CROOKED V.2 Author Spotlight: Maddi Davidson
We’re celebrating the launch of CROOKED V.2 by spotlighting the authors who have contributed stories!
Maddi Davidson is the pen name for two sisters living on opposite sides of the country: Mary Ann Davidson in Idaho and Diane Davidson in Virginia. Together they have published several novels, a non-fiction book, and numerous short stories. Their tales range from the murder of a deranged scientist resurrecting the dodo to a spurned wife hacking the pacemaker of an ex-husband who richly deserved it.
“Narrow EscApe” is the first story in a planned series of Tastee Brioche Twistletoe adventures. Learn more at: https://maddidavidson.com/bitch-and-chips/.
Tell us a bit about your story and the story world.
Tastee Brioche Twistletoe imagines herself a clever and successful thief, à la James Bolivar diGriz of Harry Harrison’s The Stainless Steel Rat. When the operations of the criminal organization, Nemo Loquitur, draw police attention too close to Tastee’s home base, she sets a trap, hoping to ensnare one or more of the organization’s key operatives. Posing as a thief for hire, our heroine travels to a godforsaken mining planet, Galina 552, to steal orsothium, a metal more precious than gold. Despite having botched each and every heist she’s undertaken, Tastee confidently sets her plan in motion.
As sisters living thousands of miles apart, how do you collaborate on stories?
Surprisingly, it hasn’t been a challenge for us, not that it has been all beer and skittles (for the record, one of us likes Skittles, the other prefers Coconut M&Ms). Perhaps we did all our squabbling growing up.
A challenge for writing partners is ensuring that the writing hangs together and there is no obvious change of voice (i.e., when one of us takes over the writing). We are lucky that, as sisters, we share the same demented sense of humor, to the point where neither of us can, in many cases, remember who wrote what. That’s the idea, really, because “Maddi” is THE writer and nobody reading our work should be able to tell when The Other Sister started writing. Even more telling, in some cases when one of us is reviewing/editing/adding to a section, we find that the other one had the same idea. You end up deleting things you added because the other sister already put the same ideas in there.
What are some of your favorite sci-fi crime books or stories? What authors have inspired your writing?
Obvious from this story, one of us likes Harry Harrison. We’re great fans of authors who write over-the-top humor using almost believable characters. We’re both big fans of Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. Would that we could write half as well as she! While most of our writing to date has been in the mystery genre, we’ve begun to write stories in sci-fi and are relishing the opportunity to explore new pathways to humor.
What are you working on next?
We place about four short stories each year in various anthologies or magazines. We had such a great time writing this story that we hope to find more opportunities for Tastee to pursue her criminal career. We are working on humorous stories in various stages (idea, first draft, finalization, rewriting) in both the mystery and science fiction genres.
CROOKED V.2
