Q&A With Sam Lucky & Ann Charles 

I am delighted that Mickey Mikkelson connected me with Sam Lucky and his wife USA Today Bestselling Author Ann Charles. Ann Charles and I did do a Q&A last year discussing her mystery series The Deadwood Mystery series which you can read here by clicking this link. https://booknotions.com/qa-with-ann-charles/ . Today we are going to discuss Ann & Sam’s Deadwood Undertaker series which they wrote together. Book 5 titled Hip Deep In Bad Company is out now! 

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Q: Sam & Ann would you both give a brief description of each of the books in the Deadwood Undertaker series? 

A: Maybe its best to give you the back cover blurb for each book. We’d rather not inadvertently include any spoilers. Each blurb focuses on a different character in the Deadwood Undertaker series, which makes it fun to write and read.

BOOK 1: LIFE AT THE COFFIN JOINT

In Life at the Coffin Joint, the first book of the Deadwood Undertaker Series, we meet Clementine Johanssen. Tall and deadly, with a hot temper and short fuse, she’s hired to clean up Deadwood’s dead … and the “other” problem. She’s hell-bent on poking, sticking, or stabbing anyone or anything that steps out of line.

Her task is complicated by the Santa Fe sidewinders, a pair of rough-hewn freighters searching for their missing uncle. Their search lands them on Clementine’s doorstep and before long, the two find themselves in cahoots with the surly undertaker and her ever diligent right-hand man, Hank.

Before long, they land neck deep in gunplay, cutthroats, and endless stinkin’ snow. Their search leads them to throw in with Clementine to hunt for a common enemy.

What they find chills them all to their bones and hurls them into an adventure they’ll never forget.

BOOK 2: A LONG WAY FROM ORDINARY

Danger the likes Boone McCreery has never seen is brewing in the Black Hills. Fresh in from Santa Fe, he’s returned to Deadwood to seek justice for his uncle—and maybe to see about a girl. Little did he know his search for justice would have him stumbling into a hornets’ nest beyond his worst nightmare. One thing is for certain, the trouble he and his compadres chance upon deep in the trees is a LONG way from ordinary.

BOOK 3: CAN’T RIDE AROUND IT

Jack “Rabbit” Fields knew a good thing when he saw it, whether it was a sound horse, a sure bet, or a pretty sage hen. When it came to locking horns with any curly wolves he ran into along the trail, he tended to shoot first—a notion that had saved his hide more times than he could count. But that was before he came to Deadwood.

Now, someone is stealing freshly dead bodies right out of their graves, and Rabbit and his amigos are on the hunt to figure out who. And more importantly, why? 

Unfortunately, finding the answers to those questions will take plenty of Rabbit’s bullets, and maybe his blood, too. When the shooting stops and the smoke clears, he reckons there will be a whole lot more cold corpses in the Black Hills. With any luck, he won’t be one of them.

BOOK 3.5: CATAWAMPUS CHRISTMAS CAROL

It’s a cold and snowy Christmas Eve in the rowdy mining town of Deadwood in the Dakota Territory. Rather than enjoy some drinks in front of a warm fire with her friends, contracted Slayer Clementine Johanssen has her horse saddled and weapons packed to head out into the hills and hunt down some deadly scallywags—alone. When her friends catch wind of her intentions, they set out to waylay her long enough to change her way of thinking … in spite of her mule-headedness. Reminiscent of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, this catawampus tale will add a heartening dose of fun and camaraderie to your holiday!

BOOK 4: THE BACKSIDE OF HADES

First let me say, this trip to Slagton wasn’t my idea. This place is chock full of bad company and helped itself to a double dose of bad medicine.

Slagton needs cleanin’, accordin’ to Miss Clem, and I know the crew to do it. I’m one of ’em. Hank Varney’s the name. Miss Clem and me, along with the two Sidewinders from Santa Fe—we’ll get the sharp-toothed vermin cleared out.

Now, some people say I’m lucky, but I don’t know if’n it’ll do me any good, what with the army of trouble me an’ the crew are facin’. If’n we don’t live through it, well, there goes Deadwood. Maybe even the whole of the Black Hills. We’ll all be down the privy hole then, lookin’ up at the Backside of Hades.

