So, today is a big day in my little writing world:

I typed THE END at the bottom of my WIP, Where Poppies Bloom!

Eighty-five thousand words in just under three months. Whew! I can’t tell you how excited I am to be done with the first draft of this story. It’s become a labor of love, a leap out of my comfort zone, the bane of my existence and also the favorite of  any writing project I’ve ever worked on. All that, and I haven’t even started revisions yet!

The good news is, I’m a revisions kind of girl. The drafting part is SO HARD! Shining a story up, three dimensionalizing characters, tightening arcs, contemplating word choice, deleting bits and adding new ones, rearranging paragraphs, playing with sentence structure… this is the stuff of the writing process I love. (Interestingly, the lovely Mindi Scott wrote an insightful post about writers’ love/hate relationship with writing this week. You should check it out!)

Anyway, in celebration of the completion of WIP’s first draft, I’m teasing you with the last few lines. Don’t worry–they don’t give much away. 🙂

            He pulls me forward, up and out of my chair and into his lap. His arms come around me, enveloping me in warmth and the fresh sunshine scent I’ll forever associate with him. Leaning in close to my ear, he whispers, “Remember when I told you Bell Cove was the shit?”

            I nod, my skin breaking out in shivers.

            “It’s true, right?”

            I look him straight in the eye, a smile teasing my mouth. “Only because you’re here.”

            He laughs and leans in to kiss me again.

            This time, I meet him halfway.