Today I wanted to talk about twin books. Or should I say twins books - that is, books about twins.
I started writing my very first book at the end of 1978 which had a different title back then but it wasn't until the early 90s, when I completely rewrote it, that the twins idea became part of the plot. I retitled it - Did You Whisper Back?
The story opens with a crisis in Amanda's life: she thinks she had and lost a twin and goes on a quest from Merseyside down to Devon to find her, but this lost twin Jo is seemingly a figment of Amanda's imagination arising from distorted childhood truths. However Jo becomes more and more real as Amanda suffers a mental breakdown. I won't say any more about the plot but I won a southern arts bursary for this book in 1991 and had an agent interested although he couldn't place it. It wasn't until twenty years later that I self-published it.
Last year, I was in a 'women and autism' group as a newly diagnosed women with autism. I wasn't expecting to come across many authors as at that point I didn't realise how many of us there are! But I had posted a thread about something writing-related and a woman joined the thread who was also a published author. We got talking about our books and we'd both written books about twins! This author, Rosalie Warren, went off to read my twins book. I had already earmarked hers but knew it would take me several months to get round to buying and reading as I'm such a slow reader. Anyway I was given her book 'Coping With Chloe' for Christmas and have recently finished it. It was a wonderful read. I read it quite quickly for me as it's a short book (definitely my sort of book!) and written in an assured appealing style. It is, in fact, described as a children's or young person's book although I feel it has crossover appeal and is suitable for all ages, whereas my protagonist is older and more suited to the adult reader.
My book is about Amanda's fixation and search for a missing imaginary twin Jo. Rosalie's book is about Anna's dead twin Chloe taking up real space in her head and causing problems for Anna, the surviving twin. Both books are about lost twins, real or imagined. I can't say any more than that without giving away any spoilers but they probably have more in common than suggested here. But I found it a fascinating that as autistic authors of around the same age and gender, Rosalie and I have both written psychological books about twins.
I have changed my cover several times and it will be changed again but for the last two covers I've kept the image of the photograph divided into two sides - one in colour and one in black and white. I did several mockups with various photos before picking that final one (although I may return to some of the older ones when I redo the cover). As you will see, Rosalie's cover also has a similar theme!
Both books are available on Amazon as an ebook and in paperback.
Did You Whisper back is available at:
Coping With Chloe is available at:
I have also posted a video similar to this on YouTube which can be found below:
Many thanks for reading today and as always I'd love to read any of your comments.
Your book, Did you Whisper Back is a really gripping read, so enjoyed it, and would love to read Chloe's book too....
ReplyDeleteFabulous Ann and yes do read Coping With Chloe. You would really like it 😊
Deletelook forward to it.
DeleteHow curious that you both have purused similar subjects in your stories - twin books as well as twins in your books
ReplyDeleteYes the synchronicity of it too was was quite uncanny 😊
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