MY WRITING DAY
MICHAEL GREGORIO
The husband and wife crime authors tell Lynne Hackles about writing, fighting and making up over dinner
Michael Gregorio is the name used by the husband and wife team of Michael Jacob and Daniela di Gregorio. Perhaps this should be Our Writing Day.
Michael and Daniela used to be ferocious workers. ‘We published eight chunky novels in ten busy years,’ he says. ‘Four historical crime thrillers (with Faber & Faber), a contemporary crime novel written in Italian based on a true story (commissioned by the Italian publisher, Ambiente), then three mafia novels (for Severn House) which are set in rural Umbria, where we live.
‘So, how do we write together? Well, we don’t. We work in separate rooms in a large house, following an outline we have written up and agreed to in principle – Dani used to make me sign the outline, because I had a habit of saying, “We didn’t agree on that!” – then we meet up in the kitchen for consultations and tea. These afternoon get-togethers usually go well for the first five minutes or so, then opinions differ, tempers fray, and we end up having a good old argument, which we patch up over a tasty Italian dinner.