I used to believe that when you were plotting to take over the world, destroy another human being, or just figuring out where to hide the body, it was best done alone. Actually, I kind of thought that was the only way to do it.
Case in point: I had destroyed several people and hidden countless bodies over the years and it was always done alone. I was quite successful at it, I should add. World domination was a little slower coming, but then Caesar didn’t take over the known world in just a day. It’s a process.
But then I met Rinda, who was quite successfully destroying people and hiding bodies as well. In fact, I liked her flair and style at it. Sure, she hadn’t achieved dominion just yet but she had destroyed an entire planet and that’s pretty darn impressive.
So I thought, maybe we could take over the world together… (You know the old saw, two heads are better than one.) Of course this was all assuming that we didn’t kill each other first.
My Reality Check
In an earlier blog, I talked about how working with another author on a series had to be based in trust, which I believe is critical.
But once that trust is there, that other person can become your rock, your sounding board, and sometimes most important of all, your reality check.
I’d never plotted out a book with another person. For me, that process has always been a solo endeavor that was essentially me starting at a wall with a notebook, a handful of colored pens, a whiteboard, and a stack of sticky notes. It was slow. It was painful. It was a lot of dead ends.
Working with Rinda meant that I could vocalize my insane ideas, send them out to bounce around in someone else’s brain for a bit. Sometimes they would be a good idea and she would add to it. And sometimes the idea was crap and she’d let the idea go curl up in the corner and die quietly.
The best part is that I had someone there to call me out when I had skipped gleefully past logic straight into madness.
“Joce, I don’t understand why Lucas would pull a gun on them?”
“Oh, because of X, Y, and Z.”
“Maybe, but doesn’t that seem a little extreme?”
“Well … yeah… but he’s pissed…”
“Joce…”
This is part where you insert a graceless, two-year-old flop face down in the nearest pillow. “Fine,” I replied in a muffled voice. “No gun.”
I never said that I was the most agreeable person to work with. Rinda will undoubtedly confirm that I can be stubborn, but I work my way back to logic… eventually.
She’s my reality check. She’s my energy when I’m exhausted and don’t want to spend another moment planning out marketing. She’s the other beating heart that loves Unbreakable Bonds boys so very much. And I never could have done this series without her.
If you’re ready to explore our new series, check out Shiver, the first book of the Unbreakable Bonds series. It will be out on October 27. You can pre-order the ebook on Amazon now. Shiver can also be pre-ordered from Apple’s iBookstore here. More options coming soon.