You got it. I used to feel reluctant to talk about the nuts and (self-sealing stem) bolts of my collaboration with Armin, but I've heard him tell it often enough now that I'm no longer uncomfortable discussing it.
After approaching an editor at Pocket Books about the possibility of Armin and I penning a Deep Space Nine novel, we were told that the publisher would indeed be interested, but that we would still have to go through the same process as everybody else. At the time, that meant crafting a narrative outline for the novel, and if that passed muster, then we would have to turn in three sample chapters. Then, at that point, the editor would greenlight the book or pass on it.
So Armin and I met over the course of a couple of weeks and greatly expanded a tale that we had, with a third writer, pitched as an episode to the producers of DSN (the third writer had no interest in writing a novel). Armin and I worked together on this, in the same room, jotting down notes and beating out the plot points and character arcs. Ultimately, I wrote a draft of a narrative outline, Armin went over it, and then we submitted it to the editor at Pocket.
Fifteen minutes later, I received a telephone call saying that Pocket would indeed buy the novel, which at the time Armin and I called War Is Good for Business (a working title I knew we would change). I asked about the three chapters we were supposed to produce, but I was told that based on the writing in the outline, we had already proven our abilities. Armin and I signed on with a literary agent at his theatrical agency, a deal was done, and we then set out to write the book.
Now, understand that Armin had already co-authored a novel, The Merhcant Prince, a delightful science fiction work that mixed in Armin's love of Shakespeare and history. Our plan for our book was that, working from the outline, I would write the first draft of a chapter, then hand it over to Armin so that he could edit, rewrite, and add to it. We would go through however many iterations we needed to get a chapter right, then move on.
A fine, seemingly workable plan. Except that after I handed Armin a hardcopy of the first draft of the first chapter, something else happened. Armin loved what I had written so much that he wanted to leave it virtually unchanged. The same thing occurred with the second chapter, and it soon became readily apparent to the two of us that I would essentially write the novel by myself. As it turned out, that worked out well for both of us. Armin really liked my writing, and I learned that I worked best as a solo artist.
So in the case of The 34th Rule, I ended up writing the actual novel, though Armin and I cracked the original story together. Being the good, honest man that he is, Armin never hesitates to tell readers this. At first, I suggested to him that perhaps he shouldn't do that, but that never stopped him. A class act, that man, and I am very fortunate to be able to call him a friend. (My friendship with Armin and his wonderful wife Kitty was a great benefit of working on The 34th Rule.)
So there you have it.
