Dear All, As many of you know, Mike and I co-author in a specific way. One of us drafts out a chapter, then the other moves along behind, editing, correcting and rewriting, which often proves to have amusing consequences. For example, yesterday I finished drafting the ending to THE BLACK SUN, and Mike immediately started reading it. This morning, I got chapter 46 back with a note at the top of the page that said, “You must have been writing for the Pulitzer committee. This totally sucks.” …And it reminded me of the time he had his leading character writing a ten page suicide note at the end of LONG RIDE HOME. I got the wrinkled, tear-soaked pages, read them, and wrote in the margin, “Good God, Michael, we really want this guy dead now. Toss this and kill him!” One of the fascinating things about co-authoring is you have to have no ego, or you’re dead. Fortunately, we had shock-training twenty five years ago when we had a magnificient editor named Harriett. She used to write in the margins, “This is f…ing garbage, guys. You can do better.” Ah, the good old days. Harriett taught us to write with all our hearts…and without a shred of ego. So, back to the drawing board on Chapter 46. Regards, Kathy