Playing well with others!

by M. L. Buchman

I feel as if this should be a constant theme in my life: playing well with others.

A writer's world is a strange and solitary one...I'm paid to sit in a corner, by myself, and fantasize for a living (a kinder way to say: I sit in a corner and make shit up for a living). I fantasize about what it would be like to fly a helicopter, to destroy a bad guy, to fall in love... Well, I don't have to fantasize about that one, because I did--twenty years ago and still besotted. But I have to think about how it would feel for others, both male and female, from a wide variety of backgrounds.

But occasionally I'm forced to emerge from the depths of the world in my head and interact with those around me. Sometimes just enough, sometimes way too much.

A few weeks ago I attended and assisted at a week-long short-story anthology workshop. Fifty writers, a dozen hours a day for 7 days. OMG! It was fantastically wondrously intensely and deeply fun. (It was also a little mortifying, my inner introvert is still in deep shock.) For 7 days we talked almost nothing except the craft, marketing, and business of short fiction. I did my best to be thoughtful, supportive, and curious. I've spoke to almost no one except my wife in the weeks following. Even at a weekly lunch of local writers (all of whom I've known for years), I still had little to say and am only now returning to normal.

But there is another way that I've been playing with others. In a prior post I discussed doing a world collaboration project with fellow military romantic suspense writer Cristin Harber. This month I've discovered the joys of writing a collaboration project with one of Regency romance's top authors: Grace Burrowes.

Okay, there's the catch...Regency.

Years ago, back when I was a much younger writer (in every sense of the word), I wrote a historical. I was very proud of that book and sent it off and about. A top editor from Mills & Boon sent me back a very kind note: "Thank you for submitting this for my consideration. I'll pass on this manuscript, but absolutely send me your next contemporary title for consideration." A couple of things here: 1) This was a top editor, who was willing to look at my next title. Back in those days this was just one step down from a sale. Fantastically cheering feedback on my level of writing at that time. 2) This was a top historical editor who asked for my next contemporary (and I wasn't the one who added the emphasis, she was). Hmmm...

Wind forward a couple of years, I'm taking a class. One of the assignments was to write a historical short story. The teacher handed it back and said, "Is this your best period?" It was. "Try again." I did. When the teacher, who is always very careful to never give career advice for fear of inhibiting a writer, returned the second draft it was with the whispered words, "Never try to write a historical again." I now understand that I don't have a single historical bone in my writing body.

But I like Grace (and love her writing, I read a fair amount of Regency) and we wanted to do a project together.

Now it was her turn. "Military romantic suspense? Really?"

So, we moved on to other topics, including our own plans for future series, until I said, "I'm about to launch a contemporary series set on a Montana ranch. Two of my key heroes, Emily Beale and Mark Henderson, are finally retiring from the military and from firefighting. They're going to settle on Mark's family horse ranch and mentor a whole new set of love stories."

"Oh! That's good. I have an idea for that."

The result?

So, as unlikely as it seems, a Regency author and a military romantic suspense author found common ground beneath Montana's Big Sky! (If you prefer print, they're available separately.)

We've had a great time going back and forth on this. They are two separate novels (except for a reader cookie here and there), but we were very surprised at all of the similarities in our voices. Maybe that's why I enjoy reading her books so much, because we're so similar in use of dialog, humor, even pacing.

On the collaboration I mentioned above with Cristin Harber, it was a challenge of finding a common voice between two very different sets of military romantic suspense characters. Here it was discovering an easy joy in each other's words.

I'm very proud of both, but for different reasons. The collaboration between my Night Stalkers and Cristin's Team Titan in Target of Mine is a kick-ass tale. Big Sky Ever After is a warm contemporary to get all wrapped up in during a chill Montana night.

Having now done two collaboration projects of this scale, I'm definitely looking forward to whatever next comes my way. Because whatever it is, it's gonna be FUN! And that is the real measure of what project to do next.

M.L. Buchman started the first of over 50 novels while flying from South Korea to ride his bicycle across the Australian Outback. Part of a solo around the world trip that ultimately launched his writing career.

