SHE WROTE: And now for something completely different . . .

So we’re still working on Agnes because I don’t write as fast as Bob, but my rewrites are fabulous so I’m worth the wait, and then Bob sighs and follows along behind me and cleans up any inconsistencies I’ve written into his action scenes and tries not to scream . . .

Where was I?

Right, we’re still working on Agnes but we’re there. I mean, the book is done, we’re just making it better. And this weekend we’re going to talk to the Chesapeake RWA, and if you’re there you’re going to see us probably wrangling over it still, but it’ll be over the polish because basically, it’s done. Not done enough that I can legitimately heave a sigh of relief because I can’t let go of it yet, I know I can make it better, and Bob, if you put the thumb screws to him, would also admit that we’re making it better, although frankly, he’d have been so much happier if we’d turned it in weeks ago because he hates missing a deadline more than he hates having to discuss a relationship, but even Bob will tell you that it’s better, especially since he got to put the bomb back in. Which is kind of a spoiler, so don’t tell anybody.

Speaking of spoilers, about next year. We’re both going to be working on our solo books for awhile before we begin shaping up the new collaboration, although Bob, being the workaholic he is, wants to start wargaming it next weekend (“I remember when I used to call that ‘brainstorming’,” she said with a sigh) when he’s in Cincinnati to do the last stop on the Living the Dream tour, but we have another collaboration in mind, too: He Wrote, She Wrote 2007.

(Stop screaming, CBs, it’s not going to be like this year’s, you can’t play on it, which is why we made you set up your own space.)

He Wrote, She Wrote 2007 is not going to be a journal because we figure the world has heard all it needs of our personal travails in collaborating on and promoting our novels since, frankly, the ensuing years are just going to be more of the same. It’s not like we’re going to mature. So we sat in my living room several weeks ago and decided it was time to do something Educational and Interesting instead of Whiny and Self-Involved.

Which is why the 2007 blog is going to be called He Wrote, She Wrote: How To Write Fiction. Or He Wrote, She Wrote: How to Write a Novel. Or He Wrote She Wrote: Damn It Bob, We Can’t Call It How To Write Because We’re Not Doing Non-Fiction. So we have some bugs to work out. But the plan is good. Every Sunday one of us will post on a writing topic, and then the following Thursday, the other person will post a response to that post and whatever showed up in the comments on writing. Anything in the comments that’s not on writing gets deleted. Think of it as a class. If you chat, we kick you out. That’s because it’s hard for people to scroll through chat to get the writing stuff. We’ll be taking a semester break in August to promote Agnes and go to Australia and New Zealand, and during that time we’ll talk about publishing and promoting. Then in September, it’s back home and back to writing topics again.

We have no idea how this will work. It may be that we’ll post and there’ll be crickets, but that’s okay, we’re used to amusing ourselves. Or maybe it’ll turn into a really great writing forum, and we’ll get some exciting arguments started. Bob’s already planning something on Why Prologues Are Good. That’s going to be one ugly week.

Bob will come in here and blog later with the schedule we worked out, but we’ll probably change that, too. And frankly, I think you should weigh in when he does, because my argument was that it should be all about writing, no publishing stuff, and he said no, the publishing stuff was important, and then it got heated, so if you see anything missing from the list of writing topics, feel free to point out that the missing topic is more important than something in the publishing list. Really.

Oh, and eventually, we’ll rewrite the whole thing and elaborate on the topics and make it into a book. Maybe. Who knows? We thought that about this year’s blog, too, and then it became The Blog That Ate Chicago, and we wandered off and forgot about the book idea entirely. Unless Bob is plotting something behind my back.

Going back to Agnes now. It has no prologue and never will.