Intermission Accomplished

Although I will not be adding this brief intermission to the daily tally of our travels, I thought it might be worth sharing with you what was so pressing that we put the trip on hold for a week. As some of you may know, my partner and I have spent the last eight years writing an epic dark fantasy novel. In truth, it is a Christmas present that got wildly out of hand, so let me share with you the absurd tale of how ‘The Phoenix and the Spider’ came to be.

You see, years ago, when we had only just started dating and we were desperately trying to save money to fulfil my dream of travelling, I told my partner to forgo buying me a Christmas present, and instead simply write me a letter. After all, he’d already expressed the fact that his dream was to one day be a writer. A week or so later, he came to me to tell me that he was going to write me a short story instead.

‘All right,’ I thought to myself, ‘Points for over-achieving.’

By the time Christmas neared, he informed me that his idea had grown, and it was now going to be a novel instead.

‘Bit much, but go off,’ I thought at his announcement.

Christmas came, and I was gifted the first few chapters of the novel (at that point titled ‘The Dark Angel’) and a red pen. Of course, my partner knew me well enough to understand that I am somewhat of a stickler for spelling and grammar, and so he figured he would give me free reign to pick up any errors. So that was it; that was how it all started.

Fast forward eight years and the story has grown so much that it will now be a six book series. I am no longer just a set of eyes to pick out the odd grammar error but rather a co-author in my own right. And the first book is now self-published in both paperback and eBook formats.

Was it easy? Absolutely not. Was it fun? Not all the time. Was writing a book with my partner one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done? Definitely. Is it a miracle that we got out of this without breaking up and/or throttling each other? You have no idea.