Ontario based mother-daughter writing duo Alie and Hejsa Christensen talk to AW’s Lucy Black about their debut novel.
LB: Congratulations on having published such a wonderful book. I think our readers would be very interested in how you came together as a mother-daughter team to write it. Please share a little about your writing journey as partners – how it came to be and how you make it work.
H&A: Thank you! It has been a long but exciting road to get to this point. We had already been screenwriting partners for over a decade before endeavouring to undertake a novel together. During those years working on screenplays, we developed a system and synergy that transferred easily to the novel format. As to how we came to write together, that was the crazy but wonderful idea of Alie’s (the mom in our mother/daughter duo). Alie, who is in her seventies now, had a career in corporate writing. Later in that journey, she began revising screenplays for a film production company, which led to more projects in that area. At that point, Hejsa had completed a master’s degree in environmental geography and had been traveling the world competing in Taekwondo, but was looking for an entirely new direction. Alie recruited Hejsa to give screenwriting a go with her, and gave Hejsa a veritable library of screenwriting books to light the spark. Hejsa was hooked and later went back to school to get an MFA in creative writing. The move to the novel format came with a realization that our story idea for Stealing John Hancock (Turnstone Press, 2022) would be well served by expanded exploration of characters and themes. We still enjoy writing screenplays too and will probably go back and forth in the future, although we are currently writing another novel.
Your book is filled with detailed information about cyber-crime, crypto-currency, identity theft, forgeries, computer phishing and fraudulent practices all of which are quite timely topics. How did you become interested in these things and how did you become so well informed?
H&A: When we first had the idea to write a book based on a house-stealing scam, which had identity theft and cybercrime components, we were thrown into areas we knew little about. But with our characters involved in some nefarious exploits as perpetrators, victims, or investigators, they drew us to need and want to learn as much as we could to fully develop them and the plot. At first, it felt a little overwhelming, but we also found it fascinating. We started with researching online and in books. We all know the internet is an invaluable tool when it comes to research, but we found that to be particularly true in criminal and tech-related fields, where new developments are happening at a breakneck pace and information isn’t always available in mainstream publications. Perhaps even more important than what we found online, inside sources helped us to understand not just how these fields operate, but the mindset of people who are adept in these areas, which then influenced character development. In the areas of crypto-currencies, NFTs, the darknet, and cybercrimes we had great sources who were very generous with their time and knowledge.
The novel begins with homeowners discovering that the house they bought wasn’t really for sale. Such stories continue to make headlines in the news. Did you intend there to be gentle cautions about title insurance and fiscal responsibility as part of the book’s raison d’être or did these just occur as the plot unfolded?
H&A: While readers might come away from our book more aware of how devastatingly wrong things can go if they aren’t cautious with certain financial transactions, it wasn’t our intention to instill a lesson about fiscal responsibility. We planned out the plot for Stealing John Hancock very carefully before we began our first draft, with a goal of keeping the stakes high and the pace fast. This involved being hard on our characters. They lose a lot—from life savings, to homes, right down to our protagonist, JP, losing his name. For JP, having his identity stolen is a loss of his sense of self, which relates to one of our central themes—the nature of identity. On a plot level, there are financial calamities happening in their lives, but we were more concerned with themes than lessons. We did have JP recognize the pitfalls he fell into that made his identity vulnerable to theft (even if he thought he was savvy to those traps), which readers will be able to reflect on in their own lives, but our goal was to entertain readers while connecting with them on thematic levels.
LB: Tell us about your decision to write this book. What inspired and/or motivated your interest in the subject matter?
H&A: In looking for an idea for an original screenplay, we had been kicking around several possible plot and character scenarios, but nothing was inspiring us. Then one day, a newspaper opened on the kitchen table had an article that jumped out at both of us. It was about a home that had been sold without the homeowner’s knowledge. This was many years before this sort of crime became the big news it is today. We were struck by how bizarre it was that someone could “steal” someone’s home by assuming their identity and sell it to someone else. It was shocking that a giant immoveable object, one that is such a colossal investment, can essentially be stolen. And we started thinking about the scope of the devastation caused, about the magnitude of the loss, both economic and emotional. It was great story fodder in our minds and we became excited and committed to it. Further, it was a story that we felt we could give a lot of depth to in the novel format, where we could explore themes and develop characters in depth. In addition to the nature of identity, we were also drawn to exploring emerging themes related to the constructs of home, belonging, and happiness. Many of these concepts are tied into characters striving for authenticity and purpose in a materialistic and acquisition-oriented culture.
LB: Please share with us a little about your research and pre-writing processes?
