I’ve got a two-for-one bonus for you today on Behind the Quill! My guests are Alicia and Roy Street, Daphne du Maurier award winning authors of romance, mystery/suspense and paranormal genres. Awesome, right? I was totally stoked when this husband and wife writing team agreed to an interview.

Here’s what they had to say:

Me: So I have to ask, how did the two of you end up being co-authors? Were you both writing solo prior to the partnership and whose idea was it to join forces?

Roy: Yes, we were working solo on other things. I’m the one who asked Alicia to write with me because I had created two wacky female characters and felt I needed a female perspective. Our combined effort led to our first book published by Berkley-Penguin, APHRODISIAC.

Me: If your book were made into a movie, who do you picture playing each character’s part?

Alicia: In my mind the hero of Touch Me and Tango looks like Jon Hamm.

Roy: Kristen Wiig for Saylor Oz.

Me: Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?

Alicia: I love corny romance in any form—contemporary, historical, or suspense. I also love history and mythology, so I am reworking a paranormal historical I had written a while ago. Its short story prequel was published in ETERNAL SPRING, a collection of YA short stories.

Roy: I love the comic duo in our Saylor Oz books and we will be going back to those in the coming year.

Me: What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an authors? What has been the best compliment?

Roy: I get overly creative and start off in directions that can lead away from the central theme. As to the best, most people like my characters’ banter.

Alicia: I can’t think of any criticism that was tough. Being an ex-dancer, I am used to learning by being told my mistakes. As to compliments, most readers seem to mention our character development and the warmth between the characters.

Me: Who is your favorite musician and/or favorite song?

Alicia: My favorite song is “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from a Puccini opera.

Roy: I like Rock and some House. But I can’t say which particular song or musician is my favorite. There are too many.

Me: I know you have a cat named Wallace, who likes Pizza. Do you have other pets as well? And tell me about this Friday night pizza tradition – what’s your favorite kind and who eats more slices? Roy or Wallace?

Alicia: Wallace has reached an elderly state and is not very happy about competition for attention, so we haven’t brought any other pets home. The vet says he’s the youngest looking sixteen-year-old cat he’s ever seen.

Roy: I like frozen organic pizza with portabella mushrooms. I definitely eat more slices than Wallace. He doesn’t like mushrooms.

Me: What would you like your readers to know about your book or you in general? What do you want readers to see in your books?

Alicia: I want readers to know we work really hard on our books and appreciate it so much when they write us and tell us how much they enjoyed them. I want them to have a good time and escape the way I do when I read romance or mystery. A logline we recently decided to use is: characters that love you back.

Roy: I want people to step into another world that I have built, to have fun and laugh, but also to experience poignant moments. I want them to love the characters and be eager to meet them again.

Me: Tell us about your current or upcoming release. Will you have a new book coming out soon?

Alicia & Roy: We have the next novel in our contemporary romance Dance ‘n’ Luv series coming out in November. Each book in that series has a dancer heroine. We’ve done a ballroom dancer, an ex-Broadway dancer, a dance teacher with a youth group that performs hip-hop, and our latest has a ballerina protagonist. While the books feature dance, they are of course about the lives and relationships of the characters.

Me: What is one piece of advice you would give to aspiring authors?

Alicia and Roy: It’s a rough business, so be flexible, keep studying your craft and the market, be prepared to work your tail off, and hang in.

Me: Great advice! I can’t wait until November to catch the latest book in your Dance ‘n’ Luv series. Thank you so much for talking with me today.

Here’s a little more about Alicia and Roy Street:

In addition to being part of today’s indie writers movement, Alicia and Roy Street are traditionally published authors and recipients of a Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. They share backgrounds in the performing arts and spent many gypsy years living and working in the different neighborhoods of New York City and Philadelphia. Alicia as a dancer, choreographer and teacher; Roy in theater, visual arts and standup comedy. Alicia is also one of the regular contributors on the popular WG2E (Writers Guide To Epublishing) blog.

Want to know more? Then check out Alicia and Roy on their website and “like” them on Facebook. You can also follow each of them on Twitter, too! (Alicia’s Twitter and Roy’s Twitter.) While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out some of their other books, like Snow Dance and Aphrodisiac.

So, what did you think? Do you have other questions for Roy and Alicia? If so, post them in the comments and I’ll see if I can get them answer a few of them for us.