My first novel, Black Iron, co-written with my partner Eve Rickert, is now available for pre-order! The book will be in bookstores this fall, but you can get a copy early.

What's it about?

Imagine a world where the Protestant Reformation never happened, the Catholic Church split into the Roman Catholic Church and the French Catholic Church, the New World colonies are still colonies, the British Empire never existed, and the British don't drink tea. But there's still a war in Afghanistan, because no matter what you change, there's always a war in Afghanistan.

Now imagine London, 1855, where a sinister plot against the Queen has ensnared a petty thief named Thaddeus "Muddy" Mudstone in an extravagantly elaborate plan to frame members of the royalty. Throw in a French princess, a pair of happy-go-lucky weaponsmakers and arms dealers, and creepy undead things made from other things, and you have the world of Black Iron.

Now write the whole thing in the madcap humor style of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The book won't be out 'til fall, but you can preorder on our crowdfunding page to get an early copy!

I would be interested to hear your vision/experience on collaborative writing. (Most books on my bookshelf have one author, and I presume for good reasons.)

That’s a pretty high bar you’ve set for yourself.

So how early will that early copy be available? I.e. what is the time advantage of preordering?

Sounds like it may be a fun read. I am looking forward to my advance chapter.

Backers get the book this summer; the book hits bookstores this fall. So a few months.

Collaborative writing is an interesting experience. I've written both nonfiction and fiction with my partner and coauthor Eve Rickert, and the experience is very different in each case.

For nonfiction, we start with a content outline that lists the subjects we want to write about. In the morning, we each go to the content outline, pick something we want to write, and start writing. Then over lunch we talk about what we've done, and in the afternoon we read, edit, rewrite, and/or leave comments on each others' writing.

That works really well, and the result is a book that melds our 'voices' quite well.

With fiction, I write every word. Eve and I talk about plot and characters (Eve does a lot of the plot; I create many of the characters); we do a timeline that spells out the plot; and then I write. Eve reads what I've written and makes suggestions, and I rewrite.

The 'voice' for our fiction is very distinctive; it's got quite a lot of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams in the sense that it's loopy, over-the-top humor. That kind of writing doesn't seem to work well if two people try to do it together, which is why with the fiction I do the actual writing.