H&A: Writing as a team, we find the pre-writing phase particularly important and probably spend more time there than a lot of other writers. We don’t divide the story up, so one of us writes one part and the other another. We both write all of it together, which makes it really important that we have a shared vision for each and every scene. With Stealing John Hancock, we plotted the entire novel on index cards before we began writing. We included notes not only on action, but also on character motivation and development, and how each scene would move the story forward. Spending that extra time in the pre-writing phase made it easy to sit down and write collaboratively. We were already in agreement on what we wanted to capture. This also gave us the opportunity to really look at our story structure before we began, which allowed us to see and address some potential issues with flow and pacing before committing any words to the page. On the research side, we’ve already mentioned the nature of some of our research. As for when that was conducted—we were engaged in research throughout the writing process. Of course we did a lot of it upfront, but as the story unfolded, even through multiple drafts, we continued researching as new ideas occurred or developments were made in the ever-changing world of cybercrimes. Fortunately, we both enjoy research and found these topics engaging.
LB: Please tell us a little about the writing spaces or environments that work best for you. Are there particular items that you like to have in place?
H&A: When it comes to our writing space, writing together hasn’t always, nor even usually, meant “writing together.” We have often found ourselves in different spaces, sometimes in different parts of the world. For a significant portion of writing Stealing John Hancock, Hejsa lived in Barbados and sometimes Alie was in New York for extended periods. We try to find quiet, inspiring spots wherever we are. Even when separated, we work together, always connected, using screen-sharing software. We now usually work in a loft above Hejsa’s garage. It’s a cozy studio, with big beanbag chairs that we inhabit side-by-side. It has a kettle, water cooler, and mini-fridge, and we would say that the items we like to have in place are our favorite mugs and assortment of tea bags. The window looks out onto woods and, well, in our minds, what could be better?
LB: How was the title chosen for this book? Who had input and what were the deciding factors?
H&A: The title, Stealing John Hancock, came to us right at the inception of story development. We were embarking on a journey through house stealing and identity theft and “stealing” followed by our protagonist’s name tied those two together. Both a house and a person’s identity were being stolen. The name John Hancock got its inspiration from the first signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, who sprawled his name in the boldest, largest handwriting, declaring his identity as the most visible proponent of independence and freedom. The name John Hancock has become synonymous with a person’s signature, e.g., “put your John Hancock on the dotted line.” We felt the name had come to be intrinsically entwined with a person’s identity and freedom, and when our protagonist, JP (John Paul) Hancock, has his name stolen, he is stripped of both. Our publisher liked the association, and thought the title worked well.
LB: Do you have a writing routine or regimen? What does that include at the different stages in the writing process?
H&A: We have learned over the years that having a writing routine is essential for us. If we don’t intentionally carve time out of our day, it is so easy for our creative time to lose out to the clutter of everyday life. That routine has taken different forms as we adjust it according to other commitments, but we try to be consistent in having a daily practice. Currently, we usually write in the mornings after dropping Hejsa’s daughter off at school, working within the confines of the school day—but without summer vacation! Our schedule doesn’t change according to the stage of the writing process, but what does change is the importance of being in the same location together. As mentioned earlier, usually all we need is to be connected by screen-sharing technology. The exception is when we are in early plotting stages. We find it necessary to be together when we are laying out the story on index cards because that is not only a visual experience, but a tactile one as well. We both want to be there, able to rearrange cards as ideas strike.
LB: Do you have a system for organizing your thoughts and notes when you write? Please explain.
H&A: Yes! We couldn’t imagine tackling something as large as a novel without a system for organizing our thoughts. We have already mentioned how we plot on index cards, where, old-school as that is, the physicality of it makes it hard to beat. We also write our first draft in a program called Scrivener, which has wonderful outlining and organizing capabilities. We take our physical index cards and input them into the digital index cards in the program. Scrivener also allows us to store our notes, research, character sketches, and even photo inspirations in one easily accessible system. We move to Word for later drafts, but writing the first draft in Scrivener is great for keeping everything organized.
LB: Is there a character in this book that you think will turn up in another writing project? Please explain.
H&A: Although it is not a sequel, the book we are writing now (working title: Tracking the Descent) has a character from Stealing John Hancock. Our main police detective, Nya Grey, who headed the house-stealing investigation and hunt for JP Hancock, comes into our new novel as an unofficial police investigator. We found Nya Grey’s complexity as a character compelling, and felt we still had more to discover about her. We thought it would be fun to include links between the two books that would only be noticed by careful readers. To that end, one character in Tracking the Descent was mentioned, but never “seen,” as one of the victims of house stealing in Stealing John Hancock. It is that person’s daughter who contacts Nya Grey for help in our current project, where it is mentioned that they met during the investigation in the first book. It really won’t matter if readers don’t pick up on these links, but the stories take place in neighbouring towns, so the overlap seems natural to us as this fictional world expands in our minds.
H&A Christensen are a mother/daughter writing duo based in Ontario, Canada. Hejsa has published stories in literary and adventure magazines in Canada and abroad, and has an MFA in creative writing from UBC. Alie had an extensive career as a corporate, advertising, magazine, newspaper, and speech writer, including writing supplements for The Globe and Mail newspaper. They discovered their affinity for working together when they were in-house writers for a film production company. They have now made the leap from silver screen to printed page. Stealing John Hancock is their first novel.