It’s true what they say about us. We  argue about punctuation. I swear. His overuse of the semi-colon makes me nuts. It ruins the flow of a good sentence, and no, Clark, that is not a run on sentence. Run on sentences are something that only people whose writing peaked in grade school still talk about. All right, I see your point, it is a little hard to follow but one semi-colon, only one, all right, two, but let’s go ahead and add more detail to the description of LonePine, what you wrote is too sparse.

That’s a typical interaction when we are deep in editing mode. Writing together is a series of compromises and an ongoing discovery process of the heart and mind of your writing partner. It’s always different and the  interactions are different for each phase from first draft all the way through  book  marketing.

Where to begin. Not the beginning, that’s years ago, officially, at least. We will call this the beginning of revealing what it’s like to write with the person  you have sex with on a reasonably regular basis. Yeah, we also eat dinner, go to the movies, bike, raise up a child and put down pets together. And we guerrilla market our book The Cowboy and Vampire together. That’s a lot of togetherness.

We started writing together in 1998 — and we’re still going strong. We write fiction together and we also edit, argue, laugh about, and talk through mostly everything else we write of consequence: speeches, media releases, articles, earnings reports, and the like. I think we also protect each others creativity in the face of the relentless need to make money writing. Hack, hack.

I am just going to dive in on random subjects related to our writing. Like this one: How did we decide whose name would be first on the only book we have published thus far?

I remember when it first came out someone actually said to Clark in front of me that he was pretty sure Clark was the real force behind the book. And it’s not true. He was as irritated by the comment as I was. It really is a book in which both of our writing styles and personalities are in full force. A rare instance in which the conjoined voice is more compelling than the individual voice. For The Cowboy and the Vampire, he brought searing comedy, a deep knowledge of the western mindset, and a great feel for realistic dialogue; I brought the spiritual story, east coast mentality, and brutal editing.

How did we decide to put Clark’s name first? It really was just alphabetical, at least that’s how we both remember it. But the truth is we never really talked about it. I question what that says about us and if we fell into that classic female role supporting the male “author.” I have a vague memory of not pursuing the conversation, thinking that it would be good for our relationship, would strengthen it, if Clark had a strong sense of success. At the time I was bringing home more money in other writing projects and I thought if his name was first, perhaps the threat to our relationship from ego imbalance would be less.

Totally unfair to Clark because I never said any of this out loud. He just assumed it was alphabetical. And I know that had I said I wanted my name first, he would have been fine with it. But I never asked, we never talked about it. A few people have asked me why it played out that way, but not very many.

I think that is because it does not really matter, in the end. And perhaps it is one of the biggest lessons that writing together has taught me. Some conversations you don’t really need to have. Sometimes, I can just edit out a paragraph or Clark can strike a sentence, and we don’t need to know why. I trust his talent and sense. Not everything needs to be talked about. Except semi-colons.

Now, a break for real-time material, let’s call it the Clark and Kathleen, no, reverse that, the Kathleen and Clark Writing Reality Show. Clark is asking me to make a quick video in which he is sticking a garden hose down his pants while reading the book so the punch-line can be that the “The Cowboy and Vampire is pants-wettingly funny.” Where does he get these ideas? I don’t think it is that funny but I have learned to trust his, shall we say, boyish sense of humor. Took at 15 minute break to shoot that. Hilarious. It”s cold outside today and the hose came on too soon, so that the pants-wetting part happened too fast…the video is a bit shaky because I was laughing so hard. Look for it on YouTube soon.

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