Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Last updated: Tuesday April 8, 2008, EDT 11:59 AM
BY EVELYN SHIH
Staff photo by Chris Pedota. Courtesy of northjersey.comIn the summer of 1974, Carol Higgins Clark was home in Washington Township after finishing her freshman year at college. When she wasn't working as a hardware store cashier, she found herself parked at the kitchen table with her mother's second suspense novel, a scribbled-over manuscript titled "A Stranger Is Watching." She had promised her mother she would retype a clean copy for the publishing house.
"She was like, 'Oh gosh, I don't know how I will get this done!' " said Carol of her mother, Mary, who at the time was juggling deadlines on more than 40 scripts for a local radio station.
Neither Carol nor Mary knew that the book already at the presses, "Where Are the Children?," would soon become a bestseller. Its success, and the success of subsequent books, catapulted the widowed mother of five into the world of mainstream publishing.
Before J.K. Rowling, another struggling single mother, rose to astronomic literary fame, there was Mary Higgins Clark. But success came to Clark later in life than it did Rowling. Carol, her youngest daughter, remembers the early stages of her mother's literary efforts, and grew into a collaborator — not to mention an accomplished writer.
Both Carol and Mary, now a Saddle River resident, have new books coming out today.
Mary Higgins Clark's "Where Are You Now?" tells the story of a young woman who decides to search for her brother, whose absence has tortured their mother since he walked out of his dorm room 10 years earlier. Carol Higgins Clark's "Zapped" features her longtime protagonist, Regan Reilly, chasing down a man-mutilating female criminal during a power outage in New York City.
Touring together
Not only has Carol become a best-selling author in her own right, but she and her mother have written four Christmas-themed books together using characters from their previous stories. For the past three years, they have done book tours together in the spring, leading — appropriately — to Mother's Day.
"It's lovely to be with someone" on tour, said Mary. "When you're finished [with hours-long public appearances], you're hungry and tired. So we can go out and have a hamburger and a glass of wine together."
The mother-daughter creative connection began early on, when Mary was an unknown author.
Carol was in seventh grade when her mother published her first novel, a fictional account of George Washington's life, but the book didn't sell. By Carol's sophomore year of high school, Mary had made the fateful decision to try suspense writing.
Mary developed a regimen of writing from 5 to 7 every morning for years as she struggled to become a fiction writer, first through short stories, then through novels.
With her publisher on her back that summer before her big break as a novelist, Mary was relieved and touched that her daughter had time to help out. But she was about to find an extra benefit from having Carol lend a hand.
"She was a good editor from the beginning," said Mary, adding that Carol saw inconsistencies in some of her writing. Mary said Carol would often advise: " 'I don't think he would say that. I don't think she'd say that.' And she was right."
Acting came in handy
Carol attributes her grasp of character motivation to her training in acting, which she explored during and after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. She went on to perform audiobook versions of her mother's work and her own. She also played the lead character in "A Cry in the Night," a television movie version of her mother's novel.
But the writing connection was a mother-daughter relationship that would go on for years, even after Mary was able to turn her full attention to writing novels. When People magazine called "Loves Music, Loves to Dance" an accurate portrayal of the singles bar scene in New York in 1991, Mary had a private chuckle: It was Carol who updated all the names of the bars.
"I'm so lucky, because if it had been the computer age, she really wouldn't have needed my help," said Carol.
And 16 years ago, "when the writing happened, it just seemed like a natural thing," she added. Her plucky heroine, Regan Reilly, solves mysteries and prevents crime just like her mother's PIs — but with a good dose of funny thrown in.
"It came out just using humor right away," she said.
That's no surprise, said Mary: Her father "had a quick sense of humor, a wonderful sense of humor. So [she] came by it honestly."
Character's close call
By contrast, Mary almost killed off her funniest character, Elvira, because the character disrupted the suspense of the novel. As per custom — the Higgins Clarks swap pages of their in-process manuscripts — Carol read an early version of "Weep No More, My Lady," the first book where Elvira appeared as a minor character.
"I said, don't kill her! She's too funny," said Carol.
Instead, Elvira became a major player in each of the Christmas books that Mary and Carol have written together. Humor is a rare indulgence in Mary's work, but not in the collaboration novels.
"It's fun for me, because, you see, I write psychological suspense," said Mary.
In fact, in joint working sessions, they've even been known to have a little bit too much fun, she added.
