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:
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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.

State of Collaboration: Character Argument

~ Jenny ~ 12 Comments

So Bob has the master and he’s telling me the scenes he’s adding (which is good) and then he tells me he’s put Rose in a scene when I had her asleep, and it was important that she sleep late.

I may have lost my cool a little bit. It was one of those man vs woman things. There was something about Bob asking me why she isn’t fixing him breakfast that set me off. Bob, as always was patient. And answered with zombies.

As he would say, “Sigh.”
Continue reading →