The End is Near?

[MrPixel]

A story line I've been writing for the past 30 months surprised me last night - I very well may be writing the concluding chapter, and it's HEA, of course. I love these characters and their antics, but they wrote themselves into a huge life transition, and maybe it's time to let them go live this new life without interference from me. Concern I have is the mourning from the separation from these "friends", and also that development after here is inevitably going to result in the loss of key characters at one point or another in their personal growth. It would be impossible for over a dozen "main characters" to grow old together; somebody or several somebodies will have to divorce out of the polycule. I don't know if I can bear to write that.

I can certainly peek into their doings from time to time, but things are getting complicated for them. At the moment my feeling is "This is my novel, I guess." I'm not all that certain I have another one in me.

 

[MrPixel]

Since @Emilycarl was kind enough to "like" this post this morning, I guess an update is in order for my friends here. The "last chapter", the 47th of the series, is written, edited, and ready to go. I expect it to be up by the end of this week. It's not exactly HEA as it ends with a funeral (not unexpected, nor is this a spoiler). No main characters will be lost, and life for the intrepid troupe will go on.

I say "last chapter" because there is an epilogue in progress, looking five years down the road. I'm not going to spoil it, but it will be a long read and it will be fun. Looking forward to sharing it.

The full series can be found here: Barstow.

 

[LucyAnneThorn]

an epilogue in progress

Wait! Isn't "epilogue" an euphemism for "there's that totally thrilling story involving one of the characters which you absolutely wouldn't expect, but I'm going to jump to an arbitrary point in time after that and won't even you tell you about it"?

That said, I spotted the word "Mojave" in your series introduction, so I'll have to read it now. Gimme a desert, a flat spot behind a sagebrush, a sleeping pad and a quilt, and I'm the happiest gal in the world.

Kudos for finishing a novel of that size. That's quite an accomplishment. And there's no shame in leaving while the party's still hot. Maybe you can pluck a single character out of the bunch and send them onto a totally different adventure without disturbing the illusion of a HEA.

 

[MrPixel]

That said, I spotted the word "Mojave" in your series introduction, so I'll have to read it now. Gimme a desert, a flat spot behind a sagebrush, a sleeping pad and a quilt, and I'm the happiest gal in the world.

Love it. Native, so I grew up with Mom having to deal with the occasional scorpion in the bathtub, and Dad having to rake/corral the Russian thistle in the backyard.

Teaser - the epilogue starts with the MMC pausing to mourn a passing during the interim.