How We Came to Be – Part 1

One of our big "outlining" meetings
August 2013

We thought it would be fun to tell you all a little bit about how the three of us met and became the “Triple Scoop Team!” This is only half of the story really…a look into how Heather and I began our journey a little over a year ago.

Look for a bonus post tomorrow to hear the rest of the story!

Recently it was coming up on a special day for us. It was the 1 year book-iversary for the current piece that I have co-written with Heather. I was feeling a tad sentimental (and maybe a little goofy with too little sleep…). I wanted to just send a little celebratory note to Heather and encourage us to keep up the work, but when I sat down to type it out, this came out instead. Enjoy J

A Short Friendship Story (because I couldn’t think of a more creative title)

Once there were two girls. Women technically, but young enough that they could still get away with being called girls. And they lived their lives separately, which now seems impossible, but they did. They had their children and their husbands to keep them crazy and lots of books to read and every now and then, they slept a little.

And then they met. One girl started working with the other and when they found out their kids were the same age, they decided to meet up for a playdate. It’s different making friends when you’re older. More awkward somehow and a little strange. But they didn’t need to worry because becoming friends with one another was as easy as breathing.

They bonded over their small children, juggling late night work schedules in the ER and of course, most importantly, their love of books. That they loved the same books was even better. But that they could devour said books in a matter of days (sometimes less) sealed the deal on their best friend status.

A year went by and the long nights at work became slightly more tolerable with each other there and the reading pile grew and grew and comments were made that with all the different stories read, they should just write their own! Ha! Not really though, because who had that much creativity or that kind of time.

“Yes, REALLY,” one friend said, “we could do this. I think I have an idea!” The other friend was hesitant. She didn’t see the vision. But the first friend persisted, “I’m telling you. I have an idea!”

And then it clicked. One friend’s mind unlocked to the other’s and she saw it too! The idea was there and it was brilliant and terrifying and intimidating and exciting, but it was there and it would not be ignored. They had to meet! A warm summer night spent outside with notebooks, voice recorders and glasses of wine. Questions were asked, discussed, plotted, revised. Names became characters with looks and voices and hearts. And note cards became scenes became chapters.

They wrote and wrote and wrote and six months later, they finished. A whole book, from beginning to end. And it had been all consuming and grueling and at many different times, one or both of them had wanted to give it up. But they had each other to encourage, to lean on, to call/text/email whenever an idea struck.

Another six months and rewrites were done again and again and again. Words and sentences were agonized over and argued. Manuscripts were submitted, queries queried and emails obsessed over.

And even though there is no agent or book deal…yet, they are better writers, closer friends, and bigger dreamers than ever imagined.

Who would have guessed two years ago that the two girls would end up here? That the possibility of living their dream had been right in front of them all along? Maybe they would have gotten to this point without each other or maybe not. Their friendship was a gift, but what came with it was so much more than that.

-Sarah