All three of his military romantic suspense series—The Night Stalkers, Firehawks, and Delta Force—have had a title named “Top 10 Romance of the Year” by the American Library Association’s Booklist. NPR and Barnes & Noble have named other titles “Top 5 Romance of the Year.” In 2016 he was a finalist for Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA award. He also writes: contemporary romance, thrillers, and fantasy.

Past lives include: years as a project manager, rebuilding and single-handing a fifty-foot sailboat, both flying and jumping out of airplanes, and he has designed and built two houses. He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive a free starter e-library by subscribing to his newsletter at: www.mlbuchman.com

A New Form of Storytelling (for me)

by M. L. Buchman

After 50+ novels and a near equal number of short stories, I would have thought that I'd at least bumped my nose into most of the forms of storytelling that I'd be using for a long time to come.

• Romance, SF, Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, even a failed stab or two at YA, etc. These all have distinct voices and techniques and it's been fun. Obviously I especially love romance (35+ novels worth), but I certainly enjoyed them all.
• Third person, first person, (a second person that went straight into the shredder), even a shot at omniscient (that my first reader sent straight to the shredder).
• Almost every length from 500 words to 170,000. (I recently checked and the only 10k blocks I've missed are 120-160,000 words.
• Stand-alone, duologies, series, even complexly interconnected series.
• Anthologies where the challenge is to match the editor's theme.
• Co-author? Never really drew me. I like owning all aspects of my story.
• Shared world co-promotions...WHOOPS!

That last was a new one for me that I'd never given any thought to. And here's what I learned tackling this project.

How it started

This is all Cristin Harber's fault. She writes wonderful military romantic suspense in her Team Titan world. Three months ago, she was just another name that I didn't pay much attention to as it went by. Oddly, I read very little military romantic suspense, because I don't want those other author's voices in my head when I'm writing.

Then someone introduced us at a conference. It rates as one of the most fun conference conversations I've ever had, and there have been some doozies. We talked character, story, marketing, series, business, more marketing, more... And we spent most of the time laughing and saying, "I know!" (We missed a whole block of sessions and didn't care.)

At the end she said, "We should do something together." I suggested some conventional ideas, short story swaps on each other's websites, etc. She said, "Actually, how would you like write a novel for my 2017 Titan World project?" Sick of the strictures of Amazon's Kindle Worlds, she decided to do the same thing, but on her own. She had nine other authors lined up, I was to be the last and the tenth.

On the (really long) flight home from Florida to Oregon, I read two of her novels. In the next few days I read two more, then I (foolishly) said, "Sure. When?" Her answer of going live in 3 months was a bit of a shocker, but I got the novel conceived and written and it launched yesterday! 

But that isn't the interesting part. Nor the contract (I actually like contracts, a hangover from nearly a decade as a paralegal and legal project manager) that had to carefully protect each of our intellectual property rights against all foreseeable eventualities.

The really intriguing part for me was that it was a collaboration project. Not just a tale in a collection, but rather a world cross-over. The story was to really cross over into her Titan World. Take one or more of her characters and include them in a romance. Ten authors (plus a new title from Cristin) all sat down to write something. They took children of Titan and grew them up and gave them love stories. They wrote side adventures for minor characters. There were as many different approaches as there were characters.

Matt's adventure

I decided to take her ultra-macho, ultra-irascible team leader, along with his rockin' leather-clad lady, and introduce them to my Night Stalkers. I had read his love story, Westin's Chase, but I'd never written anything like it.

Being true to her characters wasn't the issue.

Matching her characters' voices, mannerisms, attitudes also wasn't an issue. Cristin writes very memorable characters.

The problem was the characters themselves. Cristin writes (at least compared to mine) very over-the-top folks. Jared growls as much as his bulldog and when he issues orders its at full, former US Ranger volume. His lady Lily, who everyone except him calls Sugar, is an ex-ATF, leather-clad gunsmith. Every word either of them speaks is big, strong, outrageous. Every action is doubly so. And sex? Trebly so!

