Collaborating on Roses has been the most fun, I have ever had writing.

When Melanie (trouble spelling her R-name) put out the plea for authors, I was inspired to tell a story from a somewhat different perspective. When it became apparent some would have to write more that one story, I came up with another different story. When we were discussing how to tie the stories together and transition between them, I came up with an idea that bought me the job. That was both the most rewarding and most frustrating part of the project. I was close to throwing up my hands and saying let someone else do it, from the objections and negative feedback. But then I got to work with the individual authors, getting the nuances of their characters, and what to reveal, and what to withhold introducing their stories and trying to add my own twist. This was a lot more fun that I expected, and I think it even inspired another of the stories.

I had seen writing as a solitary exercise. Even most collaboration is solitary writing alternating with solitary editing. But this was true collaboration with ideas kicked around and both positive and negative feedback, and working together on character interaction.

This was also a better writing experience, with someone else doing much of what I consider the drudge work (Mostly Patty doing organizing formatting and soon to be posting, not to mention cat herding (authors)). Also a group of interested editors. Utilizing others talents (Patty again for superb artwork) makes the finished product much better.

I come away from the project with great respect for the other authors talents. I hope you will too.