"We start laughing when we get these people, and when we get dopey names for them," she said. "In fact, one time we were writing, we were laughing so hard in my third-floor office, my husband [John J. Conheeney] came to the bottom of the stairs and yelled up, 'I hope the reading public finds this book as funny as you two do!' "
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
"She was like, 'Oh gosh, I don't know how I will get this done!' " said Carol of her mother, Mary, who at the time was juggling deadlines on more than 40 scripts for a local radio station.
Neither Carol nor Mary knew that the book already at the presses, "Where Are the Children?," would soon become a bestseller. Its success, and the success of subsequent books, catapulted the widowed mother of five into the world of mainstream publishing.
Before J.K. Rowling, another struggling single mother, rose to astronomic literary fame, there was Mary Higgins Clark. But success came to Clark later in life than it did Rowling. Carol, her youngest daughter, remembers the early stages of her mother's literary efforts, and grew into a collaborator — not to mention an accomplished writer.
Both Carol and Mary, now a Saddle River resident, have new books coming out today.
Mary Higgins Clark's "Where Are You Now?" tells the story of a young woman who decides to search for her brother, whose absence has tortured their mother since he walked out of his dorm room 10 years earlier. Carol Higgins Clark's "Zapped" features her longtime protagonist, Regan Reilly, chasing down a man-mutilating female criminal during a power outage in New York City.
Touring together
Not only has Carol become a best-selling author in her own right, but she and her mother have written four Christmas-themed books together using characters from their previous stories. For the past three years, they have done book tours together in the spring, leading — appropriately — to Mother's Day.
"It's lovely to be with someone" on tour, said Mary. "When you're finished [with hours-long public appearances], you're hungry and tired. So we can go out and have a hamburger and a glass of wine together."
The mother-daughter creative connection began early on, when Mary was an unknown author.
Carol was in seventh grade when her mother published her first novel, a fictional account of George Washington's life, but the book didn't sell. By Carol's sophomore year of high school, Mary had made the fateful decision to try suspense writing.
Mary developed a regimen of writing from 5 to 7 every morning for years as she struggled to become a fiction writer, first through short stories, then through novels.
With her publisher on her back that summer before her big break as a novelist, Mary was relieved and touched that her daughter had time to help out. But she was about to find an extra benefit from having Carol lend a hand.
"She was a good editor from the beginning," said Mary, adding that Carol saw inconsistencies in some of her writing. Mary said Carol would often advise: " 'I don't think he would say that. I don't think she'd say that.' And she was right."
Acting came in handy
Carol attributes her grasp of character motivation to her training in acting, which she explored during and after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. She went on to perform audiobook versions of her mother's work and her own. She also played the lead character in "A Cry in the Night," a television movie version of her mother's novel.
But the writing connection was a mother-daughter relationship that would go on for years, even after Mary was able to turn her full attention to writing novels. When People magazine called "Loves Music, Loves to Dance" an accurate portrayal of the singles bar scene in New York in 1991, Mary had a private chuckle: It was Carol who updated all the names of the bars.
"I'm so lucky, because if it had been the computer age, she really wouldn't have needed my help," said Carol.
And 16 years ago, "when the writing happened, it just seemed like a natural thing," she added. Her plucky heroine, Regan Reilly, solves mysteries and prevents crime just like her mother's PIs — but with a good dose of funny thrown in.
"It came out just using humor right away," she said.
That's no surprise, said Mary: Her father "had a quick sense of humor, a wonderful sense of humor. So [she] came by it honestly."
Character's close call
By contrast, Mary almost killed off her funniest character, Elvira, because the character disrupted the suspense of the novel. As per custom — the Higgins Clarks swap pages of their in-process manuscripts — Carol read an early version of "Weep No More, My Lady," the first book where Elvira appeared as a minor character.
"I said, don't kill her! She's too funny," said Carol.
Instead, Elvira became a major player in each of the Christmas books that Mary and Carol have written together. Humor is a rare indulgence in Mary's work, but not in the collaboration novels.
"It's fun for me, because, you see, I write psychological suspense," said Mary.
In fact, in joint working sessions, they've even been known to have a little bit too much fun, she added.
"We start laughing when we get these people, and when we get dopey names for them," she said. "In fact, one time we were writing, we were laughing so hard in my third-floor office, my husband [John J. Conheeney] came to the bottom of the stairs and yelled up, 'I hope the reading public finds this book as funny as you two do!' "
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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