Writers make strange friends.

Sometimes, if you invite us to dinner, we run late because it’s 6 p.m. and we’re still in our pyjamas because we never made it further then the computer today.

Sometimes we stop in the middle of a conversation to pull out a pencil and take some quick notes.

And we can’t possibly be expected to pay attention to whatever’s going on in this meeting, because there’s this tricky plot point we need to figure out NOW.

Also, we have a lot of crazy ideas.

Exhibit 1: The List.

J.A. Rock and I have a list. The List. On it, you will find many strange, crazy and possibly unpublishable ideas. Seriously, this stuff is weird. Most of it comes out of conversations we have via email, sometimes when it’s 3 a.m. for one of us, and the other one is tripping on cold medicine.

So when J.A. added “Trouble At Possum Ranch” to The List, I was a little sceptical. Carlton Dalmers was going to be an amateur detective, in the tradition of Poirot or Nancy Drew, but with awesome fashion sense in the tradition of Duran Duran circa “View to a Kill”. It was a fairly sketchy premise, with no plot whatsoever. I figured we’d never get around to it. And we didn’t. But J.A. did.

Guess what I got for my birthday? The most inappropriate “children’s book” ever. Weeks later, I’m still laughing.

When eighteen-year-old detective Carlton Dalmers goes to his aunt and uncle’s possum rescue ranch in Australia to investigate rumors of a phantom possum, he never dreams he’ll become embroiled in the mystery of a lifetime! He’ll need the help of his friends to solve the case—but can he determine who’s behind the phantom before it’s too late? Or is it doomsday for Possum Ranch?

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Writers are crazy!

If you’d like to share in the awesomeness that is “Trouble At Possum Ranch”, check out J.A. Rock’s website where you can download it for free.