Husband and wife writing team defy the odds — stay married and release the third book in The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection.

May 5, 2014 (Portland, Ore.) – Writing is a traditionally a solo sport, like long-distance running or competitive eating, but authors Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall have turned it into a two-person, creative bare-knuckle literary cage match by successfully writing together for more than a decade. They are releasing their third book together, The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves (ISBN: 978-0-9838200-4-8) and the process, not surprisingly, has been fraught with emotional danger.

“Stick two creative, opinionated and chronically insecure writers on the same project for an extended period, and there’s bound to be fireworks,” said McFall. “Add a romantic relationship to the mix and sometimes it borders on the thermonuclear. But all of that angst and passion is channeled right into our books, and adds depth and grit to the challenges our two lovers — Tucker and Lizzie — face.”

“Writing together is ridiculous and insane, and we wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hays said. “But we really pushed the boundaries of common sense this time. Writing the third book just wasn’t enough for us, so we decided to re-release both book one — after a significant edit to trim it down to the author’s cut — and book two with new covers designed by an Oregon artist. It made for some long days, and longer nights … and not in the good way.”

On at least some of those nights, the pillow talk involved not only the plot twists of cowboys and vampires, but also astral projection and near death experiences. In Rough Trails and Shallow Graves, the authors doubled down on the metaphysical elements called out by national reviewers as a unique aspect of their genre fiction.

“In a way, it’s a shame more time isn’t spent exploring the existence of this meta world where consciousnesses wait out the daylight hours and immortality has all sorts of ramifications for human spirituality,” noted Kirkus Reviews about book two of the series.

“The third book contains a quest to the Meta as a subplot,” said Hays. The literary creation of the Meta is a culminating aspect of the seamless interplay of religion, mythology and science – along with action and humor – that anchor all the books. “The Meta explains how their vampires maintain personal identities after their daily resurrection from death.”

“Vampires are like tofu,” said McFall. “They soak up the flavors of whatever you are thinking about when you write. We use vampires to explore new theories about consciousness and near death experiences, wondering how a person could exist outside of their own physical body. It’s our way of pushing at the current scientific boundaries about what it means to be self-aware.”

Along with the undead afterlife, they also moved part of the action from the heart of cowboy country to one of their favorite towns on the Oregon coast — Astoria.

“Astoria has so much history and natural beauty, not to mention giant supertankers gliding by, sea lions barking on the docks and the Columbia River pouring out into the Pacific Ocean. With that peaceful exterior, it was the perfect setting for the horrible, terrible things being done in the name of science, and greed, in an abandoned seafood cannery,” said Hays.

But die-hard western fans don’t have to worry; much of the book takes place in now-familiar, quirky LonePine, Wyoming, including a truckstop wedding, a shoot out in a grain silo, an ad hoc rodeo and plenty of drinking at the local saloon — all with sexy vampires skulking about.

“By book three, we’ve lived in LonePine long enough to serve as tour guides,” said Hays. “We know the best places to drink, like the Watering Hole, and what to avoid, like the Pioneer Cemetery and the old granary. LonePine is not the kind of town where anyone would want to retire.”

Though it doesn’t sound like retirement will happen anytime soon for Hays and McFall.

“We’ve already started the creative process for book four,” said McFall. “Right now, that mostly involves heated discussions on long walks in Portland’s Forest Park. The other hikers must hate to see us coming.”

Breaking: Early praise for the newest book is starting to roll in. “With pulse-pounding action, ongoing intrigue over the fate of vampire-kind, and the tumultuous struggles of Tucker and Lizzie’s love story, Hays and McFall once again deliver a thoroughly entertaining novel for readers to sink their teeth into. Another worthy entry in this love-and-fangs series,” wrote Kirkus Reviews about the newest book.

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About the books
The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection follows the exploits of Tucker, a perpetually broke cowboy in the modern west, and Lizzie, his undead lover who is coming to terms with her ancient legacy. The books feature a cast of quirky characters including long-suffering Rex, Tucker’s overly sensitive cow dog. Reviewers and readers have called the books everything from riveting to hilarious to a love story for the ages, and have noted their sly mix of genre entertainment with serious topics, like the tragedy of mismatched love, the slow decline of the American west and the nature of good and evil.

About the authors
Between the two of them, Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall have worked in writing jobs ranging from cowboy-poet to energy journalist to restaurant reviewer to university press officer. After they met, their writing career took center stage when they wrote the first book in The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection as a test for marriage. They passed. Clark and Kathleen now live in Portland, Ore.topodin