The story behind Moon Pool

Before the story begins there will be one autographed copy of the Moon Pool given away to one person who comments on this post.

Once upon a time I was asked to write a novella for a publisher whose company has vanished into the atmosphere somewhere. The other members of the anthology were writers I admired so I wrote my story. This publisher was the same one who published Becoming Your Own Critique Partner initially. A second anthology was proposed and Jane was to be one of the authors. I wrote the second story for the anthology and Jane wrote her first. The original concept for this series has been developed years before but had never gone anywhere. Just ideas, never stories. When the first publisher vanished those of us in the first anthology attempted to find another publisher with little success so we put the stories aside.

Then Jane and I sold Becoming Your Own Critique Partner to Zumaya. I'm not sure how out venture came to be but either Liz approached us or we approached her about the three completed stories and the one Jane had planned. Jane and I began the exchange of stories with places to improve or places where things could be added. We sent the four stories to Liz and she accepted them.

The editing process at Zumaya is very different from that at most places. The main problem I had with it was the length of time I needed to sit at the computer and the times when the connection vanished for some arcane reason. I usually sit for no more than a half hour at a time in the computer because sitting for too long stiffens the knees I had replaced.

Moon Pool contains four novellas, two written by Jane and two by myself. They take place either in the past or the present in a resort in the Adirondack mountains of New York and are based on a supposed Indian legend we invented. The story says that on the night of a full moon if one looks in the Moon Pool they will see the person destines to be their mate. Four women who have little room for magic in their lives discover the magic of the Moon Pool.

Writing this was different from doing Becoming since only the editing of the stories was an exchange. Jane and I write in two very different ways. I do drafts and she revises as she goes along. The interesting thing we discovered is that it takes about the same time to complete a story no matter which way is used.

So hopefully you'll enjoy learning how this collection came be be and will enjoy the stories in the Moon Pool.