So my dear friend, critique partner, fellow RITA nominee, role model, and general inspiration in life, Ms. Courtney Milan, is spending her pre-RT Con weekend at the Chicago Spring Fling conference. And she took with her copies of our new excerpt booklet (You may remember that last year we joined forces to create The Dangerous Book of Excerpts, still available as a PDF download here).

Here’s a pic of the new one, Highlights, snapped by SB Sarah:

Here’s a peek at the back:

Even though Courtney is the one handing these babies out, I want to make sure credit for this masterwork is distributed evenly and appropriately. So here is how the grand collaboration went.

Tessa: Hey, do you want to make some excerpt books again, to put in the RT Bookseller goody bags?
Courtney: Sure!
Tessa: Okay, I’ll tell them we’ll be sending some. Any ideas for a theme this year?
Courtney: No, but something will come to us.

**weeks pass**

Courtney: So, if we’re going to make the deadline, we should make those excerpt books…um, now.
Tessa: OH. And here I forgot to schedule my brainstorm. What’s popular right now that we can riff on? Um. Cupcakes? Can we call it Pride and Prejudice and Hot Lovin’?
Courtney: Uh. Your ideas suck.
Tessa: I know, I know.
Courtney: Here’s one that doesn’t.
Tessa: Oooooh, that’s good!
Courtney: *hours later* Here, I made eight alternate covers. Which do you like best?
Tessa: B, I think. Or maybe C. D is also good.
Courtney: *sighing* Great. Can you send me your files, so I can do all the layout and all the formatting, because you, Tessa, are completely useless with desktop publishing and image software?
Tessa: (10 minutes later) Sure, here!

**a day or two later**

Courtney: *panting* Here is the product of my many, many hours of work, stolen from my precious deadline-meeting efforts. What do you think?
Tessa: Can my name be bigger? And golden?
Courtney: *grumble*
Tessa: Oh, and pay for everything, will you? And I’ll cut you a check at RT. Sweet. You’re a peach.

So it’s an equal partnership, obviously. For the record, I did try to convince her to take top billing. But she had some problem with that, design-wise. It apparently didn’t look symmetrical. *shrug*

This is a limited print run, so if you’ll be at the Spring Fling or RT, look sharp! But who knows, maybe we (read: Courtney) will do another downloadable PDF.