Guest Post, Mysteries

Guest Chick: Birdie Horne

Birdie Horne is the combined pen name of former enemies Eden Robins and Mary Winn Garguilo. Over the years, they have been love rivals, co-godmothers, and neighbors across an alley in Chicago. Separately, they have published over twenty books, and together they have a resume full of the kinds of jobs that genuinely worry their parents. One of them was nominated for—and lost—Chicago Crossing Guard of the Year. “Don’t Cross Mo Ellery” is their first outing as Birdie Horne. Welcome, Birdie, to the Chicks!

Thanks so much for having us, Chicks! To be honest, the fact that Birdie Horne exists at all is pretty bonkers. We met in college and hated each other’s guts for years. So naturally, we wrote a book together!

But is that wise? you might ask. Is book-writing not hard enough? Now we should do it with our mortal enemies?

Plot twist: It’s been SUPER fun.

Authors Mary Winn Garguilo (left) and Eden Robins comprise Birdie Horne

It all began twenty years ago because of a guy named Josh. Yeah, this wasn’t one of your high-falutin’ artsy, writerly squabbles. This was a gnarly, teenaged, jealous love rivalry. A heated rivalry, some might say.

We won’t go into the nitty-gritty of who dated Josh when or who pretended not to have feelings when they definitely did or who had a privately held “kissing rehearsal” for the play they were doing at the time—those details can be lost to time. It’s better that way.

Don’t Cross Mo Ellery: A laugh-out-loud mystery following the indomitable hot mess Mo Ellery, whose job as a school crossing guard pulls her into an unhinged murder investigation. 

Instead, we’ll skip ahead to Josh’s wedding years later, where we met once again. Eden was a groomsman and Mary Winn was the photographer. (*Note: NEITHER ONE WAS THE BRIDE.*)

Scene: afterparty. In the basement of a building, playing billiards together in fancy outfits.

EDEN: Hey man, sorry I was such a [REDACTED].

MW: Yeah, me too. Let’s write a book together?

Okay, sure, we skipped ahead a bit – the book part came later. First, we moved to apartments on the same city block in Chicago. Then we became proud co-godmothers to Josh’s second kid (not a joke). And then Eden’s husband (legitimately) saved Mary Winn’s life (though that’s another blog post).

How the book thing started was this: we were frustrated with our respective projects, and we needed to remember how to have fun. What if we wrote a book together, in a genre we both loved to read but hadn’t tried to write? What if our main goal was not to get published, but to make each other laugh?

But above all – we wanted to stay friends. After everything we’d been through, we didn’t want to lose each other over artistic differences. So we came up with some rules:

  • ZERO expectations
  • Except to make each other laugh
  • And a literal safeword if things got too stressful (pineapple)

And you know what? It worked. Writing felt light again, for both of us. We complimented each other profusely, and in so doing, discovered strengths we didn’t know we had. The project became more than the sum of its parts. Because of how we took care of each other, the collaboration actually deepened our friendship.

Also! That guy named Josh? Without whom we never would have hated each other in the first place? We dedicated the book to him.

Have you ever considered collaborating on a book? What rules would you add? Who would you choose to work with?

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37 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Birdie Horne”

  1. Good morning, Mary Winn and Eden! Thank you so much for visiting with us. It’s great to have you here. I love your origin story. Ha!Outstanding! Regarding collaborating with someone on a story, I have such control issues. I think collaborating on a story would end my friendships. Ha!

    Congratulations on Don’t Cross Mo Ellery! Very best wishes for many more joyful and successful collaborations with each other.

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    1. Thank YOU for having us! This was so fun to write, and we love you!!! And to be completely transparent, Eden and I have both been known to…um…have strong opinions, lol. Maybe because of our past, it was the most intentional, successful work partnership either of us has had?

      Tl:dr, I’m thinking you just need to get yourself an arch nemesis?

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  2. OMG, what a great story!! Please write more about your relationship!

    I had a writing partner for most of my TV career – for 25 years. We didn’t have rules. In retrospect, we probably should have.

