9) Is there a message or purpose behind your novels?

Becky: I always say this: Sometimes we're lucky enough to be born into supportive families, and sometimes we make families of our friends. Regardless of their backgrounds or their biological families, my characters always have "created families." I think one of the things that a lot of straight people don't understand is how powerful this sense of created family is among GLBT people who are so often rejected by their birth families. As a straight woman who writes about characters who are gay and lesbian, I'm always determined that my characters are unapologetically who they are meant to be. They must not be some tortured or watered-down version of themselves. This is the way I think life should be. People deserve the freedom to be themselves and to be acknowledged and accepted as such. If that's a little idealistic, so be it. I'm not saying that within the novels, all the characters are accepted and loved. And maybe all their readers won't love them and accept them, either. If not, they're missing out on the chance to know interesting, funny, flawed, good people--just like in real life.

Jim: Like Becky, and in life, I've always said, "You don't get to pick your relatives, but you do get to pick your family." I guess if there is a message in our novels, it's to recognize how important that support system is, and in a way to illustrate what one can accomplish when that is in place.

Timmy: What Becky said... I think that we are all positive and hopeful people and we want that to come across in our writing. Overall, I want our readers to feel like there is hope of finding love. Not just romantic love, but also close friendship, acceptance, and compassion. Living in this world isn't always easy, so there's no reason to go it alone. Some, not all, of our characters, I think, set a good example that I hope inspires others to be kind and giving.

Timothy: People have written to us and thanked us for reminding them about a great relationship they had or do have; or they tell us what we wrote mirrored their relationship with their family, or their boyfriend, or girlfriend, or their group of friends; or they've said we gave them hope they can find someone to love; or our readers have told us that our books let them know they're not "less than" because they're gay, lesbian, bi, transgendered, positive, negative, straight, etc., and that they can be whatever they want to be. Our readers get it. They rock.

10) What advice would you give authors who are considering collaborating?

Becky: Collaboration requires compromise and a refusal to compromise. That may not sound like it makes sense, but it's a matter of picking your battles. If I feel passionately about the way a certain character would act or think, I'll fight relentlessly for the integrity of that character. My writing partners will respect my passion and listen. Listening is vital in collaboration. And when they fight passionately for something that I don't agree with, I want to give them the same respect. I'll step back, giving them the room to write the way they want to. When we do this, our writing is almost like wooing each other. The best example is in THE DEAL. Timothy and I had entirely different ideas about how one of the character's relationships would play out. I kept writing with my ending in mind, and he kept writing with his ending in mind, and eventually, I was completely won over by his ending. But that tension was ideal for the plot, allowing our character to be wooed from what he thought he wanted to what he really wanted.

A lot of people say that writing is too personal and intimate for people to collaborate, but performing artists do it all the time. We actually use what we know of the dynamics between collaborative bands that broke up (Beatles) to collaborative bands that evolved and stayed together (Fleetwood Mac) as we find ways to work with each other.

Sometimes being close friends as well as writing partners helps. And sometimes it doesn't. We have one rule: It's more important to sustain the friendships than to work together. Somehow, things have always worked out for our relationships and our work. Perhaps, because we're all adults who can be professional without gigantic egos to get in the way.

Jim: Collaboration is a wonderful process. I'm so grateful for the experience of writing with such gifted colleagues. At the same time, writing is not something that just happens. Even when one does it solo, one relies of people to read, edit, make suggestions, help with research, provide support etc. I think that's the reason each book starts with acknowledgements. Collaboration is that and more. It's not always easy to work together, especially when a group is involved in a process that is creative in nature rather than producing a product that has a more finite result. I love what Becky says about collaboration.

Timmy: Communicate well, criticize constructively and don't take suggestions too personally. Collaborators need to have a common goal, otherwise the project won't go very far; not to say that the goal won't change as progress is made, but the collaborators do need to be open to that as well. Listen to each other and be willing to learn from each other.

Timothy: If you've had a book published and you worked with an editor, you've already collaborated. If you're working with another writer on a story, it's a similar experience, only you both have to be editors as well as writers, creatively and carefully guiding the manuscript and working together to create something good.