Finished!

Well, here it is, my final draft, all 460 pages, 127,678 words of it.  I typed those beautiful words, T H E   E N D, about 4 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, and what a relief it was! 

This story, still untitled, has been nearly three years in the gestation, and the truth is that there have been times when I really wondered if I could write it.  So when I did get to the end, I fully expected to be elated, but although I was certainly enormously relieved, I was actually almost tearful as well. 

Tomorrow I’m having a biopsy and skin graft on my nose (ouch) which I’m not looking forward to very much.  On the other hand, I quite like the idea of lying down for a while.  I feel as if I’ve stumbled across the finishing line of a mammoth hurdle race, so intend to let myself be waited on hand and foot while I lie in bed and read (what bliss!) for a couple of days. 

Later in the week, I’ll take a deep breath and reread the entire manuscript.  I’ll do a bit of tweaking and polishing, but I’m not going to obsess about perfection at this stage, as I’m sure my editor will want to suggest some changes.  So it’s not over yet, but the biggest challenge and the last major deadline of the year has been met.  Talk about phew.

Oh, and I’ve done a lucky dip for winners of last week’s competition. Copies of Loving Our Heroes will be on their way to Bianca Herdin, Alaine Batty, Margie Stewart, Tora Williams and Laura Russell shortly (today if I have time to get to the post office).  I’ll be doing another contest about Loving Our Heroes in a week or so, so if you weren’t lucky this time, I’ll put you in the dip again!