Finishing a Book

Writing the end of a book is happy and heartbreaking at the same time. I find as I write that the characters become my friends, that I care about what happens to them, and when I write the last line of a book, it’s a farewell of sorts. I know that I might see the characters again in other books, that perhaps there will be other adventures to experience, but it will never be the story where they came to life, grew into ideas with their own faults and idiosyncrasies, and became themselves with their own way of doing things despite what I might try to write. Saying goodbye to such characters is at best a letting go, and at worst, saying farewell to a small part of myself engrained within the book.

I finished book six of The Silver Series today. Hunter was the fastest book I have ever written. One of my two-year-old twins was down with the croup, so I had hours up on hours of writing while we watched Diego and the Wonder Pets. While saving animals and breaking into song didn’t make it into my book, I greatly enjoyed the time with a little boy leaning against my shoulder as I typed. I will go back and edit, then re-edit, then have my alpha and beta readers read it and re-edit some more, but I can honestly say that those 15 days went by in a blur and I am very happy with the outcome! I turn my attention toward editing a novel for 12-15 year old girls called Thief Prince that’s been sitting on the back burner, and I know book seven, the final book of The Silver Series, will be haunting the back of my mind as I work.