About Us
Yes, we are sisters. We were born three years apart in a time when technology was a phone in the kitchen and a TV in the den. From the get-go, we were totally different kids. Laura liked books, playing dress up and tap dancing. Beth liked music, stuffed animals and cowboy boots. One of us haunted the library and the other was always outside with the birds, frogs and squirrels. Can you guess who was who?
Our common ground was pretending. We liked to make up our own stories and act them out. Any TV show, movie, or book could be a platform for spinning our own plots. We built forts in nearby woods, rode bikes and had many pretend adventures. When we lived in Miami, we had our own pool and became like fish, or as Beth believed dolphins, like Flipper.
One of our favorite games was called STOP. One of us would begin a tale and at an exciting point, yell “STOP,” and the other had to carry on with the story.
As we got older, Laura spent her allowance on books and new fashion trends. She became editor of her high school yearbook. Beth collected soundtracks and starred in high school plays. Her favorite role was Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird.
So, it wasn’t surprising that we both found careers in the arts. Laura went to college, married and raised two daughters while working as a freelance writer. She wrote a bazillion articles for Atlanta newspapers and magazines and dreamed of writing fiction someday. Beth trained at the American Conservatory of Theater in San Francisco and acted on TV, in movies, and in the theater.
We never lived in the same city as adults, but we stayed close. When our work slowed down, we decided to write a book together. It was STOP all over again, only with computers and cellphones. Laura started a story about two sisters in Philadelphia who needed to solve a mystery. Beth threw in a ghost. Talk about a monkey wrench! But there you have it, our first book, The Red Coat. We hope you’ll enjoy hanging with Kate and Ellie. We feel like we kind of know them. And yes, we’re pretending our way into the sequel.
FAQ
Are Kate and Ellie based on you?
Laura: Of course not. I’m not the least bit bossy.
Beth: Really?!?
Laura: Okay, we are sisters and we have different personalities. I’m more the book worm and my sister was always more of an outdoors person. In the book the two sisters mostly stick together and that was us. We used to stand at the school bus stop with three sisters who lived down the street and they were always arguing. We didn’t get it.
Beth: Nope, we didn’t get it at all.
Why did you set the book in Philadelphia in 1962?
Laura: We lived in Philadelphia during part of the sixties and it was a cool place to live. Back then Montgomery County was a lot less populated and developed. There were woods everywhere. There was a split-rail fence across from our neighborhood that had a steep hill behind it. Great for sledding in the winter. We also liked the idea of kids having to solve a mystery the old-fashioned way, without the Internet and cell phones.
Beth: As an outdoor person, our new development in Philadelphia was an exciting place to explore. There really were ramparts and a bridle trail. And there really were deer! A great setting for a mystery!
Where did the ghost come from?
Laura: Okay that was my sister’s idea. She was trying to spark up my plan to write a simple Nancy Drew type book. But once she convinced me we needed a ghost, I thought what better way to introduce some history into the story, and what better history in Philadelphia than the American Revolution?
Beth: The ghost idea came to me out of the blue really. I had just read an article about a guy who was struck by lightning and could see the future. I thought what a great way to have one kid see the ghost and the other one not. I mean … something had to happen to have Ellie have that ability.
Why write for kids?
Laura: Kids are the best audience. You don’t have to tell them to suspend disbelief. I had been reading to my grandkids and discovered so many children’s authors I hadn’t known. I loved seeing their reaction when they liked the story and hearing them say, “Again!” when we finished. So, in the back of my mind, I thought I’d try to write a book for them. Of course we had no idea how long it would take us. The kids have long outgrown the book, but they read it anyway.
Beth: It was Laura’s dream, so I was willing to help with anything she wanted to write.
What is writing with someone else like?
Laura: NEVER DULL. Some writers get to rest on their laurels until they come up against an editor. Not going to happen if you’re writing with your sister. There’s always, “It’s great, BUT don’t you think it needs …” And then my sister was an actor, so she always wanted to act out scenes. We would fight over the way things would go sometimes, but after each of us presented our case, it was usually evident who had the better idea and we’d go with that. From the beginning, we just wanted to write the best book we could.
Beth: I’m sure I drove Laura crazy sometimes because I needed to “see” the scene in my head to write it. And I needed to know what they were feeling. So often I’d stop and say, “Okay, Kate just told Ellie ‘this.’” How does that make her feel? And with that feeling how does it make her act? But mostly I remember A LOT of laughter! How great is that? I had a lot of fun!
Is Kate ever going to have a boyfriend? And will Ellie get a horse?
Laura: Not anytime soon. Our next adventure takes place in the winter of the same year, so Kate is still too young to date, and their parents think that Ellie gets enough horse exposure at the Miller’s farm.
Beth: Who knows?
What do you two like to do together when you’re not writing?
Laura: Shop, eat out, walk and talk over the phone often working out plots. Play in the snow if I’m in Indianapolis during a snowstorm. Beth lives in Indiana and I live in Atlanta where we don’t see much snow. Also, work jigsaw puzzles and laugh.
Beth: Yep, shop! But for what?? BOOKS! We have to hit every used bookstore in town. Laura comes with a little notebook of all the books she is looking for. Goodwill is great for used books too and a perfect place for me to find a poor stuffie that needs a good home. Nope, you’re never too old for a super soft Jellycat Bunny! And we both have jigsaw puzzles going at all times!
Did you have favorite books growing up?
Laura: I was the reader. I loved Little Women and Nancy Drew books and in elementary school there was a series of biographies in orange bindings (the Childhood of Famous Americans) in the library. I think I read them all and wished there had been more about women. As a young teen, I loved Gothic novels and the suspense of Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney. If there wasn’t anything else available, I’d read the back of the cereal box. Beth preferred listening to records and going to movies. She could tell you some favorites.
Beth: I have dyslexia so reading was difficult for me. I still read slowly but enjoy it a lot now. I always loved movies and the soundtracks to movies. The first album I ever bought with my own money was Born Free. I loved how the music brought the scenes back to my mind. When The Sound of Music came out, I went nuts over that movie. I saw it 7 times.
What is your favorite part in the book?
Laura: I usually liked whatever part we were writing at the time. But the scene with Fanny came in a later draft after we finally figured out the motivations of our ghost better. That scene needed to be there, we just didn’t know it in the beginning.
Beth: I have many favorite parts but if I had to boil it all down to just one, I say the diary, which I had nothing to do with by the way. That was ALL LAURA. She sent it to me as she was writing it, and I was transported to 1777! I think it is amazing to read and experience. And I am so proud of her for getting all that history exact to the day and the feelings of the times. I always called it a “book within a book”. And I admit…when I read the ending, I cried!
Do you have a favorite character? And Why?
Laura: Miss Gillam. In my next life, I’m going to be a fun librarian.
Beth: I like them all but if I had to pick just one, I’d pick Edgar. I like him because he brings out the real wisdom Ellie has inside herself. Ellie’s mom says she has the memory of an elephant. Edgar is that memory with wisdom added on.
How did you pick the names for all the characters?
Laura: It was trial and error, for sure. With the girls, we were looking for names that their parents might have borrowed from relatives, as Ellie was named after a fictional Aunt Eleanor. No one was ever going to call that kid anything but Ellie, though. In the next book, you’ll find out that Kate was named for her Aunt Kathryn.
Beth: That’s a hard question. Kate and Ellie were chosen first and that took time. We wanted it to sound right together. The others … well, we finally went to an old cemetery and walked around looking at names on gravestones. I remember finding Olivia and Gabriel there and I think Nell. Names are hard. Unless you are Ellie naming her stuffies and goldfish 😊