In Conclusion

I love the feel of a new book.  I am not referring to the book in and of itself, but rather the way you feel when you first enter a new world and meet new characters.  When you pick up a book and you cannot stand to put it down until you have absorbed every last word.  How you go through your day wondering what will happen next to the intriguing new people you have met in its pages.  When the struggles they face in their adventures mean something to you on a personal level, and you see part of yourself in each character.

Last night, at 12:38 AM, we wrote the final three words of our first novel!  It was an emotional moment for me, as I identify with several of the characters we wrote about (not the ones you might think, either).  The end of the book was a complete surprise to us.  I know it may sound strange for an author to be surprised by how their own book ends, but it was as though the words wrote themselves.  We had a plan; we brainstormed, we argued, and when we finally agreed and put it down on paper, it was nothing like we had said it would be.  We both stared at those last words for several moments, and we reached the same conclusion; we could not end it any other way.  It was perfect; the plan be damned.  

When we completed the novel, I was so proud of the characters.  I connect with them all on an extremely personal level.  That is no small task, since it is a collaboration between two authors, and we are such very different people.  

Eighty Thousand words; born of boredom and impatience from a lack of reading material.  80k moments of joy and frustration; beginning with a sleepless night writing the first few chapters, and culminating in a late night finale of dialogue and discovery.  We have been truly blessed by this journey.  We are thankful for all of the relationships that we have built with our beta readers, as well as the strangers who have stopped by to offer encouragement and advice.  I love waking up to an inbox full of comments and questions regarding the book, and we thrive on the criticism as well as the praise.  We have certainly come a long way, and we are proud of our accomplishment, to say the least. 

So, the good news is that we are finally done.  Don’t get me wrong, our work is far from over.  Our next task is to make sure that you will enjoy the time you spend reading it, as much as we have enjoyed the time spent writing it.  Thank you all for your words of encouragement, as well as your instruction and guidance.  We will do our best to make you proud.