In Liv Constantine's new thriller, The Senator’s Wife, we become observers of the charmed lives of an elite Washington couple with perfect power names, Sloan Chase and Senator Whit Montgomery. All’s well until Sloan isn’t and is going to need some help. Enter Athena Karris. The rest is mystery.

Audible: Writers have their writing ways, some in the morning, others at night. How do you as a team set your writing hours and live your lives?

Liv Constantine: We both write in the morning and speak in the afternoons. Each day when we’ve finished whatever we’re working on, we email it to the other. Then we will typically have a Zoom call around three or four and discuss the work, talk about any issues, and decide on what we’re each working on the next day. We continue this every day, usually including weekends, until a first draft is finished.

Then we put the draft down for a week, pick it back up and each read and take notes. We compare notes over several sessions and come up with a plan for revision. We divide and conquer until we’ve completed a second draft. Then again. We put it aside for about a week, then one of us goes through and does a line edit in track changes. The other reviews it, accepts changes or comments on places of disagreement. Another discussion until that’s resolved. Then another line edit is done by the second person and the same process occurs. Once that’s finished, we each read it one more time for errors and any contextual issues.

You’re obviously close sisters and work harmoniously, but do you ever reach impasses? And how do you move on?

Yes, there are times when we have a differing opinion on a plot point or an action that a character takes. We try to not be impatient with each other even though there are times when we want to stomp our foot and say, “I’m right!” We each make our case and do our best to make a decision based on what’s best for the story. We’re usually able to come to agreement, but the few times we couldn’t, we gave both scenarios to our editor without letting her know whose was whose and let her decide.

Lynne, you also write under the pen name L.C. Shaw. Have you ever experienced “character clash” when working with Valerie?

I make sure that I schedule any individual projects for times when Valerie and I are not actively writing a new story. Otherwise there would definitely be confusion! I need to be fully immersed in the story world and the characters when I’m writing, so I can’t be working on two different stories simultaneously.

Valerie, I read you once worked in the White House as a scheduling assistant, and DC, of course, is rich in characters, scandals, etc. Did your experience working there provide grist for the mill in The Senator’s Wife?

It always makes a difference to see things “close up and personal,” but the truth is that everyone is now exposed to around-the-clock coverage of all that goes on in Washington, not to mention movies and documentaries that depict behind-the-scenes chronicles. Probably the most exciting part of working there was experiencing the pulse and immediacy of breaking events—being so near those moments that would make history.