Collaboration

State of the Collaboration: Two in One Manuscript

~ Jenny ~ 73 Comments

So as you may know, Bob Mayer and I are collaborating on another series. Some people ask, “How do you do that?” (Other people ask, “WHY do you do that?” but I’m ignoring them for now.) Basically we swap the manuscripts back and forth, agreeing on who has the master, the other person often writing scenes off the master that can be inserted later. Then we start the second book, so we have two books going at once, going back to the first book to retcon characters and information. It’s all very organized and we never get confused.

Yeah, okay, I lied. Here’s what happened when we were swapping Rocky Start and Very Nice Funerals back and forth: Continue reading →

State of the Collaboration, October 24, 2023

~ Jenny ~ 5 Comments

I’m slowing Bob down on both Rocky Start and Very Nice Funerals because I cannot get a handle on Rose and the Max-and-Rose relationship/romance. This goes back to the differences in the way we write, and also, I think, to the chaos my own life has been in, which is settling down some now and which I plan to have completely calm (about the house and all the external stuff) by Nov. 1. So it’s a plan.

Right now, in VNF, Rose is suddenly the recipient of a lot of proposals since there’s the possibility of big money in her future. And there’s a serial killer. Yeah, it’s a Crusie-Mayer.

State of the Collaboration: August 19, 2023

~ Jenny ~ 24 Comments

Most of July and August were a waste because I was in disorganized moving hell, and Bob was patient, thank you very much. But in the past couple of days, I’ve cleared enough space in my place and my brain and started back to work. I’m still behind on everything, like legal things and getting a doctor down here and clearing the boxes and packing stuff out of here so I can walk through the rooms, but since the copy edit had to be done on Pink NOW, that is done (and thank you to all who offered and helped), and I am now restructuring Vermillion while Bob sighs in the background and pushes for a bad title for the first Rocky Start novel, which I WILL go back to on Monday.

For example:
Continue reading →

Pssst: You Can Order the Lavender Trade Paperback Now [ETA: And Hardcover]

~ Jenny ~ 25 Comments

You can order Lavender’s Blue right now in paperback because Bob uploaded it last night. Warning: It’s $15.99 which seems high for a paperback, but there it is. He’ll load the hardcover up in the next couple of days, I think, but that’s going to be somewhere around $26.00 (I had to lie down when he told me that) so if you want print, the trade is probably the way to go. And the e-book will go live on the 25th for $4.99, so there’s that.

I just can’t believe that book is finally going to be here. Here’s your link.. (No, I haven’t seen it in real life yet, fingers crossed it looks good. Amazon says mine will be here Saturday, but Bob says not until the 17th and Bob is usually right.)

ETA: And the hardcover is live now, too.

Let’s Try This Again: Universal Links

~ Jenny ~ 18 Comments

Bob just sent me this:

I do have universal links for the books:
Lavender’s Blue: https://books2read.com/u/mVDlNl
Rest In Pink: https://books2read.com/u/mqNaGQ
One in Vermillion: https://books2read.com/u/m0WdkA

As you can probably tell, I’m hopeless at self-publishing, which is why I have Bob. Well, one of the reasons I have Bob. OTOH, I am aces at rewriting, which is why I’m doing that while he handles . . . whatever.

I think he fixed the glitches in the non-US Amazon listings, too. The man has had a rough two days, so thank you, Bob.

State of the Collaboration, June 9, 2023

~ Jenny ~ 105 Comments

So we got an offer on Lavender’s Blue, with a pub date of Fall, 2024. Bob and I looked at each other over the Internet and shook our heads. So we’re going to self-pub because we can have Lavender out at the end of July, Pink at the end of August, Vermillion at the end of September. Preorders are up now and people are actually preordering it, which boggles my mind because we didn’t tell anybody we were putting up preorders. Unless Bob did. You’re the first people I’ve told (of course). So now I can go back to moving and finishing Rocky Start. Also my internet is screwed up–time to move!–so if I’m erratic coming in here, that’s why. One damn thing after another.

But at least the Liz series is finally moving toward publication. Publishing is slow.

Lavender’s Blue, out on July 25, 2023.

ETA: Bob says they will be available in hardcover, trade, and paperback.

Working Wednesday, June 7, 2023

~ Jenny ~ 115 Comments

Bob and I are getting close to the end of a first draft of Rocky Start. This one took longer than Lavender because we started from scratch, it took me forever to get the character of Rose even close to right, and then a ton of stuff happened to both of us and slowed us way down. Plus there was the usual bickering. But we can see the end in sight. Of course the end of the first draft is just the beginning of the rewrite so . . .

How’d your work go this week?