The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #333 -- Collaborating With Other Writers

Have you written any other novels in collaboration with other writers?

Why, yes. Several times, as a matter of fact.

The first was when during my days at Shooting Star Comics when John Morgan Neal and I collaborated on the first crossover between characters in the SSC anthology. We worked together to establish a starting, cut-off, and ending point, then I wrote the opening chapter, and he wrote the closing one. Two parts. That's all. Easy peasy.

The next time was more in the creation of the character. Bobby Nash and I met over dinner to flesh out the story bible for a character we created together for Airship 27 -- Rick Ruby (The Ruby Files). We didn't actually craft any stories together during that one though, just the main overall story for the characters that should be reflected and kept in mind for all stories written in Rick Ruby's world.

The most recent has been my collaborations with my new comic book writing partner, Ashton Adams. We initially started working in one way (I write the plots, then he turns them into scripts), but we've recently begun plotting and creating together, then having him do the actually scripting for the most part and me putting the "polish" on them.

But as you can tell, each time is a different animal.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#210) -- Collaborating Characters

Have you enjoyed collaborating on projects in the past with other writers and how

did you approach writing other characters than your own? -- John Morgan Neal

I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with other writers. In fact, it seems that I get more work based on characters who aren't my own than I do for characters I've created. Even with that said, though, in most cases, I'm not "officially" working with another writer, just being paid to create a story for the character(s) in question.

Case in point, when I was writing Gene Simmons Dominatrix for IDW, I was the sole writer on the book, but obviously Gene had to approve the plots and final versions (along with my editors). The same goes for the work I did on The Bad Girls Club. Although I was the only credited writer on the book, at times it felt as if the book were being written by committee, which is normal for a TV-tie in, because there are advertisers, cast members, etc. to be taken into account.

Most of the fiction I've written works the same way, with characters such as Lance Star: Sky Ranger (owned by Bobby Nash), Blackthorn (owned by Van Allen Plexico), Zombies vs. Robots (owned by Chris Ryall) and others, but in those cases, I have carte blanche pretty much as soon as the creator of the character signs off on my plots. As for the work I've done in a more collaborative way, I think some of the most fun I've had the crossover comic book story I did with John Morgan Neal that featured his Aym Geronimo and my own Fishnet Angel in the pages of The Shooting Star Comics Anthology #4. It was an odd pairing, no doubt, because Aym's world is one of science and FA's is one of magical goddesses. The twain don't usually meet, so we had to work together to come up with a plausible way to mesh those worlds together that remained true to the nature of both characters. 

And I'm currently collaborating on a few other projects as well -- Turra: Gun Angel with Martheus Wade and an as of yet officially unannounced manga project with Kittyhawk, the creator of Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki. With each of those, the collaborating begins at the plots and character level, long before we ever start writing the first word of the script. 

And not to forget, Bobby Nash and I collaborated two create the 1930's gumshoe Rick Ruby for Airship 27 Productions' new book The Ruby Files. We actually sat down over dinner and hashed out the beginning of the story bible for that one then finished it up via email.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#184) -- Favorite Collaborators

Who are some of your favorite collaborators you've worked with on projects?

The easy answer is "all of them."

But if I have to pick favorites, I'll come up with three, two from comics and one from prose.

JP Dupras and I worked together on several Fishnet Angel comic book projects, including the Jane Doe miniseries from Shooting Star Comics. He had a knack for taking my descriptions and making the pages look exactly as I saw them in my head.








Bobby Nash and I worked together to create the story bible and characters for Rick Ruby and his cast of friends and enemies from The Ruby Files published by Airship 27. We've also been published together in several other books, from Lance Star Vol. 3 to All Star Pulp Comics. He's so easy to work with and we think enough alike that it almost fills like we share one brain when we're co-creating.

And finally, Martheus Wade and I worked together on IDW's The Bad Girls Club: And Illustrated Adventure, and we're currently working on a new project for the publisher based on the works of H.G. Wells, called A Stitch in Time: The Return of the Invisible Man. In addition to that, we're also visiting the world of Jetta with a new series featuring Turra: Gun Angel next year. He's a master of drawing the pretty girls that make the boys cry.