the end

What, you may wonder, does an author do when she's not writing? This one spends time between chapters and scene breaks researching and hunting up antiquities like this at left. If I owned a pair of jumps this lovely I wouldn't bother wearing a dress! I'm always a bit awed that genteel women in the 18th-century were so well dressed underneath.

Okay, so it looks a little like body armor. But consider all the sigh-inducing details - the mauve ribbons/bows, the embroidered bodice, the laces that were so decoratively anchored, for lack of a better word. And check out that waistline! Our colonial sisters weren't really as tiny as we've been led to believe. The average waist size back then was 31 inches. Dear Martha Washington was downright fluffy! But I don't think George minded a bit;)

I just wrote THE END on my next book and put down my pen as you can see here at right. Book one of The Ballantyne Legacy. This is never one of those jump up and down, happy as a lark moments for me. Quite the contrary. Nothing makes me happier than a first draft. I'm always sad to finish, though I have months yet of polishing and rearranging before deadline.

First drafts are kind of like first love:) Future drafts are like marriage. After a while they kind of lose their lustre though the emotional tug remains. Not all writers agree. Some like editing and polishing best. Me, not so much.

I'm afraid I'm one of those slothful authors who pens their first draft in longhand;) No one can make heads or tails of my penmanship above and if I wait too long to transfer it to my laptop, I can't either. I usually write a couple of chapters and then type it on Word. There's something so comforting about writing in notebooks, maybe because I've been doing it since I was small. And unlike my laptop, notebooks don't crash!

Do you ever dread reaching THE END? Can you name the last book that you loved so much it left you wanting more?