Our writing styles are pretty similar, and we had discussed the idea of collaborating on a novel. Dwayne came up with the idea for the first book in the series, Sounds Lika a Plan. He shared it with Pamela and suggested they write it together, and she was all in.
AO: Not only are you both novelists but you also have other jobs. How do you balance this with your writing.
PSY & DAS: Pamela retired from the practice of law a few years ago and has been writing full time since then. Dwyane is still a full-time writer, focusing primarily on screenwriting. We both love writing and are luckily enough to be able to do it full time.
AO: A lot of trust is needed for authors who collaborate, how do the
two of you work together not only on the plot but the characters?
PSY & DAS: We work from a pretty detailed outline. So once the writing process begins, we know exactly where the story is headed. Dwayne wrote the first chapter from Jackson’s POV and sent it to Pamela, who wrote the next chapter from Mackenzie’s POV. We went back and forth with that process until the book was completed. We pretty much stuck to the outline. It was a relatively smooth process, with very few hiccups. Because our writing style is pretty similar and because we both like each other’s solo work, it was a relatively smooth process.
AO: When I read Sounds Like Trouble, it brought back memories of other detecting duos for example Dashiell Hammet’s Nick and Nora Charles, Laurie R. King's Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs to name a few. What makes them work so well as a duo and was it intentional that they had to be a male and a female when for example you have duos such as Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Poirot and Hastings.
PSY & DAS: Thanks for that amazing compliment. From the start we felt that the dynamic between Jackson and Mackenzie would click. Actually, we saw our two protagonists more like Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in the TV show Moonlighting. We wanted the same kind of humorous love / hate chemistry.
AO: Are there any elements of yourselves in your main characters.
PSY & DAS: We don’t like to admit it, but there are elements of Jackson that are very much like Dwyane and the same for Pamela and Mackenzie. Dwyane can be a little prima donna-like, and Pamela does have her uptight moments.
AO: What sparked the idea for the current storyline featuring
mobsters?
PSY & DAS: Dwyane has a folder full of story ideas. He came up with the mobster’s storyline and when Pamela heard it, she was hooked. Dwyane is definitely the part of the duo who comes up with the outrageous car chases and action scenes.
AO: How important is research and do you do a lot of research? In Sounds Like Trouble did you get to hang out with mobsters?
PSY & DAS: Fortunately, we didn’t have to hang out with mobsters, LOL! We are both long-time fans of crime fiction. We just put our imaginations to work and went for it. We, of course, do research when there’s something we don’t have a lot of familiarity with. For instance, we researched what’s involved in picking a lock. We’ll also make sure the settings for our stories make sense. If we describe a building on a particular street, we make sure the architecture fits.
AO: How difficult is it then to have storylines to ensure that they are realistic without going overboard.
PSY & DAS: We work hard to present a realistic story, but as fiction writers, we do take some liberties when it’s necessary. For example, could the two PIs really sneak into a well-guarded cemetery where tons of famous people are buried? Maybe? We try to present each scenario in a way that the reader can at least accept it as a possibility.
AO: How important is LA as a location in this series and did you consider setting it elsewhere.
PSY & DAS: Location is very important for us. Local readers love reading about places they recognize. Hence, we give a great deal of thought to where the scenes take place. We want to make sure our LA-based readers can visualize the scene as they’re reading because they’ve visited that exact location. We’re both from L.A. and know the city well, so we never considered another location. That’s not to say we won’t take the story to another location at some point.
AO: The book touches on themes of justice, loyalty, and morality when working for criminals. Was there a deliberate message that you were trying to convey about the characters' moral compasses, especially given the "offer they can't refuse”?
PSY & DAS: We weren’t necessarily trying to make a moral statement. Instead, we wanted to create a story with lots of drama, action and conflict, where the stakes our main characters faced were constantly being raised. If that also encompasses a moral or social issue, so be it.
AO: There is a lot of banter between your two main characters. How easy or difficult has it been to make sure that their relationship does not overwhelm the story.
PSY & DAS: The banter was both easy and fun to write. That’s because if you eavesdropped on a conversation between Dwayne and Pamela, it might be much the same as the banter between Jackson and Mackenzie. We never feared their relationship would take over the story. Our major focus was always on the plot and making sure it engaged the reader from chapter to chapter.
AO: Now that you have written two books in the series is there anything in hindsight you wish you could change about both your characters?
PSY & DAS: No, not really. We were pretty
happy with how we crafted our characters.
PSY & DAS: Definitely plot! We both write commercial fiction and love a fast-paced, engaging mystery. That doesn’t mean we don’t want well-developed characters. But our primary focus is on our plot.
AO: There are two types of crime writers those who meticulously plan before writing and those who jump straight in and find the story along the way. Which do you do?
PSY & DAS: We are definitely meticulous plotters. Dwayne prepared a very detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of Sounds Like Trouble. Then we discussed it and made a few changes. Along the way, the story changed, but because we wrote this book together, it was crucial to have a well-developed outline from the start.
AO: One could call this series a cross-genre book as it has not only
elements of a thriller but that of a mystery and humour. Was this intentional?
PSY & DAS: Yes, all of that was intentional. The interplay between Jackson and Mackenzie was intended to be funny, since they have such different personalities. We had a lot of fun with those chapters. We also wanted to keep the reader guessing. If there’s one thing we both equally hate, it’s a predictable ending.
AO: I believe that if you would like a good grounding in social
history and social policy that one should read a crime novel. How important was it for you to weave
important topics into your books?
PSY & DAS: While we also think that’s important, we didn’t necessarily start out planning to make any social statements. But when the opportunity presents itself, we’ll take it. For example, in the next book in the series, we’ll be delving into AI and the impact of social media on our lives.
AO: What next for Jackson Jones and Mackenzie Cunningham.
Sounds Like Trouble by Pamela Samuels Young and Dwayne Alexander Smith (Faber & Faber) £9.99 (Out Now)
Three mobsters. Two detectives. A
deadly race against time. Jackson Jones and Mackenzie Cunningham – two of the
best private investigators in the business – are presented with a case they
aren’t allowed to refuse. The heads of L.A.’s three major crime families have
tasked them with finding sensitive information hidden by a man in critical
condition before he flatlines. Or else. The
pair can’t agree on how to furnish the office of their new joint venture, Safe
and Sound Investigations, let alone the nature of their feelings for each
other. But with a masked man on their tail, they are going to have to stick
together if they are going to have any chance of solving the case.
More information about the
authors can be found on their websites - www.pamelasamuelsyoung.com and
Dwayne
Alexander Smith
Dwayne Alexander Smith can also
be found on Instagram @theamazin and on Facebook
Pamela Samuels Young can also be
found on X and Instagram @AuthorPSY and
on Facebook
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