Saturday, we attended a reading and book signing at our local bookstore-cafe of preference, Webster’s. There we had the distinct pleasure and honor to make chit-chat with three successful and highly regarded authors: Carolyn Turgeon, Jeanine Cummins, and Daryl Gregory.

As we introduced ourselves to each of them, in turn, the same questions came up. Do we write? Yes. Both of us? Yes. Together? Yes.

“How does that work?”

For us, any distinction between “writing” and “writing together” faded away years ago. So it’s always a bit of a surprise (still) when other people are surprised at the notion of co-authorship. That the response was unanimous among these three experienced authors reminded us that our process is rather atypical.

They asked us about things our dedicated readers already know, like how we divvy up the workload and whether we have two computers. Also, how it fits into our marriage. By sharing the writing, we prevent it from coming between us. It doesn’t displace couple-time, because it is couple-time.

It was fun to talk shop, and inspiring to be treated as peers by those who have proven themselves. We stand in awe of those who can carry the whole novel-writing burden on their own.