Meeting two authors

I enjoyed a fascinating evening this week when two detective mystery writers visited Cambridge - Ann Cleeves (of Vera and Shetland fame) and Louise Penny (of Inspector Gamache fame).  All my reading life I have enjoyed this genre and here were two friends at the top of their game, relaxed with each other and us as an audience willingly sharing themselves.  I love listening to creative people and noted several things:

-  both spoke of the compassion and kindness to which their own work testifies and of their conviction that contemporary detective fiction has moved to greater empathy with both victim and perpetrator.  As Louise Penny put it: 'Murder is such a terrible thing.  It reveals profound truths about humanity'.
-  they showed remarkable differences of approach.   Ann Cleeves told us that she never works out a plot beforehand and completes the book in one or two drafts.  Rather she lets the story tell itself as it is 'revealed' to her. Louise Penny agonizes through a long gestation period filling up her notebook with ideas and her first draft is a total mess (her words!)  It takes up to five drafts to arrive at something she is willing to show others.
-  their need for discipline.  Both work in the mornings and have to set themselves the specific target of 1,000 words each day.

They told us about their daily discipline after I had asked a question about their practice.  Later, when I queued up to get their latest books signed, Louise Penny thanked me for my question. 'Do you write?' she said. 'Yes, a little - academic books'.  'Oh, on what subject?'  'Preaching', I answered. 'How wonderful,' she enthused, 'That's just what we need at this time.....to help people preach!'  I was in a queue so sadly conversation was truncated. But it gave me a glow!