Hellllllllllooooooo Otterites!

Yes, it’s that special time of the week, where I get to talk to you. Today I want to reflect on who we each are and how we work together so well. Hopefully, you’ve got some similar relationships in your lives. If not, go find some people that would fit the bill.

This past weekend, Marty, Frannie and I had an awesome day of podcasting. Recorded several upcoming episodes after a breakfast at the Official Breakfast Place of S&O – Biscuit Belly! Always an awesome breakfast and such great service there. Really need to open a location over on Marty’s and Frannie’s side of town, so we can eat at the Belly every time we gather to podcast.

As we are wont to do, we spent a lot of time talking about Frannie’s upcoming best-seller, helping him refine some points talking about what works and what doesn’t. We also worked through some ideas on book two. I’m anxious to get my own novel to the point where we can give it the same treatment.

Now, readers, you may ask why we do this and why Frannie and I would want to submit our work to non-professionals. Valid question. Totally valid.

A big part of it is trust of course. We trust one another to give the unvarnished truth. If one of us thinks a scene or character doesn’t work, or is just plain crap, we’ll say so. We’re also not going to take offense at such criticism as long as it’s well thought out and coherent.

Usually not a problem for us.

Mostly.

Anyway, after trust comes collaboration. We just like to work together on things. We do it well, I think. We feed off each other pretty well and can get in a groove when it comes to getting some ideas down and expressed. Collaboration comes from the trust, and that we like each other and get along so well.

For all of our similarities, we are really vastly different people. Two Catholics. One non-Catholic. Two grew up in a sort of Baptist family. One is a cradle Catholic. Two from Kentucky. One from Michigan, with deep Kentucky roots. Two went to Catholic high school and one went to public school. We all like different types of music. One is into football, mostly NFL. One is a huge baseball fan, and the other is not sports minded at all. Two grew up in either a semi-rural or totally rural area and one in the city. None of us are from large families, though Frannie does have three siblings. Two come from intact childhood homes and one sort of does. Complicated situation that one. We read a lot, but different things. One reads almost entirely non-fiction. Another reads a lot of fiction, and the other reads a good mix. Two did theater in high school. A different two did theater at Bellarmine. One of us directed a play and an opera there. Also wrote a play that was performed at BU. Two have been doing creative things all our lives, whether writing, drawing or a mix. The third is now exploring the writing. We’re all pretty darn smart, but each of us has a different focus I’d say.

In some ways, you’d think the three of us wouldn’t have become friends at all. Not all three. Maybe some mix of two of us where we overlap, but all three? Unrealistic.

But…. We each bring different perspectives to everything. We are very complimentary. We get each other. When you listen to the podcast, you can hear how we mix and bring all this together, fairly seamlessly. There’s no ego or gamesmanship going on. There’s no natural leader in the group. We are equals. We even manage to bring in another friend or two on occasion like Marcus Aurelius and our Northern bud whom I shall henceforth call John Snow, because he lives in the North. There are others as well, too numerous to mention.

All of this allows for some incredible moments of collaboration here on the blog, on the podcast and when we’re throwing around ideas and concepts for books and future episodes. Hopefully you find it as fascinating and fulfilling as we do, Otterites.

Somehow, we manage to bring it all together into the goodness and tastiness that is Snakes and Otters. Almost as tasty as Biscuit Belly early on a Saturday morning.