The last chapter…

I feel like I’m under some sort of cruel spell…every time I say or think I’m on the last chapter of A Companion for Life, I’ve found myself hitting my head against the proverbial wall until I give in and accept that it isn’t the last chapter. Please let this be the last time I say this, I’m on the last chapter! The story is now over sixty-seven thousand words, almost the same length as Redeeming A Rake. Can you hear the soft thud of my head against the brick wall? The first time I thought I was on the last chapter occurs almost exactly half way through the book. How on earth did I think that was the last chapter?

Once (if ever) I finish this story I’m going to give myself a holiday from finishing novels and play with a variety of stories that have been waiting impatiently in the wings for development. I was hoping to have something else ready before the end of the year (it’s possible, but highly unlikely), but that was when I thought this was a short story. The next time I mention a deadline forget I mentioned it! I just don’t work to deadlines. They end up like wire garottes around my inner artist’s throat.

The last several weeks I’ve had a mild sore throat and now I’ve developed a chest infection. I woke up at three in the morning coughing and couldn’t fall back to sleep so I got up and went back to work. What a trooper! Really I’m just obsessive! I planned to go back to bed, but I didn’t. I’ve wisely now called it a night since I can barely see straight. Hopefully no extra plot twists or chapters will tumble into my brain as I fall asleep. I’m on the last chapter…I am! Speaking of dead deadlines…I’m now hoping to get A Companion for Life online before the end of Novemember. The Epilogue was written weeks ago…I just need that last chapter… Hopefully it won’t be one of those books where I have to write the ending three or four times. The ending of The Curse of Love was rewriten three/four times. I read it now and think, how could it have ended any other way? However long it takes me to finish A Companion for Life, I’ll send out my usual e-mail newsletter to my members letting you know it’s online. If you haven’t heard from me in over a year and you’d like to get the notifying newsletters check with me and make sure I’m not sending it to a dead e-address. Wish me one last chapter!