This screenplay is my only collaboration to date. A few years ago, I was accepted to Columbia for the fiction-writing Masters program. Turns out the program sucked. It was slow and unchallenging. So…I ran. But before I left, Mark Davidov, the Russian novelist and my European literature instructor, had asked me to collaborate on a screenplay. In exchange for bringing his story to page, he would give me feedback on "Unsettled," the novel I was writing at the time. It turned out to be a great partnership. He has since plowed through another of my books, "Deep Freeze," plus many short stories, and he has been a fantastic teacher and supporter. We even wrote a ballet libretto together entitled "W/M."

"Scream Together / Cry Alone" is a character drama with many locales and interweaving plotlines. Also, thanks to Mark, it has a broad international feel. It's not the kind of piece I would have explored on my own, which is one of the benefits of collaboration. I have gained an appreciation Mark's meticulousness in constructing a story. He is never satisfied with the first, and usually most obvious, route. There was a searching quality in our story discussions that caused characters to mutate, stories to derail, and themes to entangle. Yet, ultimately, everything is elevated because of the dedication to change. My writing process is mostly instinctual; Mark's is more ponderous. He made me stretch and I made him reel it in. It was a good relationship. Hopefully, we'll work together on more projects in the future. In the meantime, I'm hoping someone will buy this property for a cool million. That'd be nice.