In 2012, I called Big up to tell him about the struggles I was having coming up with an idea for a short story contest I was entering. We ended up talking about it the whole drive home, and by then, we had somehow decided to write the story together. Unlike every other collaboration I can think of (writing-wise, at least), we actually managed to work this one through to the end.
"Last Contact" is a fairly long story about Hughes, a high school boy, who has an alien in his class. These aliens are refugees that have landed on Earth and are liked by pretty much no one, Hughes included. When he gets stuck having the alien girl as his Biology partner, though, he gets to know her, and it is increasingly difficult to hate someone once you get to know them.
At least in this story it is, I dunno.
This story was written together, which made it come out differently than it would have had I/he written it alone. I still don't know how true collaborations can work, but if you'd like to check out the story, it can be found and purchased at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KI2H4MW
I did a sketch that was originally going to be the cover art (see below), then tasked Gino Moretto to do something with it. It's got an unusual cardboardy feel to it I'm not sure how he created, but that feels like a sort of collaboration too.
"Last Contact" also includes an Authors' Note that Big and I wrote together. I hope that people buy the story. I hope that people like the story. When we run it on the Dunesteef, I hope it's somebody's favorite episode. But more than that, I hope we do more collaborations together in the years we have left. Time will tell.
Rish
