My wife and creative partner, Christina Adams, and I met in San Diego in our early twenties. She had just returned from a tour in India and Europe as the lead singer of Vrindavan, a world music ensemble. At that time, I was the composer and book writer for an original rock opera, An Eye In Each Head, which was being staged locally. Our artistic and personal connection was immediate, and we wrote dozens of songs, stories, and a novella before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue careers in the entertainment industry. After years of writing, producing, and developing projects for television, film, and theatre, we decided to write our debut novel, inspired by the true story of Christina’s family.

As long-time co-writers and business partners, we are often asked about our creative process and how a married couple can work together every day without killing each other. Our answer is simple: it’s easy if you find the right person and hell if you don’t. We’re fortunate to enjoy working and creating together, sharing a seamless partnership based on respect and collaboration rather than competition. The quality of the storytelling is our priority. If one of us likes a particular plot point or line of dialogue while the other doesn’t, we continue discussing it until we find a new solution that works better for both of us. Since we can practically read each other’s minds and have developed a unique voice as a writing team, we’ve adopted the nom de plume A.C. Adams for Chasing Shadows and our future novels.

Chasing Shadows called for more extensive collaboration and research than our earlier projects. The story was inspired by the quest to find Christina’s father, who vanished shortly before we met, leaving a chilling message that stated he had a new life and could never see her or her siblings again. Christina’s world was turned upside down. He was a gifted university professor and a devoted parent whom she idolized. How could he justify such cruel and unfathomable behavior? She needed to find out. I was eager to assist her, and we embarked on an international search to uncover his secrets. The process took years, but what we learned about his past unraveled everything she believed she knew about her family history. For years, her father had led a covert life as a Catholic priest and a member of an elusive, powerful society that operated in the shadows of world affairs. Despite interviewing numerous friends and colleagues, the complexities of his remarkable life remained a Gordian knot that was impossible to untangle. Her estranged mother also had a hidden past of trauma and deceit, and one of the best outcomes of the journey was their reconciliation.

When we realized our search had reached an impasse and there were crucial details about Christina’s father that we couldn’t verify, we decided to write a novel inspired by true events. To protect our sources, we would change the names and locations in the novel while preserving many incidents from his life and our search. Our goal was to stay true to his essence while revealing the dramatic truth of the story.

Now it was time to outline. After months of effort, we discovered a structure that perfectly suited the narrative, incorporating three points of view and presenting a multi-generational family drama spanning a 70-year period across three countries and various locations. Sixty-two taut chapters provided the fast pacing we desired, and now that we had the skeleton, it was time to flesh it out. As usual, we divided the work in half and started writing, with Christina beginning with Chapter One and I with Chapter Thirty-One.

After completing the first draft, we read it aloud and took detailed notes. Then, we revised our chapters and read the book aloud again, generating a new set of notes. Next, we exchanged chapters, with me revising the first half while Christina revised the second half. We repeated this process several times until we were ready to share it with a few trusted colleagues who read the manuscript and provided invaluable feedback.

Writing our first novel was liberating, allowing us to explore the story and characters with greater depth and detail than was feasible in a screenplay. We’re hooked and eagerly anticipate writing many more. However, we are not quite finished with Chasing Shadows; the characters still have more of their story to share, and we envision a sequel.