I met Xenia online in 2005, not long after I was first published. We both belonged to the same  lesbian fiction group, and began corresponding after Xenia read my first two books, Hunter’s  Pursuit and Force of Nature, and emailed me about them. She offered some great feedback on  the books, so I asked her to become one of my ‘first readers’-- one of three people who read  my manuscripts in progress chapter by chapter’ as they are written, offering their opinions on  story, characters, dialogue, ect. Xenia read for me during the writing of Whitewater Rendezvous,  Flight Risk,  and Focus of Desire, and made some great suggestions that were incorporated into  the last two books. During this period, we became close friends. As I was writing the final chapters of Focus of  Desire in late 2006, we talked about what my next project was going to be. I was interested in  doing another suspense book, with a tough anti-heroine sort of lead, but had no idea in mind.   A couple of days later, Xenia told me about a complex intrigue storyline she’d come up with and  asked whether I’d be interested in co-authoring it with her. That  story was Lethal Affairs, so of course I jumped at the chance, and  Voila! a writing partnership was born. We’ve had so much fun  working together and the books have been so well-received that  Lethal Affairs became the first of seven planned books about the  Elite Operatives Organization. Most of Lethal Affairs was written  via webcam, as we live on opposite sides of the Atlantic. It was  frustrating at times because of the time difference and the  frequent disconnects and audio problems. But fortunately, my  part-time job allows me to take lengthy vacations, so I’ve been   able to visit Xenia to write the bulk of each book since.   We’re able to write very quickly since we often work on different  scenes at the same time, and are able to complete fairly polished  first drafts in seven or eight weeks. Xenia writes all the dialogue,  character insights, and much of the action sequences, while I  specialize in setting detail and color. Our writing styles are  somewhat different-- Xenia’s is lean and taut, often poetic (I like to  tell her it’s infused with a bit of ‘Greek drama’) while mine is softer and more heavily  descriptive, so we edit each other to come up with a uniform ‘author voice’. It’s been great fun  to work with Xenia on these amazing stories she comes up with, and an honor to help bring  them to the page. No one makes me laugh so hard. I’m really going to hate to see the series  end. To find out more about the author and her work, visit Xenia’s website: Photos courtesy Ibrahim Farah Kim Baldwin