I don’t know about other writers, but for me, the very end of a book is murder.  And not in the fun, I-write-murder-mysteries-&-get-to-kill-off-a-different-character-in-every-other-chapter way, either. :crazy

You know that joke about “every time I think I’ll make ends meet, someone up & moves the ends”? That totally applies to my writing process!  Every time I get near The End of a story, someone always seems to come in & move it farther away.  Without fail, the “last chapter” of whatever I’m working on takes me at least a month, maybe more.  And that’s a month more than I’m expecting or have planned for—for what I think should only be one lousy chapter!

Unfortunately, what I know just has to be my “last chapter” usually stretches out into two, three, even four more.  This time around, with the end of MUST LOVE VAMPIRES, I think it was more like five or six.

I don’t even know how that’s possible, except that I’m apparently not a very good judge of how much space it takes to wrap things up.  Which probably shouldn’t be too surprising, since I’m not very good at guessing how many gumballs are in a jar, either.  Could be six, could be six million; I have no concept of age or numbers. :ouch

Or maybe I ramble a little too much, finding a way to turn a nice, succinct three-scene chapter into more like ten.  Of each.

Now, considering that I tend to be a “short” writer—& no, I’m not talking about my diminutive height, thankyouverymuch—that’s probably a good thing.  It gives a little more meat to stories that would otherwise come in under my required word count.

But still, every single time I near the end of a book, those last hundred pages sneak up & knock me for a total loop.  I can see The End in sight…I can feel that I’m going to be done soon…I think they’ll whiz by & I’ll have the book done in another week or two, tops.  Ha!  It’s like slogging through quicksand or running in place—no matter how fast or how much I write, I never seem to make any headway.  And how those last hundred pages manage to turn into a thousand, I’ll never know, but it certainly feels that way.  Every. Single. Time.

So take my word for it.  It is much, much easier to know for sure when you’ve only got a hundred more pages of a book to read :cantputdown than when you think you’ve only got a hundred more pages of one to write! :smash

Me & guess-timating? Not a good mix, whether we’re talking word count or gumballs. :faint

It’s time once again to put on our Outrage Hats & speak out against wrong-doing.  (And there’s nothing a Darling of the Dungeon enjoys more, right? We are nothing if not happy to pick up our whips & chains & fight in the name of injustice. :devil )

This one is going to hurt, too, because I suspect many of you are as addicted to tea as I am.  But it turns out that Lipton, one of the largest tea companies in the world, is doing terrible, horrible, no-good things to animals in order to test a product that has been around for centuries.

Please, please visit PETA’s Action Page for this issue & read about the animal tests Lipton is conducting for no good reason whatsoever.  It’s shocking & disgusting, let me tell you.  (But don’t worry, there are no pictures that will make you sick to your stomach.)  And then send letters to both of the contacts they provide.  There’s even a sample letter that you can cut & paste to make it easier for you.

Also note that messages sent to the president of Unilever America (Lipton‘s parent company) are bouncing, but send one anyway, & then be sure to contact Lipton via their contact form so that your message really does get through!

And then BOYCOTT ALL LIPTON PRODUCTS!!! until they STOP TESTING ON ANIMALS!  Yes, this may be a little painful to some of us—I actually have quite a few Lipton teabags in my cupboard right now.  I can’t go back & un-buy them, but I can darn well start buying other brands of tea from now on.

P.S.  We are still sending letters & strongly boycotting all M&M/Mars products because of their cruelty to animals: MarsCandyKills.com & Petco/PetSmart stores because of their abysmal treatment of animals: PetSmartCruelty.com.  (This one was a little hard to track down updated online information about, but trust me when I say their & their suppliers’ treatment of small animals—mice, rats, guinea pigs, etc.—has been nauseating, & it is definitely still an ongoing battle.)

“There’s always something for which to be thankful.”

~Charles Dickens

Happy Sunday, everyone!  I hope you’ve had a great week & are looking forward to another one ahead.

This week, I’m still grateful my brother got to come home for the holidays this year.  I can’t say his visit was a total treat—he can be a bit of a sourpuss, if you must know—but it was still great to see him after so long & to know he’s doing really well for himself with his new job & living in a new state, etc.

I’m also thrilled to have the line edits for HER LITTLE SECRET, HIS HIDDEN HEIR taken care of & returned.  It’s not easy for me to switch gears the way I often need to with these things, but it was neat to get a little refresher for Marc & Vanessa’s story while I was knee-deep in MUST LOVE VAMPIRES.  It’s going to be such a fun book to chat about when it comes out!

I’m happy to have finally gotten my hands on the Wizard of Oz soundtrack.  You know how sometimes you just want to hear the music & not watch the whole movie over again?  Well, this one has been on my list for quite a while.  It’s not as wonderful as I was hoping, but it does the trick. :winkwink   Next up—the soundtrack from Annie!

I’m happy that the store that supplies me with oodles of cat food for the hungry masses says they expect my kittehs’ favorite brand/flavor (which has been out-of-stock for a couple of months now) to be available again in February.  Not sure when in February, but that’s right around the corner, & I think I can hold out until then.  (It has not been easy rationing out the small amount I still have on hand, either, let me tell you. :kitty )

And last but not least, I am delighted that we’ll be starting up Guest Bloggers here in The Dungeon again very soon.  And I’m grateful to all of the authors who have already agreed to be put on The Rack for our amusement.  I don’t have dates yet, but check the sidebar under “In the Dungeon” for names.  I’ll update it as soon as I have more info, but trust me when I say this is going to be fun! :thumbsup

That’s about it for me this week. Now it’s your turn—tell us what makes this a very Happy Sunday for you!

And now to announce our Free Book Friday winner:

:dancing Raquel Vega-Grieder!!! :dancing

Congratulations, Raquel! Please contact me with your full name & mailing address, & I will get your book out to you as soon as I can.