Of all the subtle, everyday magics that exist around and in us, the magic of partnership is at once the most subtle and the most binding.
Partnership makes two people into one couple – one force; something far stronger – and far more potent – than either could possibly be, alone.
Our experience with the magic of partnership began subtly enough. We met at college writing course – the two oldest students in the class – and discovered that age, a shared taste for speculative fiction, and a certain appreciation of ironic humor soon made us a team.
The team didn’t disband when the course was over, though. By then, we’d gotten used to each other on many levels. It was comforting to have someone to hand who knew what that particular tilt to your eyebrow meant, who appreciated live jazz, who thought that midnight was the perfect time to go out for pancakes. Someone who the cat thought was just super.
Eventually, we pooled our households, our cats, our music, and our books. The biggest step came when we pooled our resources as writers, and created something that neither one of us could possibly have built alone.
One of the keys to a working partnership is understanding that each partner contributes, that each does something better, faster, more efficiently, or with better insight than the other. When we started working together we discovered that what we each contributed changed day by day and that as we grew to understand each others’ capabilities we each learned and were able to do more.
It took courage for us to start being co-authors. There’s an intimacy about writing together that’s hard to explain – we share the very thoughts, emotions, motivations, and actions of people we’ve lived with and whose destiny we control. We started with one shared short story, and from there to another and then yet another, discovering along the way that we could trust our writing instincts with each other.
It wasn’t long before we moved from writing in partnership to writing about people who were forming partnerships, incorporating all the things that are important to us as partners – and found ourselves in the Liaden Universe, where honor, trust, responsibility, joy, and sharing are the magics that inform our characters’ lives and bring them, gloriously – and often wise-cracking – through terrible dangers.
Our first shared effort, Agent of Change, is one of the three novels being reprinted in Partners In Necessity. There, you’ll meet Val Con, the dangerously attractive Agent of the title, and ex-mercenary sergeant Miri Robertson, each of whom is struggling to survive against overwhelming odds. An accidental meeting leads to an extremely unlikely partnership, which soon becomes their only chance for survival.
Conflict of Honors is the story of Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza, a woman who
has been betrayed first by her own people, and then by her captain and shipmates. Desperate, she accepts a berth on a Liaden freighter captained by the provocative
Shan yos'Galan. There, she finds the strength to confront the demons of her past – and to take the first steps toward a deeper commitment.
Carpe Diem unites the characters from the first two novels. Val Con and Miri have been stranded on a backwater planet. With no rescue in sight, they try to blend in with the native culture and learn what it means to be life partners. Meanwhile, Shan and Priscilla are leading the search for the missing lovers, not realizing that their actions will bring them into direct conflict with the deadly enemies who are plotting Val Con and Miri's deaths, and the destruction of all they hold dear.
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She reached up to brush the hair from his eyes. “Val Con?” There was a pause while she searched his face and eyes; he felt as if she were searching his soul and held his breath, afraid. “You love me,” she said finally and very softly, as if the discovery were a new one.
“Miri,” he said suddenly, shifting into the most intimate of modes, nearly singing the Low Liaden words, “you are my wisdom and my laughter, the song of my heart, my home. Best-loved friend, wife and lover...”
She did not understand; the words meant nothing to her, though he saw her following the song of his voice. Almost sharply, he brought both hands up and ran his fingers into her hair, holding her so her eyes had to look into his. Consciously keeping his voice pitched for intimate speech, he reached for the hopelessly inadequate Terran words.
“I love you, Miri; you are my joy.”