Yesterday at about lunchtime I wrote the happiest two words ever, THE END.
This year has been a journey I didn’t particularly want to be on but here I am. I didn’t get to choose how the year ran. Life isn’t a pick-a-path adventure when it comes to other people (most of the time).

So, anywho, to keep me sane … I wrote [Foxtrot Foxtrot Sierra] Veronica Tracey Spy/PI Book 7. I sent that off to my editor (after my wonderful beta reading, hole finding, grammar checking people gave me their feedback and it was dutifully tweaked). Nec minute … I’m writing [Echo Mike Papa]. Also wrote a longish short VT story for the LA X-tras anthology and a cross-over Christmas story that tied all three series together. What fun!

The more frustrating life became, the more fuckwits I had to deal with, the more I wrote. Once I got everything sorted (as best I could) and Superman in a safe place closer to me, I decided I wanted to finish [Echo Mike Papa] by my birthday (Dec 12). It didn’t happen but I did get close (ish). Close is relative. When I failed myself I changed the date. I wanted the freaking book done by Christmas … ta da!
Now that the hardest part is over, the nearly 95k words can marinate until I’m ready to tweak things and add the odd scene (they might actually be odd). There are things that aren’t in it because they’re not super important to the initial draft … like, introductions. No one who doesn’t know the characters ever sees the first draft. (Me – I’m the only person who sees the first draft.)
Some scenes will require more description, some might not make it through the first reading, others will be fine. I’m pretty sure I screwed up the days (that’s normal for me) so I will need to check all mentions of days. 🙂 And word use. Don’t know what my favourite words were this time around. They will crop up on the first proper read.

Meanwhile, I’ll try and avoid the post-END wobble as it tries creep in. I need to remember: unfinished books don’t haunt people. Finished ones do.