I just read a terrific book I'm recommending to youse all. As youse may or may not know, I'm working on a novel with a partner -- that is, a collaboration. More on that soon (can't, yet) but because of it I've become very interested in writing partnerships. Basically I was wondering whether all writing partners have as much fun as my partner and I are having. As I was wondering the above, I found out my friend Joseph Goodrich had edited a volume of the letters of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, the cousins who were Ellery Queen. For a couple of years they lived on opposite coasts and conducted their collaboration by mail. The book's called BLOOD RELATIONS, and it answered my question: no. Emphatically, no. These letters are articulate, self-aware, enthralling, and cringe-worthy. See, these guys hated each other. But more than that: they'd known each other their whole lives, and they were tied together in a claustrophobic and agonizing dance they couldn't find their way out of. What's amazing is, they wrote some damn good books in the process. Brings up, once again, all those questions about the relationship between psychic pain and creativity. I was completely absorbed by BLOOD RELATIONS and recommend it to anyone interested in the creative process. And if you're in my position and have a collaborator you just adore, read this book and then thank your lucky stars.