    BTW, how did you get your pen name(

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    1. We definitely thought of ourselves as a tiny writing room! And hey- if you made it work for 25 years, that sounds like a success to us!!!

      The pen name was a blast to make- we anagramed our last names (Garguilo is my married name; we used my maiden name). Our runner up (honestly, the frontrunner for pure joy, but perhaps a little too on the nose) was Heidi Boners!

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  3. Congratulations on your partnership and new book! My friend and podcast partner, Sarah E. Burr, have talked about co-writing a book. We have an outline, but that’s it so far. Cheers!

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    3. Oooooh dooo iiit!!! Which is to say: we definitely recommend it, especially with thoughtful guardrails! It deepened our friendship, and opened up a whole new way of writing. When we write together, we feel like more than the sum of our parts, and it’s honestly thrilling!

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  4. Congratulations on the partnership and book!

    When my grandmother died, we found she’d kept those old 5-year diaries that have room on each page for one day for 5 consecutive days (did I describe that understandably?) starting in 1935, ending in when she died in 2011. I think there must be a story in there somewhere! Would that count as a partnership?

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    2. OH MY GOSH. ABSOLUTELY. I (MW) also write picture books under another name, and when I think about that process of writing “with” an illustrator who I’ll likely never meet, I describe it as dancing with someone who enters the room five minutes after I’ve left. And this feels like the same kind of thing! I suspect there are as many varieties of creative partnership as there are creative projects 🙂

      I hope you find the story and write it, Robin! I’m already obsessed!

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  5. What a great story. So funny that you dedicated the book to Josh.

    Never considered collaboration, so I don’t have any rules to add or names to offer. But I suppose if I DID collaborate, the person would have to be super-flexible and keep it low-stress.

    Congratulations!

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  6. Hi, Eden & Mary Winn! What a great collaboration! Don‘t Cross Mo Ellery sounds like it was fun to write (and will be fun to read)!

    I haven’t thought about co-writing–particularly not with an enemy, ha!–because of scheduling, division of labor, and the quirky way my mind works.

    P.S. Would love to hear the story of how your life got saved, Mary Winn!

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    1. Oh yeah- you make a great point about scheduling, which is definitely a modern plague, isn’t it? In some ways, making that time to go to the bar together a few times a week felt like a revolutionary act, like bricking our phones for a couple hours.

      It sounds ridiculous in the context of a **murder mystery post**, but the story of Eden’s husband being a hero is possibly…too gruesome to recount here? But if we find ourselves together IRL, I’ll tell you all about it over a short of Malort!

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  7. OMG, what a fun story, and now I so want to read your book!

    I’ve never been the collaborating sort. The thing I most dreaded in school was “group projects.” So no, I doubt I’ll ever end up collaborating on a book with anyone, alas. I say “alas,” because you’ve now made it look so fun!

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    1. OH YEAH that group project curse is so real. Thankfully, we’re both the person who is not only going to do all the work, we’re also going to be constantly low-key worried that we aren’t doing enough heavy lifting and that the other person is going to mad at us. And that turns out to be the key to not having to worry!!! (Literally a week ago, I (MW) said to Eden, “Is there anything you’re pre-resentful about?” Honestly. Dream partnership.)

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  9. I love everything about this post! First of all your bio is amazing. Secondly, I’ve been talking with a friend of mine for the longest time about writing a book together, and you make it sound like so much fun! Your book sounds fabulous and if this post is any indication, I’m sure the voice will be delightful. Thanks for stopping by today!

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  10. Hi Eden and Mary Winn, love love loved your post and comments! Thanks so much for visiting us here on Chicks today. Your book sounds like a hoot–straight to the TBR! I don’t think I could ever write with anyone (brainstorming is fine!) because at some point they would probably want to kill me. We would have fun up until that point, I’m sure…but my “schedule” (or lack thereof) might not be ideal for collaboration.

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    1. Thanks for inviting us on- this community is just THE BEST! And lol I think it’s really funny that everyone else is like, “I would kill the other person” and your take is: “They would kill ME!”

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