Enter the Night Stalkers. Alpha strong, sure. But understated. Thoughtful. Quiet. My sex isn't behind the scenes, but neither is it a massive multi-page romp like Jared's and Sugar's.

So, I found my opening...I'm writing along...enter Jared and Sugar.

They blow my characters off the page. They're from a different kind of world and they show it. It was the single hardest part (also the most interesting for me as a writer), learning how to balance their voices. I wanted to stay true to both Cristin's and my own characters and tone, but we are different writers. We have different tones.

I'm thrilled to say that my characters were not overwhelmed by the time I was done and that hers weren't lost. But despite the horrendous deadline, I had to spend an awful lot of writing time just working on that first meeting until they all stood both Night Stalker and Titan Strong.

Then once I had the voices balanced, I still had to write a story in which characters who react and behave differently than mine were integrated into one of my stories.

It was an incredibly challenging project. It was an incredibly fun project. Would I do it again if the opportunity arises? With the right other author? Sure! With Cristin Harber? Absolutely!

You can check out Titan World at  your favorite store:
Amazon    Barnes & Noble    iBooks    Kobo

M. L. Buchman has over 50 novels and 40 short stories in print. Military romantic suspense titles from his Night Stalker, Firehawks, and Delta Force series have been named Booklist “Top 10 Romance of the Year”: 2012, 2015, & 2016. His Delta Force series opener, Target Engaged, was a 2016 Romance Writers of America RITA finalist. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, and designed and built two houses. Somewhere along the way he also bicycled solo around the world.

He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive a free 4-novel starter e-library by subscribing to his newsletter at:

www.mlbuchman.com.

Co-Writing a Christmas Regency Romance - Vivien Jackson

Check out that pretty cover below. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Now then. Something you might have overlooked in the wow-that’s-gorgeous perusal is the fact that this book cover has two author names on it. Two! Crazysauce! What’s more, so did our Cotillion Christmas Regency last year. And the steamy Regency ménage we wrote before that.

Hi, my name’s Viv and I’m part of a co-writing team.

And now I bet you have loads of questions about how this whole co-writing thing works, don’tcha?  (Please say you do.) Excellent. I’m happy to answer them. Here are a few I’ve already heard:

How did you get into co-writing?

Once upon a time, Christa and I loved a certain – no, I’m not going to name it! – Regency series. We did the brain equivalent of inhaling those books as soon as they came out, both of us, and we were really really looking forward to the last one, the one that all the others had been leading up to. It released. We bought it. We read it. And it was … competent. Decent. Well-researched? Yeah, sort of … oh, hell, that book was disappointing. So in our off time, after we made our word-count on individual projects, we started rewriting that book. Together. Christa would write a scene or two and pitch the doc to me. I’d add to it and pitch it back. Two-hundred-thousand-odd words later, we realized that although our attempts at redoing particular book were iffy, this writing together thing was magic, and we wanted to do more of it.

So, do you write the guy and she writes the chick, or how does that work?

You know, it’s not as ordered as all that. I tend to write until I get stuck and/or my ideas for what happens next are all cliché and boring, and I toss the story over to Christa. She never takes the story where I thought it would go, and that is a good thing. When she runs out of inspiration, she slings it back to me. Sometimes one of us deliberately writes the other into an oh-no-you-didn’t corner, from which we must extract our hapless characters. Those are the funnest parts.

Why Christmas stories?

Christmas was celebrated differently back in Regency (early 19^th century) England. It wasn’t about trees and presents and overweight home invaders who eat your cookies and put junk in your socks. If Christmastide celebrations were about anything back then, they were about freedom from school, families getting to spend this time together, and looking past the longest night to the promise of spring. We love these themes and try to sprinkle them liberally into our stories.

Any other questions? Please feel free to comment away or visit me or Christa on the web. Our latest book, A Christmas Scheme, is available now for preorder on Amazon and will release November 13^th at Ellora’s Cave.

Thank you so much for letting us visit, and happy happy this season!

