Nolia McCarty is American by birth but Irish by heritage and heart. Her dream is to live on a small cottage in Ireland where she can watch the sheep outside her window and write all day long. She pens young adult books meant to transport her readers to another place and give them something to think about.
Guest Post
Eternal Co-Writing
Nolia McCarty
How did you co-write with someone on the other side of the
planet?
I get this question a lot from friends and family when I
tell them I’ve written a book with a friend in Dubai. There’s something like 7500 miles between
Julia and me, yet we’ve published a book together.
Twenty years ago, we couldn’t have written “Eternal Youth.” Twenty years ago, it’s unlikely Julia and I
would ever have met or spoken. Back
then, it was more common for someone in the US to have a pen pal by snail mail
in the Middle East than it was for the average American household to have the
internet.
But today’s age is a digital one. Today, we live and breathe on Facebook and
Twitter, and we interact by email sometimes more than we do face-to-face. The world has changed, no matter how many people
try to hold on to the past, and we’ve moved into a digital revolution that has
opened so many doors for people like me and Julia.
I met Julia last May in an author’s group on Facebook when
she posted asking about author bios. I
answered her query with my own “newbie” approach, and we ended up moving the
conversation to Facebook messaging where it has continued ever since. She published her first novel, “Coexist” (the
first book in the Keegan’s Chronicles series), exactly one week before I
published my first novel, “The Temple” (the first book in my Vale Avari novels)
in June. We navigated the first months
of our publishing journeys together, learning and growing as we did so, and I
think between the two of us, we amassed an amazing amount of information on
publishing and writing. We were, quite simply, guiding posts for one another
along the way.
This past fall, Julia and I began to talk about writing a
book together, and we even began tentatively to write one with witches. But one day in October, we changed gears
completely because of a weird coincidence – I dreamed about the fountain of
youth and wrote down the idea, planning to return to it later. Two days later, a passing mention of how
Irish roots make one look young prompted Julia to mention that she’d recently
had the idea of writing a book about the fountain of youth. It was one of those “oh, how strange!”
moments that pushed us to write this book.
We shelved the idea for a short time, intending to return after the
holidays.
Julia ended up doing her first co-write with fellow young
adult author Talia Jager, the result of which is “Mesmerized”, a book about a
teen succubus. When the book became an
overnight success, Julia and I turned our attentions to doing our own book with
a renewed energy to get it done.
It was a process of emailing the Word doc back and forth. That’s it – that’s how simple it was to write
this book together. She would add a few
hundred words, and then I would add a few hundred words. As we worked, we’d discuss things that didn’t
make sense or suggest changes to improve the story. We had many, MANY brainstorming sessions on
Facebook. If one of us got stuck, it
often only took a few minutes of back and forth on messages before we had a
little “ah-ha!” moment and could move forward.
It was an entirely collaborative effort that was not only fun to do, but
quick and (suspiciously) easy! I only
wish every book could be such a breeze.
After three months, a round of beta readers, and the editor, we were
done.
Eternal Youth was meant to be from the start, I
believe. Julia and I love this little
book, and it was an awesome ride from Point A to Point B. We hope to continue co-writing for many years
to come, and I bet they just get better and better from here. :)
The six years following the abrupt death of her father were the worst of Calista Bishoff's life. Frightened by her own mortality, Callie’s mom threw herself into a search for the Fountain of Youth—and dragged Callie along with her. Callie should have loved traveling, but instead she hated every minute. When one more failed search sends her mother into depression, they finally return home to California. Sixteen-year-old Callie is ready to hang with her friends and be normal for as long as she can.
But, an unplanned trip to Bermuda with her grandmother throws Callie’s plans awry, and there’s more in store for Callie and her mom than just a simple beach vacation. Callie’s life is turned inside out as she finds herself in a very different world than the one she knows— Where things exist that she never dreamed were real.
Links
Websites:
http://juliacraneauthor.com/
Giveaway Details
1 ebook of Eternal Youth
Ends 5/13/12
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Great post! It's amazing to think how the internet has changed the way we interact with others. My friend and I have started writing a story together on Google Documents. It makes live lot easier.
ReplyDeletethanks for the giveaway!!
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