A question I'm often asked is how David Rimer and I collaborate when writing our Bucktail novels. First, I need to emphasis that research and historical accuracy are very important to both of us. We always have the history drive the plot, not vice versa. Before we started each book, we spent months reading actual Civil War accounts of the campaign we were focusing on. Then, I would come up with a list of events I would like in the book, and Dave did likewise. After that, I handled the majority of the creative writing of the first draft. When I was finished, I gave the book to my partner for editing. He would correct grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. He would also plug in holes in the plot and check for historical accuracy and the logical sequence of events. After all that was done, I got back the book to add in his suggestions. Usually, I found a bunch more errors that both of us missed. The book would go back and forth at least a half-dozen times before we were happy with it. Both of us were idea men for the project. Dave suggested some neat characters like the female soldier in THE BATTLING BUCKTAILS AT FREDERICKSBURG, while I was pretty handy at thinking up villains like Whalen. Dave also contributed a lot of ancedotes and personages from Civil War times that he gleaned from his reading. I added most of the humor and tall tales associated with hunters. HAYFOOT, STRAWFOOT: THE BUCKTAIL RECRUITS took us a couple of years to write, being that we started from scratch. Once our main characters were developed and we bought our core research books, we could knock out a novel in five months. Of course, we worked on it five to six hours a day, seven days a week just like it was a job!