MANY SHADES OF COLLABORATION - MARGARET TANNER

MARGARET TANNER'S TAKE ON COLLABORATION

 

Collaboration. – The dictionary defines this as:

Working together or working with another.

To co-operate with an enemy of one’s country.

I have collaborated.

I have worked with other authors on a Western anthology (Rawhide ‘N Roses), where there were fourteen of us who each supplied a short story.

I have also worked with good friend and fellow author, Susan Horsnell in a short story collection, Colonial and Cowboys.

Donning my erotic romance persona, as KC Vixen, I collaborated with two other erotic romance writers, Lacey Roberts and Victoria Hanson. We each supplied a novella for this boxed collection, A Feast of Erotica, so it can be seen that I have collaborated a few times.

 Thankfully, I have never been put in the position of having to co-operate with an enemy of my country.

 Now, forgetting the strict dictionary version, there are variations on collaboration in my opinion.

I have found that many of the characters in my novels collaborate with others, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil.

Two female workers may collaborate to try and have something done about a fellow worker who may have sexually harassed them. We all know the type, the guy who accidentally brushes our breast, stands too close to us in the elevator and is always making smutty jokes when no-one else is around.

Then there are the criminals who plan a bank robbery together, working for weeks on the layout of the bank, the personnel required, which bank to hit, getaway cars, somewhere to stash the cash until the heat is off etc. This planning might take weeks before the deed is done. Surely that is collaboration.

In my latest novel, Falsely Accused, the hero, Jake Smith, is convicted of a crime he did not commit. His aristocratic father wants to get rid of him, so with the help of paid criminals, the father has Jake framed for a murder he did not commit. In my mind, the father collaborated with these men by planning his son’s demise with their help.

So, in my humble opinion, there are many shades of Collaboration.

 FALSELY ACCUSED

On board the convict ship taking them to the penal colony of Australia, Maryanne Watson and Jake Smith meet and fall in love, but Jake hides a terrible secret that will take him to the gallows if it ever comes out.
On arrival in Sydney the lovers are separated. Maryanne is sent to work for the lecherous Captain Fitzhugh. After he attacks her she flees into the wilderness and eventually meets up with Jake who has escaped from a chain gang.  They set up home in a hidden valley and Maryanne falls pregnant.  Will Jake come out of hiding to protect his fledgling family? And how can love triumph over such crushing odds?

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES

 Margaret Tanner writes historical romance.

Under the name of KC Vixen she writes erotic romance novellas.

http://carnal-candies.wix.com/kcvixen-1

 

 

 

 

Not Just Me - Books by Team

by M. L. Buchman

"Writing  is a solo craft."
"You must be an introvert to write."
"Every writer has spent at least a year essentially alone."

So writing a book is all about one person...? Say what?!

I'm about the most do-it-yourself person there is. I can design and build a house, fly a plane, and get stuck in traffic with the best of them. I've ridden my bicycle around the world and solo sailed a fifty foot sailboat. For my indie books I: write, layout (print and electronic), design covers, and maintain my own website.

If only it were so simple.

Not Just Me #1:
My wife is one of the greatest brainstormers on the planet. So, while she doesn't write a word, we spew ideas at each other until we're both in terrible suspense while the actual writing is occurring...we can't wait to see what comes out. She's also my first reader and her questions often add another 10% or more to the first draft, making it hugely better. She's also my #1 fan and has now seen me through 29 of the 30 books I've written (didn't meet her until the first one was done).

There is a secret to that level of collaboration...no ego! We've learned each others' strengths and weaknesses, and the key we've discovered is: we both care about making the book as good as my skill and our ideas can make it. So, when she says something doesn't work: I don't take it that I'm a bad writer, I take it that whatever that thing is doesn't work and I should go fix it.

Not Just Me #2:
Now my traditional books go through a similar cycle, except they then go to my editor at Sourcebooks (who also claims to be my #1 fan, but sorry Deb, that spot is taken). That fresh eye—once she too learned that I didn't have ego about story, only about writing the best book—has often opened up the story that I was trying to tell.

