When I joined forces with Tamara Thorne in 2012, people warned me that collaborations are difficult and often don’t work out. Tamara no doubt received the same warnings and worse – she was, after all, an already-established novelist with over a dozen books under her belt. Undoubtedly, there was some nail-biting going on behind the scenes… but we knew there was no need to worry.
Tamara and I had both collaborated previous to meeting each other, so this isn’t new territory for us. We both come from a place of professionalism; ours is a strict tantrum-free work zone with a rigidly enforced no-drama policy. It helps, of course, that neither of us engages in drama to begin with.
We stuck together, ignored all advice, and extracted any meddlers with prompt micro-surgical precision. For two years, we’ve had our noses to the grindstone, working eight-plus hour days, six and sometimes seven days a week. All of that hard work is paying off now, though. In 2015, we will be releasing a total of five novels.
First will be The Cliffhouse Haunting, which will come in March. Grandma’s Rack, which is in the final edits, will come next. Then, I will release my debut solo novel sometime this summer. In fall, we will have written the next two installments of The Ghosts of Ravencrest, which wraps up this story arc and will then be made into a full-length novel. Finally, we will finish the next collaboration which we started planning in 2013 – it will be a hard fast stabby jaunt into the thriller arena – and before the year is out, it will be done.
Shit happens, and things can change… we know. But the future will take care of itself, and as long as we keep at it, which we fully intend to do, I believe the next few years will be just as exhilarating and productive as the past two.
And regardless of what’s to come, I can’t help looking back at the past two years and saying, “Wow. We did it.” And writing isn’t the only thing we’ve been doing, either; we’ve also been hosting Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE!, since November. Haunted Nights LIVE! is a horror-themed live internet radio show that airs every Thursday at 9:00 pm Eastern. Already, we’re booked through spring.
And here’s the best part: We haven’t even had a fight. Not one. And I don’t see one coming any time soon.
So… it can be done, and done well. I realize our union may be unique, but it is absolutely possible to collaborate and benefit from it. If Tamara and I wrote nothing else together, I could say with confidence that working with her was productive and well worth it. I don’t think we’ll stop anytime soon, though. We already have plans for 2016…
Alistair Cross 
You two were meant for each other, I just love the two of you & your antics on
Facebook! 🙂
We think so, too! lol
We’re very lucky. Few collaborations run as smoothly as ours, but as Alistair says in his piece, we both knew it would work. Synchronicity never fails.
Reblogged this on Tamara Thorne's Little Blog of Horrors and commented:
Alistair Cross spills some of our secrets…
Wow! Congrats! It is hard. I’ve worked with a co-author and we’re in the query process right now, but we made it through the writing process. And some things one of us had to bend. Or we disagreed on others and had to just agree to disagree and compromise. But we compliment each other in some aspects and I think that’s why its worked so far.
Excellent! We are lucky!