It’s been awhile since this was relevant, but I used to have  a co-author, my husband.  If I am the master of snark (and I’m not), he is the grand pubah. Let me assure, our discussions were fierce and often.

Last night, he listened to the latest Uncommon Animals story as I read it out loud. This was how we wrote for the last month that we wrote.  And it took us all of fifteen minutes to get into it.

“Why say it’s a client’s wife?”

“Because people thought it was his wife.”

“That could be the hook!”

“It’s not the hook. It’s nothing.”

“But it’s a great hook.”

“It never comes up again. And the hook comes later.”

And on it went for another thirty minutes. Finally, we moved beyond the unnamed client’s wife to the actual damn story. And I’m feeling pretty good. Caught a few typos, smoothed out some awkward phrases. I’m smoothing out the ending… again.

But like I said earlier this week, this is one of my favorites.  The husband liked it too, which I take as a compliment. Part of why I’m writing these stories is to prove that werewolves don’t have to be lame. There’s something about the monster that people just don’t handle well in media.  The husband and I agree that most werewolves in popular media just aren’t as cool as vampires.

I’ll be ready for April first.