Megan Mullally (currently starring in Will & Grace again) and Nick Offerman (former Parks and Recreation star) may joke about just being people with funny social media accounts but they’re actually that and also married actors who wrote a book together.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told goes on sale in October. It will offer the “full story” of “their epic romance.” The two met back in 2000 while acting in a play together and got married a little over a year later. They have since worked together on set in TV and film projects, and are now co-authoring a book together (the whole thing was Megan’s idea, according to Nick). How do the two do all of that and not get sick of each other? The conversation made it seem like it was mostly occasionally staying home to do puzzles, and play with their dogs, and lubrication (obviously different instances).

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the news lately but there’s a lot of depressing things in it. And so we’re excited to be able to offer up a heaping serving of love to the collected,” Offerman said.

The two didn’t write the book so much as directly record their own conversations and have them transcribed.

“We’d get in bed or already be in bed and then Nick would take his recording device on his phone and we’d just have a conversation. He wouldn’t even know what the topic was gonna be until we started recording. That’s how we did it all. I found myself doing a lot of it with my eyes closed so I could focus on what Nick was saying and not getting distracted by one of our cute dogs,” Mullally said.

“We were gonna take them and transcribe these conversations and then turn them into something much better. When we read them we thought oh there’s not much we can do to improve these because it’s the back and forth that really captures our dynamic. I think it’s pretty cute. But might be biased,” Offerman said.

Here’s a bit on how that dynamic works:

 

NO: Every chapter was recorded in bed. I think that’s an important distinction.

MM: No, we were never really in standing position.

NO: Not since Charles Dickens has such technique been employed.

MM: We like the old ways.

 

They had the topics prepared beforehand but Mullally didn’t tell him what they were. Otherwise, “He comes up with clever ideas.”

“No,” Offerman agreed, “I was not permitted…which was great because it gives a great candor to the conversation.”

They agree that the book has a fairly even split between them. “There were certain topics that one or the other had more to say on,” said Mullally. “Like the religion chapter, Nick was really raring to hold forth on that topic whereas on past relationships he really didn’t have much to offer because I was basically his first girlfriend.”

“First one that counted, I had training wheels like anybody,” Offerman added.

“And I was a big ho,” Mullally answered.

The two have an amazing give and take. How does that work in book form without Mullally’s famous voice and Offerman’s deadpan behind the words? Probably a bit like this writeup, have fun. And that was no joke earlier, they’re pretty clear on how they stay together:

 

NO: The secret to our longevity is that we stay home and do jigsaw puzzles

MM: Play with our dogs

NO: Yeah and if you like that then by god here’s a book about it

 

It’s basically just a 280 page conversation. That was recorded in bed. Sounds great.

 

Below is a small excerpt from the intro:

“We’re not just cuteness and puzzles oh no, there’s also a great deal of tedium.

Yes, we wanted to make sure we got that down on paper.

We tend to elaborate for your reading pleasure.

Who would you say is the ideal audience for this book?

Altar boys.

This is a multigenerational post modernist deconstruction of the greatest love story ever told, meaning, our relationship.

It’s for readers young and old male and female as well as LGTBQIA. And also every race religion every creed every political leaning will find something to learn about the body’s ability to lubricate itself.”

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told comes out from Dutton on Oct. 2, 2018.