Finished. My. Story.

March 2012; no idea which book I had just finished, but The Hook is looking fine.

 

Years ago after completing a novel, I would drive to the beach, to The Hook in Capitola to be exact. The trip was a good forty-five minutes over Highway 17, a little treacherous back then, worse now in that most traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area is more hazardous than before, or maybe I think that way because I'm older and possess less patience. Or maybe that's because now a trip to the beach is far more relaxing regardless of how goes the writing.

But the writing, for now, is DONE! This morning I began, then finished the final chapter, and oh my goodness, the sense of relief is PALPABLE! So many emotions attached to both the initial draft and this version, so much hand-wringing, and SO MUCH TO PLAN FOR, lol. The first draft was merely a way to decompress after an awful death in our family. This story is like a rebirth, although I'm still mewling about, trying to decide what goes where and who sticks along for the ride.

Despite a ridonkulous original conclusion, this story begat the notion for a series, which I've been chomping at the bit to dig into, but I had to affix a proper end to this tale, not to mention dig out all the crap that went into it in the first place. That's customary for any revision, but this was different than my previous storytelling methods; this was a real teardown, because from where this began was written by a different person. Me, of course, but a nearby version of Past Me that wasn't sure how to deal with that timeline's version of Present Me, while Future Me, currently Present Me, was waving from the other side of the street hollering, "Hang in there, the fog's not gonna last forever!"

I've lost beloveds before; my parents, a younger brother, my dad's first girlfriend after my parents' marriage broke up. Grandparents of course, an elder brother-in-law. But the death that hit my family at the end of January was the kind of passing that peels off those healed scabs, some very old, a few recent, re-opening a wound that truly thought itself immune to infection. Steeled from pain. Free to be left alone but no. I'm not sure I can adequately describe how the last fifteen months since our beloved's cancer diagnosis, then his passing not quite five months ago, altered all our worlds. Not that we're in constant mourning, but those realities are CHANGED. Plans that we all assumed were solid have been wrecked beyond the December earthquake, hearts cracked, futures reassessed. Future Me nods solemnly while Past Me wipes tears from her face while Present Me takes a deep breath, grateful for the support but still stymied at how wrenches are thrown, upending what seemed unshakeable. Damn but life is short and what matters most is loving each other, being kind, and being true to oneself. Life lessons all over the dang place.

Our current stretch of the Pacific here in Humboldt County; snapped this photo yesterday as the tide was creeping forward.

In writing this story, I attempted to harness what I had just experienced as well as paying tribute to a woman who I have called my sister since marrying her little brother over thirty-five years ago. We can't truly know another's pain, but as a storyteller, I can imagine a similar scenario, then fashion through fictional characters a path of healing for myself and whoever reads the yarn I've spun. And because I follow the Spirit as I spin, a magical manner of remedy sometimes emerges, even if at the time of crafting to drop aliens as the answer was more than a little crazy. But life is steeped in the inane, and better to laugh than to cry if the mood so warrants.

With all that said, again I repeat a vital truth: we are here to love one another. In this novel, its prequel, and whatever comes next, I want to expound upon that theme. Love matters most. Mercy comes next. Aliens have their place, ahem. Future Me giggles while Past Me is still breathing hard, grateful that Present Me finally wrote The End. And little old me is so pleased that tomorrow morning I get to sleep in without a novel calling my name, insert smiley face here!