So this post originally appeared RIGHT HERE on May 27th over at one of my favorite websites LoveBytes. It’s been a few days now, so I wanted to share it in case you missed it. It’s about my friendship/relationship with fellow author and co-writer Noah Willaoughby that I thought might interest you. But whatever you do, don’t forget to check out LoveBytes (find it by clicking HERE). It’s a heck of a MM Review site!
Namasté,
BG “Ben” Thomas
When Authors Collide!
Well, not collide really. But meet! This is a little tale of how two authors met and became good friends.
So, four years ago I saw that I had been “friended” on Twitter. Is that what it’s called? I was sitting watching TV with the hubby and saw the request appear in my email, opened it, and saw a very cute picture of a young man. I pointed it out to “R” and he agreed, but before “friending” him back (follow? is it called follow?), I checked out his profile and…hey, it said he was a writer.
I went to Amazon to see the books he had written and read the free pages Amazon offers (“Look Inside!”) and…hey, he could write!
So I “followed” him back and sent him a note complementing him on his writing ability and to my surprise, an immediate back and forth conversation began that went from days to weeks to months.
A friendship had begun that deepened to true friendship as time passed, and eventually we wrote a novella together—Mele Kalikimaka. It is a book I truly love and that has been greeted with much praise, especially from any who has ever lived in Hawaii, where the story is set. I loved how well we meshed (and with my editor Andi, that meshing became nigh on perfect) and I knew any future endeavors would be even better (and I knew I wanted us to have future endeavors)!
Of course, the author I am talking about is Noah Willoughby. He is only 31 and a very talented writer he is. I can’t wait to see where his writing career goes. He has only gotten better, I can tell you! I’ve seen that in the time I’ve known him.
Last year in March he and I finally met face to face at the Dreamspinner Press Author’s Workshop—an annual event—and any doubt that we were friends, real friends, true friends, were banished the second he got out of his rental car where he met me at the hotel I was staying at that first night.
He and I and his legal domestic partner “E” went out to for dinner at Olive Garden that evening (they are everywhere!) and we just hung on each other’s words. We knew we would be writing more together and as the long weekend stretched out, we learned a lot about successful writing and about each other.
For some reason it took us another year to meet face to face. We figured it would be at the DSP workshop, but it had changed to September instead of its regular March/April weekend. And that was just too long to wait.
So instead, with his partner’s permission, he came to visit me where I live in Kansas City and along with my husband, we camped, went to the SEA LIFE Kansas City Aquarium, the Kansas City Zoo, the delicious vegan restaurant Café Gratitude (he is vegetarian), and then also had much quality alone time to plot out a new book. We even did much of that plotting at my favorite coffee café, Oddly Correct, where I often go to write for hours at a time. Why Noah even made me a cake that week—he is an excellent baker and it was my birthday weekend—which tickled me pink. He did it from scratch and I’d never had anyone bake me a cake without a box mix. Not a birthday cake for sure!
Much of what we did that week has influenced and inspired our new book, which I think people will love. It will be at least nine months before it sees the light of day, since I have deadlines already, and he is working on a few projects as well, but it’s happening. We’ll do that live Google Docs thing of course, that pesky five-hour time difference can be a *itch! But it possible—just possible—that he and E might move to Kansas City. That would be glorious.
I am so grateful to have Noah as such a deep and important friend. They say that, “People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.” I do not know what this friendship bears for my life, but I highly suspect it is the latter.
In the meantime, we both have today off and we’re going to work on our new book.
Until next time, love and Namasté!
BG “Ben” Thomas
PS: I thought I would include the cover blurb for Mele Kalikimaka. If you haven’t already read it, it just might be right up your alley!
COVER BLURB:
Being rich has its advantages, but it is also rife with suffocating pressures and family telling Chandler Buckingham how to live his life. When his assistant offers to help him escape the mounting obligations of the holiday season by running away to Hawaii, Chandler jumps at the chance. Only to find nothing is quite as he’d expected.
Micah Keolu has lived in Hawaii all his life. He has to work two jobs and has little time for a social life, but his loving family and the island beauty around him have given him a heart as big as the ocean. And then one day he rescues a man trapped in an elevator in the building where Micah lives and works in maintenance.
The unexpected happens as they find themselves drawn together, only to learn there is more to each other than meets the eye. Can two men from very different worlds find a way to enrich each other’s lives? Maybe the magic of the holidays just might bring them lasting joy!
