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My husband and Shane became friends through a church small group in 2000. We all eventually moved to different states but stayed connected on Facebook. I recently saw Shane post about his book climbing the charts on Amazon, and I was in shock because I didn’t know he was a self-published author! I reached out to him to see if I could interview him and his co-author/brother to get a behind-the-scenes look at writing a book and being authors. This will be a two-part interview.
How Did the Lindsay Brothers Start Writing Books?
Shane read a lot as a kid. He had a teacher in 4th or 5th grade that told the class if they finished their assignment early, they could pick out a book to read from her bookshelf. Shane finished his assignment early and ended up choosing The Hardy Boys, Mystery of the Flickering Torch. He recalls it was an inch thick and did not have any pictures. He started reading it in class and was drawn into the story. He wanted to keep reading it even when school ended, and the teacher allowed him to take it home. From there, he started writing his own stories.
Tristan was also a big reader (his Amazon bio says he has read 3500+ books!). He mentioned that prior to writing The Lord of the Rings books, J. R.R. Tolkien was reading Danish legends, and the next logical step was to write one himself. Tristan says he wasn’t reading Danish legends but had a similar experience. He had read so many books, and he would get ideas and want to see how he could develop them through writing stories.
How did they team up as co-authors?
Shane and Tristan have similar tastes and like to bounce ideas off each other. They agreed that “the logical next step was for us to do it together.” They’ve been writing together for a couple of decades. Tristan took film classes in high school and college, and Shane says he glommed on. The rest, as the saying goes, is history!
What is their co-writing process like?
It’s very collaborative. One person has an idea and then they talk about it together. One person takes the ideas and writes the first draft. The other person adds their input and edits, and they go back and forth in that pattern until they’re both satisfied with how the story turned out. They mentioned that re-writing is a process, and that getting the first draft down is the hardest part. Once they have the rough draft down, they said, “It’s a little more fun to go back and reorganize parts or add or remove details.”
How do they integrate their author’s voice?
Shane and Tristan don’t focus too much on intentionally making their voices consistent when writing. They go back and forth with each other many times over the plot and the dialogue, and their writing overlaps with all the re-writes and edits. They both said it’d be hard for them to pick out who wrote what today.
Also, we discussed how being brothers as co-authors might allow for easier collaboration than two other individuals because they have the same origin story, background, shared memories, etc. Both Shane and Tristan are “unapologetically children of the ‘80s” with inspirations coming from Indiana Jones and Star Wars as children to Die Hard and Speed in young adulthood.
What do they do when they get writer’s block?
Shane and Tristan’s advice for writer’s block or getting stuck in the writing process is to put it away for a while. They said to “write something else, live your life, and come back to it later. Hopefully something organic comes out of it.” They said it’s also helpful to have a co-author to bounce ideas off of – when one writer gets stuck, the other can help him out.
How are their books published?
Independently (self) published
What formats do they prefer to read?
Tristan loves audio books. His first preference is print, but audio fits better into his life.
Shane was an early adopter to reading on Kindle, but he also enjoys the nostalgia of print books. He does 90% of his reading on Kindle but still likes to grab a hard copy every now and again.
More Info
To find out more about the Lindsay Brothers, check out their website at https://www.lindsaybrothers.com/.
To buy their books, check out the following links:
Funeral Train: A Civil War Action Thriller
Arabian Heist: A Glorious Dragon Caper
Castillo del Mar: A Johnny Socko Pirate Adventure
Be sure to check back here next Monday for Part 2 of the interview!
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