(A whole other stage of collaboration occurs for the marketing and distribution of a book, but I won't tackle that whirlwind here.)

Not Just Me #3: 
Every now and then, I know a story isn't working. This usually means that it is a totally pleasant book, but it doesn't do that jump-out-of-the-page-and-grab-you-by-the-throat that I'm always looking for (yes, even in my contemporary romances—maybe that's more grab-you-by-the-heart). If I haven't laughed, chortled evilly, or wept several times in the course of a book, I know I missed the mark. When that happens, I go one step further.

My wife, bless her, is a great brainstormer and copyeditor, but she can't stand back, look at a whole book and say, "Broken. Right there." For that, I go to a pro writer. I choose these folks very carefully. I send that one my SF, that one a romance, and that one a thriller. What I get back is pure gold. (Thanks, team. You're awesome!)

Here's a recent example. I just finished my second ever thriller, the first in a brand new series. My wife and I did our dance and I think we produced a good solid book. Then a writing friend, who has written dozens of these, offered to read it. Holy Chrome! That person gave me 11 notes—each just 1 line long. It took me 8 days, 10,000 words, and rearranging a dozen or more chapters to answer those 11 notes. But the differences are spectacular.

The Keys to Not Just Me:
Collaboration is a wild effort, one buried in the fine art of building the right team. Some as permanent fixtures others for the brief insights based on their specialties.

And no friggin' ego! It has no place in a writer when building a book. Yes, I am the captain of my ship and it is my story, but ego does nothing to help it be the best ride for my readers that I can manage.

My latest? Well, as I said, it's a thriller, rather than a romance. But if you want to check it out, it will be going on sale this week. (which day depends on which channel).

My next romance? Look for Light Up the Night in early September, the on-going lives and loves of the military's elite helicopter regiment, the Night Stalkers. Trisha has finally commandeered her own book and her story's available for pre-order now.

Check out more at: www.mlbuchman.com

I'm especially intrigued by the statement above:
"Every writer has spent at least a year essentially alone."

I think my love of story really traces back to when I was 12 and we moved into a new town and a new school. I was slow to be accepted into the neighborhood. Of course, when I really started writing? I was on a solo bicycle trip around the world for 18 months. I never wrote fiction prior to that trip.

If you are or know a writer, I'd love to hear if you/they had a "quiet year" before starting to write.

Does not play well with others...

To be honest, I'm not much of a collaborator. As an author, I just don't play that well with others. <grin> I know, hard to believe, right?

It's not that I don't want to share my toys with the other kids -- but I'd sooner let someone tell me what kind of food I like or what movie I enjoy. The idea of having someone else decide what should happen in MY story just makes me break out in hives. Brr. Pass the chocolate and the Doctor Who reruns - time to scuttle back to the comfort zone!

I think it's for the same reason that I'm a plotter: I need to know in advance exactly what's going to happen, and why. Throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks is not how my creativity works. Reacting to the influence of random outside forces is what real life does - not fiction.

I know: sad face, right? I am the death of spontaneity! The enemy of impulse! The nemesis of wild abandon!

Sigh. Oh, well.

I do like themed anthologies, though. That's good fun. I was in one called MY BLOODY VALENTINE earlier this year, where the 'rule' was that the story had to begin with the words, 'Love hurts'. That was all. Any genre, any plot, anything we wanted. Cool, eh?

And what a selection we came up with! Eight authors = eight completely different stories. Mine was an historical vampire tale, but we also had sexy contemporary, suspense, sci-fi romance, paranormal romance, murder mystery... a little of everything.

For me, that's the good side of collaboration: No one gets forced into anyone else's box. No one is just a cog in the machine. Everyone keeps their own voice and makes their own choices, and the result is eclectic and fascinating.

When I'm reading, though, I really don't mind. A single novel can be written by twenty authors, for all I care - so long as it works.

Which is the cool thing about publishing these days, right? Whether it works is becoming more important, and that can only be a good thing.

xx
Erica Hayes
www.ericahayes.net

P.S. You can check out MY BLOODY VALENTINE on Goodreads, or read the first bit of my historical vampire tale UNFORGIVEN at my website.

The Passing Of A Giant

Hi everyone!
I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline says it all - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 


Life keeps intervening in my posts for Romancing The Genres, or in this case death. This month the theme is writing collaborations which I thought timely because I am on the lookout for a writing partner.  Two heads being better than one, I would love the opportunity to work with another writer and see how/if my writing would go if I were part of a collaborative team. Partnerships sometimes move mountains. That's why I am on the lookout for a critique partner. 

I have just started writing a series of YA paranormal novellas about The Vessels, a group of  Black, Latino, and bi-racial heroes and heroines called upon to fulfill an agreement their souls entered into before they were born and give their lives to save the world from a demon invasion.  I wrote a small piece of flash fiction I called Final Choice that introduces readers to one Vessel (he doesn't know what he is yet). Final Choice was recently published in the summer edition of a local journal, the Arlington Almanac (Click here to read the story. ) It's only seven hundred words (this publisher is serious about word count) digested down from a four thousand word short story that gives you a lot more about Juvon's background and some of the demons he will have to face.

Click for Obituary

But last week one of my inspirations passed away. Walter Dean Myers. That changed the rest of what I was going to write in this post. 

He wrote more than 100 books for children of all ages, with two Newbery Honor Books, three National Book Award Finalists, and six Coretta Scott King Award/Honor-winning books. He was the winner of the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award, the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.

At a time when people in the publishing industry may finally be hearing the message that #weneeddiversebooks the loss is a reminder that too few authors of color have ever been allowed on the center stage. His loss leaves a huge hole.  He was the go-to guy for all too many schools and librarians.  

Need a book for a black boy reader? Get him something by Walter Dean Myers. Oh, he’s already read that author's books and would like to see another well-written, quality book where he can find himself mirrored on the page? Sorry, no one else comes to mind.

Yes, I am being a little facetious, but only a little.  Try asking your local children's or teen librarian about black authors and see just how few they can think of much less have on their shelves for their kids to find.

I corresponded with some librarians over the holiday weekend who loudly proclaimed what a gem he had been. There would never be another one like him, they all said. I hope they are wrong. In fact, I’m sure of it.  Because if there is no one to take up the slack, what happens to the kids? Is it really true that the entire race could only produce one great children's author? Or is it just that the other authors labor in obscurity? Authors out there who are not afraid to write for this audience because “those books don’t sell” or “those kids don’t read,” and who are bypassed by publishers and the gatekeepers of children's lit and never seen or known. The thing I liked most about his books was that they didn't look down, or up, to anyone. They were all about relationships, parent and child, best friends, worst enemies. Characters who weren't the villains they looked like at first, and characters struggling to overcome villains.  Especially about building friendships and relationships between people who might not seem to have anything in common,  like Darius & Twig the most recent Myers book I read about the friendship between the kid who wants to be a writer someday (So I have to love him) and the kid on the way to a scholarship in track if he can get by the unscrupulous sports agent in his path.

In a few months I will be giving two workshops at a librarian convention.  One will be on ways to build up multicultural collections, including books that will provide both windows and mirrors for a variety of young readers. The second will focus on many of the invisible books by African-American authors.  I usually start that talk out by telling attendees there is one author whose name I should not even have to mention.  I will be giving him high tribute in October at the OELMA conference during both talks.

This man would have been number one on my list of collaboration partners.  Or maybe I would have just looked over his shoulder and watched him work, hoping to absorb some of his skill. Plotting, characterization, setting, he was a nimble craftsman who sucked you in and made you care about the story unfolding on the page. Both eager and reluctant readers were drawn to his words. And I know I am going to miss the joy of opening his future books. But I know there are other voices out there, and hope to see many authors building on his legacy.

PS, I'm still on the lookout for that critique partner.

Close Collaborations of the Sweetest Kind

Tomorrow – July 2^nd – is my 37^th anniversary. Woo-HOO! A prime number!

