On finishing...

For those of you who didn't see all my squealing and celebrating on Facebook and Twitter yesterday, I finally typed my two favorite words in Keeper book 2:

The end.

(Yes, I totally cried. Picture the beginning of Romancing the Stone)

Finishing a book is always an emotional experience--for me at least. This is my third time getting to that point, and once again I had that same sense of: I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY DID THIS!!!! But this time was especially overwhelming.

Maybe it's because I had to push so hard to get there this time--cranking through a marathon writing weekend (almost 20,000 words in 3 days) and finally finishing after pulling an all-nighter.

Maybe it's because this is my first time writing a draft under contract--and my first sequel--and there was a whole other set of worries and stresses and complications that came with that.

Mostly, I think it's because this book kicked my butt. I know I've said that before, but I don't know if you guys really realize how much this story has broken my brain. It was a serious, serious struggle to get here and there were several times along the way where I worried it wouldn't happen.

So to get to this point and realize that I CAN do this--even when I have to work such long hours, under the extra pressure of a contract and a sequel, with a plot that refused to go the way I thought it needed to go and wouldn't cooperate until I surrendered--is an incredible, incredible thing.

It's NOT perfect. (oh, if you only knew how much work I still have ahead of me before I turn it into my editor next week.) But I did it.

I crossed that first and most important hurdle, and now it's all about polishing and refining (and fine, filling in the spots that say, "scene needed here"). And now that the bones are in place, *hopefully* the rest will go smoother. I guess we'll see as the week progresses.

In the meantime I happily say: take that, Book 2. I have officially ended you! *fist pump*