Meeting Your Better Half

I get a lot of co-authoring questions.  You know . . .  Do we argue over plot, or revisions, or character names? (Never, really never!)  Do we have a co-authoring agreement. (Absolutely, that was the first thing we did) Does one of you write and one of you revise? (Nope, total 50-50 relationship here.  Works better than my marriage on some days. Just kidding. Sort of.)  Do you need to have the same agent?  (Nope, and in fact, we do not have the same agent)  I never mind answering these questions as they are all things you should consider before jumping onto that moving train.  There is one that is more difficult to answer . . . How did you two meet? 

Technically, we haven't.  

~We have completed two manuscripts and are currently hacking up a third.

~We have written, revised, re-revised, and queried together.

~We've commiserated when query rejections came in and celebrated when we finally got "the call."

~We've been on submission together (shh . .  we actually just went out with a YA Horror so send all good thoughts this way) and pondered way to many what-if's.

None of that is special or even remotely interesting.  Co-authors aren't an anomaly and many of them have found success.  What makes us a little different is that we've never met.

~We have no shared history.

~We didn't go to college together.

~We have no family relations.

~We don't even have the same friends. (writing community excluded of course!)

~We have different agents

~We live 1000 miles apart from each other

~And work on separate projects in addition to co-authoring. 

Unlike a lot of authoring pairs, we don't have the luxury of meeting at Starbucks to hash out a plot or celebrate with a glass of wine in my kitchen when we pass a major milestone.  Nope, we just have the phone, email, and skype. 

Well, I think it's about time that changed.  So two days ago I bought tickets to go to Chicago.  In ten days, Lindsay and I are going to do all those things that other co-authors do.  We are going argue of what flavor latte to buy, spill wine on her kitchen counter, and actually sit side by side as we hash out edits to our next WIP.

Am I nervous?  Hell yes!  My biggest concern is that I won't recognize her.  That I will walk up to some random brunette in Starbucks and start talking about our rather twisted fictional characters only to have that person deem me crazy on the spot.  Then again, that would make for one funny and humiliating blog post!  So wish me luck, and Lindsay, please wear something easily identifiable.