You know how sometimes there's that author (or anyone in your chosen art and/or profession) who you think is the bomb diggity? The one you wish you could be when you grow up? I have a few of those. Sometimes it's their characters, sometimes it's their prose, sometimes it's....well, everything. But there are definitely people I look up to, whether in my own genre or in the literary world in general.
This year, I've had the privilege of joining forces with a few of them. Marie Sexton and I started the Tucker Springs series. Before long, Heidi Cullinan was on board. Talk about being in good company, amirite? So that has been ridiculously exciting for me.
More recently, I've been bitten by the collaboration bug. After sharing a hotel room with Rachel Haimowitz during AAD this past August, and practically watching over her shoulder while she and Heidi Belleau wrote the first in the Flesh Cartel series, I was intrigued. I mean, I knew people successfully collaborated, but there was something about seeing it in action that made me go "hmm." Intrigued indeed. Very intrigued.
Intrigued enough I made an offhand tweet about wanting to collaborate, and there are some exciting things in the offing as a result of that tweet, but I can't go into detail about those yet. Just take me at my word.
But then along came GRL. And there, I finally met another one of my "OMG I want to be you when I grow up" authors (as well as one of my editors) Aleksandr Voinov. Turns out, we were separated at birth. Seriously, we are so much alike it's frightening. We wound up spending the majority of GRL together, usually laughing like idiots over something ridiculous (ahhh, so much fun), and somewhere in the insanity, I worked up the nerve to casually mention that I'd really like to work on something with him.
Well, folks, if you've been around my Twitter feed recently, this isn't news: Aleks and I collaborated. We'd been tinkering with a few ideas, but on Friday the 9th, an offhand comment led to a plot bunny that refused to be silenced. Saturday morning, we started writing. Now, I was convinced we'd only get 1-2,000 written. I mean, I'd never written with someone before.
A few hours and 20,000 words later...yeah. The next day? Same thing. By Wednesday night, we had 67,500 words, and I got to write "THE END" on our World War II historical, Unhinge the Universe. Coolest experience ever, and holy Ned, y'all, I cannot wait to do it again.
So, I'm really looking forward to what 2013 brings! Teaming up with other authors is a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and between Tucker Springs and working with Aleks, I'm excited as all hell to see what happens.
Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment