Even after 4 days without my beloved, my book is finished!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

What a crazy week this has been. On Wednesday, I could barely get my computer to turn on, let alone do anything. Hate when that happens. And it never ceases to amaze me how lost I feel without it. I have our older PC in the basement that has virtually nothing on it and mainly hubby and daughter use it for internet stuff. So luckily I could check email and such. But I could not write. Everything is on my laptop.

And that meant ending Karma Kameleon, the sequel to A Bitch Named Karma, was put on hold. And that made me mad. I had a goal of finishing by the end of October. It was just a personal goal, but for me, that is just as important as a deadline from an editor. So we took her to the computer doctor and I wrote the very last chapter in a notebook. So technically it was finished...but for me...if it's not in the computer, it doesn't count.

My laptop was fixed and good as new...picked it up yesterday morning. But with Halloween festivities, I could not get on it until after 10 at night to actually transfer my scribbles into the computer. Yay!!!!! It feels so great to have it finished!!

So now we start the self editing process. But I've already been through the first half once. And my writing is getting cleaner and stronger with each book. There shouldn't be as much to fix. My new goal is to have it cleaned and ready to submit by the end of the month!

Yippee!!!

Endings are so so important!

I think it goes without saying that the ending is probably the most important part of a story for the reader. Yes, the first page and first chapter are important too...very important. But nothing ruins a great book, or a movie, like a stupid ending.

There is one movie that always comes to mind when I think of bad endings. I can't help it...I'm a happily ever after kind of gal. And this one didn't end that way...not by a long shot. Ever watch Ladder 49???? Well....the whole movie you knew he was trapped...I believe the movie started with the end, then flashed back and forth to the past and then back to present day. So it was not a surprise. But to end the way it did. I just didn't understand why I was put through all that to have it end that way. It was so sad and usually I am such a sap and bawl my eyes out at stuff like that...but no...not this time. I was livid. I was so mad that they put me through all that and then killed him in the end. I remember trying to go to sleep that night and not being able to...I was still so mad.

So anyway...when it comes to books and movies, I want the ending I expect and want- everyone lives happily ever after. But I also want some surprise to it. I need to think that it won't end that way.

And this is what I sometimes struggle with in my own writing. For the genre I write (contemporary women's fiction and romance) it's a given that it will all end happily. But I want twists and turns for my reader. I want to give them something they didn't quite expect but still satisfies their desire for hearts and butterflies and riding off into the sunset.

I am reading the newest Meg Cabot right now, Insatiable. I am halfway in. And at this point, I really have no clue what so ever what is gonna happen. And I love that feeling...but I also am hopefully that I will get the kind of ending I want. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! ***Adding this in: I did finish it (scheduled this post like a week ago.) Unfortunately, it did not end how I would have liked...though it is left open for a sequel.

And please please please sign up for my contest!! You could be the lucky winner of a signed PRINT copy of A Bitch Named Karma!!!!! Check out the contest here!