BOOK 5: HIP DEEP IN BAD COMPANY

“I’m a ghost. A specter, some would say. A spirit. A shade, the hallucination of a compromised mind. Whatever moniker you prefer, that’s me. Excepting that last one.” ~Uncle Morton

I ran freight and wagon trains for years from Missouri to Santa Fe. Courted death from arrows to snake bites, drowning to dysentery, each and every trip. Came through all that only to be dealt a bad hand in Deadwood. Got myself killed here. 

Now the Grim Reaper is swinging for my boys, too. They’re men actually, and I won’t let them end up dead like me. Same goes for their friends, Clementine the Amazon and Hank Varney.

First thing, we need to reckon with that smokey Egyptian devil. His no-good henchmen are searching for something underneath the streets of Deadwood. One thing’s sure—it’s not gold. Second, the Pinkertons tracked my boys all the way to the Black Hills. I figured they would but hoped they wouldn’t. The boys will end up in jail yet.

Not so long ago, Deadwood seemed like a good place to set up a freight office, but now this place is hip deep in bad company. Sooner or later, the devils around here are going to kill us all. Well, not all, unless you can kill a fella twice.

Q: What made you both want to write a series together? 

A: Sam here to answer this one…

Ann has thirteen books in her Deadwood Mystery Series and is working on number fourteen. The setting is present day Deadwood, South Dakota, a small town nestled in a gulch between two ridgelines. Along the way, around book nine, we watched a documentary on undertakers, and Ann began to wonder what it would be like to be a woman AND an undertaker in a place like Deadwood, a gritty, unrefined gold rush town with too many men and two few women.

“Gotta be pretty rough, I’d think,” I said.

“Can you imagine how they’d treat her? She’d need to be able to kick some butt probably,” Ann replied.

We dug deeper and loved the idea, but Ann had a schedule full of five series. As it stood, there was just no room on her dance card to start another.

That’s when I stepped forward. 

“I’ve written a few things here and there; I think I can do it!”

“Uh…” Ann had a pretty good perspective on the big picture.

“Don’t worry. You can step in when I’m done and fix it up right!” I had no idea what I was talking about.

Ann here …

Ha ha ha! Sam cracks me up both on and off the pages. 

We figured that we’d raised kids together and we’d remodeled a house together, so why not try writing a series together. It has not all been smooth and easy, but we have created a fun story world full of entertaining, colorful characters. In addition, we’ve given readers an exciting prequel to my other series—The Deadwood Mystery series. If you put the two volumes of work together, we have created hours and hours of reading adventures, laughs, and chills.

 Q: What advice would you give to anyone wanting to co-author a book with someone else whether it is a spouse, a family member, or a friend? 

You can probably guess the most important word in just about any collaboration, from soup to nuts—Compromise. 

You’ll discuss, twist arms, cajole, argue a little (don’t throw things!). If things get heated, come back to it later. Be willing to legitimately listen to your partner’s ideas and take a humble pill while you’re at it. You may not have the best idea.

Next, have a shared passion for the project, in this case, the story. If you’re not getting excited when you brainstorm the next scene, chapter, or book, then it’s time to change tack.

Also, perhaps try a few smaller, short-term collaborations:

 “Tripe stir fry for dinner?”

“No friggin’ way.”

“Why not?”

“Too chewy.”

“Okay.”

Or

“Blue?”

“Red.”

“Light blue.”

“Pink.”

“Purple?”

“Okay.”

Q: Are you two currently writing the sequel to Hip Deep In Bad Company? What other projects both solo and separate are you working on now?

A: Book six in the Deadwood Undertaker series is underway (Hip Deep in Bad Company is book five). It’s looking good for a release in spring of 2025. Keep your fingers crossed. We are!

Ann is furiously typing to finish up book fourteen in the Deadwood Mystery series, Cops & Clobbers in Deadwood. The goal is for a late November 2024 release, just in time for Christmas fun.

Sam spends more time than he should doing things other than writing. In Northern Arizona, fall is a particularly nice time to be outside.

Ann is starting to read research books whenever she has a spare moment to prepare for the next book she plans to write after she ships Deadwood book fourteen off to her editor. This will be the third book in her Dig Site Mystery series—more action and archaeology adventures to come!