She is also my favorite writer. I’ve come to realize, that even though she’s never published a novel (she has published a short story, though. Check it out.), I’ve ‘read’ many of her books through her telling me about them.

She has this idea for this multiple book story, which essentially tells a complete storyline that spans over 4,000 years. I haven’t heard every story in the series, but I have heard a lot. I love her characters… the settings… the ridiculously amazing way she ties every single novel and character and world into one cohesive idea.

Now, I’ve got a long list of authors I like. I’ve even attempted to interact with some over social media. There are a select few that will cause me to instantly buy their next book only because I know it’ll be wonderful. I’ve been burned that way, also. If I had a chance to experience, first-hand, the process they go through to make their stories come to life, I’d probably jump at it immediately.

But I actually get to do this. My favorite author rolls over and asks me about a certain character she’s fleshing out. Or turns around and lets me know she’s removing something. She asks my opinion on whether a certain scene should be in the village, or on the road to the village. While I feel a certain trepidation in helping her to form her world, there is also a certain thrill in knowing you’ve been influencing a story that many people will eventually be reading (I have no idea if she’s ever thought to ask that about my own stories).

I also get to experience a different feeling. When some of my other favorite authors haven’t written for a while… I have no idea. Unless they post something about being sorry for a delay, or that they haven’t been feeling well and hope to give us something just down the road, I’ll never know. With Karli, I do. Every time she apologizes for not having enough energy to write, or that she hasn’t had a breakthrough with a direction the story should go, or that things just went haywire and she didn’t have time to write, I not only tell her that it’s okay and that we’ll eventually get to where she’s able to write again, but the reader inside me feels the pain of having the ability to read the words that have been told and etched in memory been delayed just a little longer.

I will be my girlfriend’s biggest fan for the rest of my life. I will encourage her to write the stories, knowing that there will be tons of people who love them just as much as I do. But I wonder if there are other people out there who get their books this way or not? How many people get to ‘read’ an author’s book before it’s even written? How about your favorite author? Would this be something you couldn’t deal with?

Let me know in the comments.