Origins of Neal Caffrey's Grandparents

In the Caffrey Conversation series I created an extended family for Neal. The first of these characters who popped into my mind was his grandfather, retired ambassador Edmund Caffrey.

Kate's Story

In White Collar, Kate Moreau played a pivotal role even though she was in only a limited number of episodes. Neal fell in love with her when he worked for Vincent Adler under the alias of Nick Halden and she was Adler's assistant. Both Neal and Kate were burned by Adler's Ponzi scheme. In the aftermath, she and Neal remained close until he tried to con her. Once Neal was arrested, her feelings toward him were rekindled. So how does Kate differ in our series?

Collaborating on a series

Working with Silbrith on the Caffrey Conversation series is unlike any writing project I’ve ever tried or imagined. Recently she asked if I know of any similar examples of writers collaborating in the same way. At first I went blank, and then realized that writing for a television series is the best model for what we’ve been doing.

Where the Conversation is Now: Partnership

I’m a fan of author Jayne Ann Krentz – especially her work under the pseudonym Jayne Castle – and I’ve often envied her friendship with other writers. I’ve wondered how they met and if what they have is something I could achieve.

Writing is generally a solitary endeavor. It doesn’t feel lonely, as I’m spending quality time with fascinating characters when I write, but on returning to the real world it’s great to have a friend who gets it. It’s also rare, at least in my experience. So I’m frequently amazed that I lucked into a writing collaborator and friend in Silbrith.

Love Letters from a Pharaoh

The romance between the boy king Tutankhamun and his queen Ankhesenamun is the subject of the exhibition Love Letters from a Pharaoh in my latest story, The Mirror. The objects on display at the exhibition are described in Chapter 3. They are all genuine artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun with the exception of the mirror, which I invented. The mirror's description is based on a mirror from the same Eighteenth Dynasty.

Keeping the Conversation Alive

When Penna offered to be my writing mentor, I was staggered by her generosity. It was the chance of a lifetime that I'd be a fool to pass up. But having a grasshopper clinging to your coattails can be seriously annoying. The constant scraping of wings. The pleas for help. The wails of anguish. Speaking as a grasshopper who has developed angsting into a new art form, my greatest fear was that I'd drive her away.

Braque's Violin and Candlestick

In Chapter 2 of The Mirror, Neal receives a call from Chantal in Paris about a painting he and Klaus Mansfeld stole three years ago. That painting is Violin and Candlestick by Georges Braque. The work, painted in 1910, is considered to be one of Braque's masterpieces and a definitive example of Analytic Cubism. Some of the objects are recognizable, but the composition is fractured into facets with different planes and perspectives. This creates a sense of movement to the piece. Braque, a musician as well as an artist, often incorporated music instruments such as the violin, mandola, piano, and guitar into his paintings. He once remarked, "The distinctive feature of the musical instrument as an object is that it comes alive to the touch." It's speculated that by including music instruments in his works he aimed to inject that same animation into his paintings.

Where the Conversation Went Next: Mentoring

A few weeks after Silbrith volunteered to act as my editor, she mentioned writing missing scenes for one of my stories. I was filled with curiosity and convinced her to send me one of those scenes. What I remember most about the one she sent was the sense of place it had – Silbrith used to live in NYC and that fact was apparent from her evocative descriptions. She brought back memories of my last trip to New York and made me want to return.

Of course I had to encourage her to keep writing.

Where the Conversation Started: Editor/Beta

This month we hit the two-year anniversary of when Silbrith reached out with an offer to act as my editor. It seems like a great time to reflect on how our conversation started and how it evolved.

Hugs for Writers

All writers need a little encouragement from time to time. Perhaps you crashed into a writing wall or your muse wandered off, abandoning you with an incomplete chapter. Penna and I have been sharing images to help each other recover from writer's blues. We know many of our readers are writers too and we decided to make a new board for our pins on the Caffrey Conversation Pinterest site. It's for the moments when your character sulks in a corner and refuses to talk to you or when the plot you've been carefully constructing for months implodes from a gaping plot hole in its center. Whenever you need a pick-me-up, we hope Hugs for Writers will help.

How Silbrith got into fanfiction

Without fanfiction and Penna's encouragement, I would have been like so many others—spinning stories in my head but never taking the time to write them down.