“It Began With A Death.” Deborah K Reed and Lisa K Shapiro created this video to describe how they met, their writing process, and research for The Chamber and the Cross. Presentation includes beautiful photography by Deborah K Reed.

1. DEBORAH REED AND LISA SHAPIRO
It began with a death…

2. OUR STORY AS WRITERS BEGAN WHEN WE FACED A
MOTHER’S DEATH TOGETHER…

3. OUR FIRST MEETING DID
NOT GO WELL

4.  First, we became friends who supported each other
through some very difficult times
 As we processed these turning points, we talked, and
talked, and talked
 A story began to germinate about loss and one’s
reactions to the hurdles
 Of course, a Realtor had to include a house. It
immediately became central to the story, just like
another character.

5. WRITING TOGETHER HELPED US
BEGIN TO HEAL

6. THE FIVE
STAGES OF
GRIEF
• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance
THE FIVE
STAGES OF
CO-WRITING
• Naiveté
• Fury
• Despair
• Compromise
• Completion

7. OUR RESEARCH
• Britain’s inheritance taxes
• How to clean valuable historic books
• Priest’s holes and safe chambers
• Castle construction
• How to put on armor piece by piece
• The value of a dovecote
• Plumbing problems in a house that has been remodeled over
centuries
• The chronology and significance of various battles and wars
• And how to drive in England

8.  We had to decide if we wanted to flip back and forth between time
periods
 We also considered making two separate books, one modern and one
medieval
 Ultimately we chose to stay with one plot at a time, and then weave them
together at the end
 The book as a whole had to balance the two very different time periods

9.  Outline, outline, outline
 Plotters like to have the Big Picture and know where the plot
of the story is going
 Before starting a scene, plotters want to know:
 Who is in the scene
 What is the setting
 Who is the point of view character describing the events
 What information needs to be conveyed

10. DEBORAH LOVES DETAILS, LIKE HOW THE PLUMBING WORKS
The Garderrobe

11.  Write by the seat of their pants
 Figure it out as they go along
 Write drafts
 Throw them away and start again
 And again
 And again

12. He strolled across the rolling meadow, his
heart glowing like an evening sunset…
Flowery
Language,
Poetic verse
Wordy prose…
And it drives Deborah crazy!

13.  People always ask us who wrote which part of the story
 We wrote it all – every word - together
 Sometimes we overwrote each other
 Deborah accused Lisa of lobotomizing her characters
 Sooner or later , often much later, we had to compromise
 As we developed characters, we had to learn all about them
 Their desires
 Their motivations
 Their weaknesses
 How they would deal with obstacles

14.  Architecture
 Landscape
 Laws
 Clothing
 Structure of Society
 Language
 Battles and weapons
 Each character’s expertise

15. TRAVELING TO ENGLAND WAS FUN!
Deborah interviewed the owners of medieval homes for behind-the-
scenes details, and slept in period manor houses.
• Plumbing and drainage
Dryrot and leaking roofs
Replacing moldings and mullioned windows
Inheritance taxes and property taxes
Insurance and security and mortgages
She also met with solicitors (lawyers) and estate agents (Realtors)

16. FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY
WAS MORE INTERESTING THAN WE ANTICIPATED

17. THE SAFE CHAMBER
• Safe chambers and Priest’s Holes were necessary as people
moved from the protection of castle walls into the more open
landscape that surrounded manor homes.

18. EVERY TIME WE OPENED A NEW DOOR THE STORY GREW
LONGER

19. THE CHAMBER AND THE CROSS
IS A BIG STORY

20. THE JOURNEY TO COMPLETION
TOOK A LOT MORE TIME
THAN WE ANTICIPATED
• We worked for over
ten years, but stayed
true to our vision, and
crafted strong
heroines who fought
for their dreams

23. WE DEDICATED THIS BOOK TO
OUR MOTHERS
ROBERTA LAMBERT
AND
NICKI SHAPIRO

24. BY DEBORAH REED
AND LISA SHAPIRO