Collaborations between authors can be tough; differences emerge, arguments can ensue and feelings can get bruised, Ultimately, many a joint project will fail to see the light of day. This is no different when the two creative minds at work are connected by familial ties. In fact, differences can often be amplified and even heightened when the collaborator is one that you share DNA with.

But one family team of writers has bucked the odds and saw their project through to fruition. What’s even more amazing is that it’s a mother/daughter team.

Meet Roseanney Liu and her nine year old daughter Morgan Getting, who, over the past year have put their heads together and created a book that seeks to help both parent and student survive what can be for many, a tumultuous half decade. Their book, How to Survive Elementary School is part How-To, part reflection, and with plenty of painful experiences mixed in for good measure.

“As an educator myself and a parent, I realized that a lot goes on in elementary school that’s not always easy to understand or navigate,” Roseanney recalls. “And so I decided to write this book as a guide to help parents and students.”

But she realized that she didn’t want to write it in a vacuum, and so she began interviewing other parents about their concerns. 

“But I also realized that I needed the perspective of the student as well,” she adds.

Roseanney didn’t have to look far to gain that youthful insight. Still, her daughter Morgan was a little hesitant when her mom approached her.

“I really thought it was going to be a big chore,” Morgan says, and then adds with a giggle. “And so I kind of rolled my eyes at my mom when she told me about it.”

Morgan wasn’t the only one who was skeptical, as several of the fellow students in her fourth grade class didn’t believe her.

Naysayers not withstanding, the mother/daughter duo soldered on and after two to three months of research, felt they had a winning combination of topics and the data needed to start putting pen to paper. Some of the chapters in the book deal with cheating and plagiarizing, Ugh, drama! and social media and technology.

The favorite topics to cover in the book were the chapter on Bullying for Morgan, and dealing with students with disabilities for Roseanney. Not surprisingly, the least favorite topic for each was Fundraising and Volunteering. Double UGH!

The selection of the topics came mostly from family dinner table conversations about happenings in school.

Reaction has been positive with many of the school staff and parents purchasing the book and with Roseanney and Morgan busy with interviews and promotion.

Asked about her next book and Roseanney thinks she will carry the idea forward to the next logical step of how to survive middle school. 

Asked the same question, Morgan quips, “I want to write a book about how to survive writing a book with your mother.”

Out of the mouths of babes. 

You can purchase a copy of How to Survive Elementary School by clicking on the image above, or here.
 
​You can contact Roseanney at her website: ​http://roseanney.com/

“Hmmm, vampire blood. Now that’s a new one.”
Dr. D.P. Lyle M.D had just received a query from yet another writer seeking his expert medical opinion. But this was no ordinary wordsmith slogging it out trying to get his or her new novel published or noticed. This inquiry came from none other than New York Times best selling author Charlene Harris. 

The year was 2007, and hot on the heels of the Twilight book phenomenon, vampires were the “in” thing. Charlene Harris had a series of novels about our favorite bloodsuckers, and she wanted to get her facts straight.

“I got a lot of questions back then about vampires,” Lyle laughs. “What is vampire blood like? Do vampires have DNA? If so, what would vampire DNA look like?

Strange questions to be sure, but then, the Orange County, California cardiologist had been receiving similarly bizarre solicitations for several years now.

It all began close to two decades ago when then Mystery Writers of America president Jan Burke asked Lyle to write a piece for the group’s newsletter about determining a corpses time of death. The article and the Q and A that followed launched a side gig that the doctor had not seen coming. Before long, other writers looking to glean his knowledge were seeking him out at conferences, panels, and author events.   

“You go to a cocktail party and people find out you’re a doctor and they want to talk to you about their gall bladder or their cholesterol,” Lyle quips. “You go to a writers conference and people want to ask you about poisons, gun shot wounds, etcera.” 

It’s not something the doctor shies away from or tries to avoid. In fact, he relishes it.

“I enjoy teaching, and helping other writers and people in general. We all have some sort of skill and I believe in sharing it.”

And share he has. Over the past twenty years or so, Dr. Lyle estimates he has answered over six thousand questions from everyone from writers, to attorneys, to law enforcement. He also wrote a book, “Forensics for Dummies” in 2004, and in 2005, he launched a submission form on his website to formally answer specific queries from writers – both of these efforts spawned some unintended consequences.

“I’ve been informed by law enforcement several times that the Forensics for Dummies book has been found in the possession of suspects of crimes. And some of the questions I received on my website just had a strange vibe to them, like the person on the other end wasn’t a writer plotting the perfect crime, but an individual possibly intent on carrying it out.” 

He’s since initiated a policy of requiring the requestor to surrender their personal information to him, so at least he has a record of it. Most of the people who contact him willingly provide the info, but occasionally someone won't.  And the policy hasn’t seemed to abate the substantial volume of requests the doctor receives on an almost daily basis. Most of the questions he gets are fairly prosaic, but some run to the extremely bizarre. 

Asked about the most peculiar question he ever had submitted and Lyle admits that it’s tough to put a blue ribbon on any one question, although one does stand out in his mind. 

“It was all about bee venom and how could you kill someone with it,” he says. “This person wanted to learn everything there was to know about it. What if you locked a person in a car and released a swarm of bees? How about injecting someone with bee venom? Could you kill them if you forced them to drink bee venom?”

To learn about some of the other offbeat and downright morbid questions he has answered through the years, check out Dr. D.P. Lyle M.D. books, “Forensics and Fiction” and “More Forensics and Fiction”. Besides winning numerous awards, Dr. Lyle's also the author of three crime series, as well as several more books on forensics for writers. His website is: http://www.dplylemd.com/