Erickson, Lynn

Lynn Erickson is actually two women, Molly Swanton and Carla Peltonen, both living and writing in Aspen, Colorado. They dwell in an eight-thousand-foot-high valley, surrounded by tall, jagged peaks, which hold their snow even when alpine meadows far below are lush and green, and the chairlifts sit dormant, awaiting the winter crowds. Carla is originally from the Buffalo, New York, area. She's used to a long, snowy winter and is an avid skier, attracted to the deep powder in Aspen's back country and those tempting out of boundary areas that were described in their very first Harlequin Snowbird. Having given up a teaching career, Carla moved to Aspen with her husband, Erik, in 1969, where they found their Shangri-La. Both sports-minded, as are their two grown children, Carla skis hard in the winter and rides her horse in the summer, while Erik rides his Harley. "Aspen is a wonderful place to pursue my writing career. It has a stimulating atmosphere, and I keep the world at bay," Carla says. Also from the East—the Main Line of Philadelphia—Molly grew up with cold, damp winters and now loathes them. Give her Aspen's summer: green golf courses, blooming trees and flowers. Molly and her husband, Terry, spend their winters in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where over a hundred golf courses beckon. Molly has one daughter who lives in Australia and a stepson. She has been in Aspen since 1966. Carla and Molly often speak of themselves as Yin and Yang. The difference in their lifestyles does not end with the seasons. Carla loves to cook and sew and actually owns an iron. Molly claims she doesn't cook, is delighted with the new wrinkled look and gave up sewing when she began to write. Together the two women have 43 books to their credit. With precious little writing experience outside of college papers, both are avid readers. They became hooked on romances in the 70s, and were dying to try their hands at one. "Oh, it'll be easy," they decided. Easy? Ask any writer. Carla and Molly agonise, sometimes for hours, over a sentence. They argue, they laugh until tears flow, they present challenges to each other. There are personal guidelines they follow. No skipping steps. Having both spent time traveling the world in the 60s, they insist that one or the other must have intimate knowledge of a place before they write about it. Their research is extensive: Carla loves to sit with her nose buried in a lengthy study. Molly lets her imagination fly: "Do I have to read that, too?" Then the outline—often way too long, but the story is there—the subplots, characterisations, setting, atmosphere. When they sit down to begin the writing, usually alternating chapters, few details have been left untouched. For them the outline is the agony. The first draft is the ecstasy. Rewriting? Back to earth and hard mental labor. When done, it's difficult for either to recall who wrote what. They really rework each chapter, over and over. Their last step is to read every word aloud, still catching those inevitable errors. Molly and Carla have, as always, several ideas brewing and are anxious to get going on them. Each book is a delight and a challenge.