I use Google Alerts to let me know any time something is posted on the internet with my name and/or the titles of my books. My present this morning was a review of Veil of Deception from You Gotta Read Reviews. Shira, the reviewer, gave our book a “You Gotta Read” rating – the highest possible. She says:

Veil of Deception made me feel as though I were a part of this close knit community. I was the neighbor that got to peek into the lives of my neighbors sight unseen. I got to call them a best friend, a sister, or a brother. I felt their joys, pain, and anguish. I wanted to meddle and give my opinion every once in a while. I loved Danielle. She was such a strong woman that lived with a secret that haunted her for ten years. I felt that Hawk needed to stand up to his sister in law and tell her what he honestly thought. I enjoyed this book because it flowed. Even though there were two authors, it was very seamless. I enjoyed being a resident of Spenser Lake even for a few hours.

For Big Mike and I, this review is confirmation that our long months of work on Veil of Deception paid off. Yes, it was difficult at time, and even frustrating, but the experiment was a success. I know one of Mike’s biggest fears is that the reader would be able to tell the difference between our two writing styles but this was unfounded.

Now if we can just get our current collaboration, Whispers of Innocence, finished we will both be happy! If anything, I think it will be even better than Veil of Deception but we’ll leave that up to the readers.

Little Candy

So how do you get an idea of how the other side thinks? The only way is through research. For the last two years I’ve spent a lot of time talking to women. Yeah, sometimes I get some strange looks, but not when I explain why I’m asking. For example, consider the question, “What degree of sensuality do you want to see in a romance scene?” Now, understand, I’ll never write, nor do I want to, a pure romance, but all my stories have a romantic core inside a suspense, thriller, etc. I have no problem conjuring up the romance premise to the storyline, but the execution of the “Do it” scenes was something I had to struggle with. How much is too much? What is it women want and are comfortable with? I know what the man is thinking, but want about the woman? I started asking questions to understand the polar differences in the way we approach relationships.

I even read a few romance novels (man, that was really really hard to do). It did help a lot. It also helped give me a new perspective about women that used to confuse the hell out of me. For example, I read a SF with a romantic core from a fantastic author named Ciara Gold. It opened my eyes to certain motivations in women that I never considered. Oh, if I would have stopped and thought, it made perfect sense, I just never pondered the question. For example, in several romance stories (like Noble Sacrifice by Ciara Gold) the heroine wanted to help the hero overcome the obstacles thrown in their path. You know, like a team. In life, I was so busy being the big alpha male slaying the dragons on my own; I never considered that a woman would want to attack the demons by my side. This “Holy crap” moment actually helped me to view my own personal relationship differently. Not that I was bad at it, but everything can benefit from improvement.

I’ll conclude this post next time, till then,
Big Mike signing off
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