Yes, that’s about all that the number 37 has going for it. It’s not a pretty number. I happen to be one of those apparently odd people who sees every letter and number in a specific and unchanging color. 3 is a pale orangey-yellow, and 7 is purple; not a color combination I would ever decorate a room in.

Plus it’s an odd number, and one which doesn’t end in 5. People who love even numbers will generally make an exception for the 5s. Not for 37.

But after 37 years of marriage, and four fabulous adult offspring, I have to say that sticking it out is definitely worth it. Sure, we had some tough years. I was a stay-at-home mom for two decades while we raised those four babies on one teacher’s salary. And coaching stipends. And driver education instructor pay. And seasonal field work. And what ever else my husband could do to ensure our children were being raised by their mother.

Of course, there was stress. And battles. And tears. But we always held tight to each other and our kids. Thick and thin, as they say. For better or for worse, as we promised.

I was a master at stretching our dollars and credit limits to give my husband a break, and our kids fun memories. Frequent trips to the California coast – just a 6 hour drive from Phoenix – gave us all a respite from both the heat, and the hectic daily routine of a family of six.

There were also winter weekend trips to the Arizona mountains, whenever snow fell at the right time. Used clothing stores provided handed-down snow pants and boots. And every snowman is photographically documented.

Five years ago, my husband retired after 40+ years of teaching. I had gone back to teaching for 11 years – from our youngest daughter’s entry into 3rd grade, through her graduation from college – and retired with a tiny monthly check of my own.

And then, I started working on my writing. My husband says it’s “my turn” after all those years spent focusing on the children. So while I write, he does the laundry, the dishes, and the grocery shopping. He walks the dogs, and cleans up the yard after them. He takes care of our landscaping. He drives me to the airport, and doesn’t grumble when I’m off to a conference or event.

This collaboration – what better word for a marriage? – has been worth all the hard work we put into it. Over the years we have grown to understand each other, to appreciate each other’s strengths, and forgive each other’s weaknesses.

To be honest, the tentative partnership which began 37 years ago has become a very successful endeavor.

I love you, Mister Man. Thank you for marrying me.

The Birth of "Love & Magick"

I was on a trip last June when I received an e-mail inviting me to be in an anthology.  I was thrilled and excited to be asked.  The other two writers are ones I respect and like.  One I love, since she is my sister!

Together we started our journey.  Each of us would write two short stories, ten thousand words each.  Each of us would have our own works edited.  Then merge the stories together, format and e-pub.  Easy, peasy right?

From one partner:  I learned that turning a 1500 word short story into a 10,000 word short story is as difficult as writing a 10,000 word short story from scratch

Myself I did the stories both ways too, and found writing a new story from scratch much easier.

We have had some unexpected obstacles along the way.  The biggest obstacle I would say is that we live far apart.  Not being able to communicate in person only through e-mail, is a draw back.  Using e-mail, as my grandson pointed out, there is no emotion and comments can be taken the wrong way.

We did meet once at Detroit Lake for a few hours to hammer out some details.  We discussed among other things the following:

 What should go on the cover & who our cover designer would be: http://duvalldesign.wordpress.com/ Karen Duvall is an excellent designer,

Legal agreement,

Banking,

Which editor to use:  kelly_schaub@comcast.net Kelly Schaub, wonderful to work with,

Publicity-bookmarks or trading cards.

Most things were worked out and jobs were assigned.

Here’s what I’ve learned from this experience.  I’ve learned I can write a lot faster than I thought.  Trying to learn a new formatting program, Jutoh, can be difficult.

The three of us using the same editor is really a great idea that way the editing style is carried throughout the anthology.

Working with two other women can be fun, but not always easy.

Today I was supposed to present our cover on this blog.  Not going to happen.  Three women, three different ideas what it should look like.

The cover is still in production.  (Check back at a later date.)

Would I collaborate on another anthology?  Yes.  Each time we’ll learn a more about the process and each time will be easier.

Have you ever collaborated on a book anthology, on a craft show or anything else?  What did you learn?