On the Cusp

A funny thing happened while I've been griping and grumbling and carping about my current WiP: I'm nearly finished.

Last night, I sat down and tried to work on the penultimate chapter. I didn't have much success, but that's okay. The morning was productive, and this chapter will come--I may start in on it after I finish this post, or this evening when I'm home from work. If all goes well, by the time I have my "State of the Union" conference with Carrie later this week, I'll be able to tell her, "It's done!"* and we'll both be pretty happy about that.

It's funny how stuff like this can sneak up on you. You're plugging along, focused on what's in front of you, and all of a sudden, there it is--whoa, how'd that happen? For a long time it felt like I would never get here, but it happened the way writing always happens: one word, one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time.

*Of course, I'm not quite ready to pop the champagne just yet (I don't do that, anyway, though I might allow myself a nip of scotch or something). There are those last two chapters to get through. The one I couldn't quite face last night will require a little more heavy construction than the last one. And then it's definitely going to need a re-read and a pass-through before I send it off. Will it ultimately be good enough? That remains to be seen, but it's a step almost completed, and given how difficult it's been to get here, I'll enjoy the moment.

Have you ever surprised yourself by reaching the end of one of your projects? How do you celebrate hitting 'The End'?

I was a little shocked this morning to sit down at my computer and see the news that David Bowie died. Every once in a while someone will die and you'll think, "Wait, I didn't even know he was still alive!" but that was not the case with Bowie. What did surprise me was that he had been battling cancer. Either I don't pay that much attention to the celebrity news or Bowie kept this one to himself. Even when he released a new song not all that long ago (I gave it a listen, and really didn't like it), I don't recall there being any mention of cancer.

I was never a huge Bowie fan; I liked some of his music, but not all of it. Still, there was no doubt that he was a huge persona, and a huge influence in the world of music. Here's "Modern Love." Back when I was a college freshman, there was a guy a few doors down who used to blast this all day.