Thursday, June 5, 2008

Life in Disarray


Finally, I am about to launch into a sex scene on my current WIP for Aphrodisia. I got a title for it this week—Blood Deep—and a release date. It will be coming out in June 2009. Honestly, this always freaks me out a little since quite a bit of the middle of the book is still just a gleam in my eye.
I had to spend the last two days doing computer clean up. Astonishing how you can run out of space on your computer. Well, not so much if you don’t delete an email for four years. Sigh. And unfortunately I had to do some tidying (against my will). The computer finally stopped letting me send emails—rather like a strict nanny giving me a few lashes with a cane.

And yesterday morning we (my hubby and I) inherited furniture from an author friend of mine who is downsizing, so we now have a dining table and chairs and a new sofa. The kids were stunned—they’ve pretty much ruled the main floor of the house. There just never seemed any point to getting furniture when we had toddlers—not for two kids who only scribbled faster with the pencils when you shouted "NO!"

So with all the upheaval, it’s been tough to find time to write. But I tried a new trick with "Blood Deep". I’ve decided to write the last line of the book first. I attended a terrific writing workshop given by Harlequin author Molly O’Keefe, and she pointed out that a story essentially rushes to its last line. So this is the way I now view "Blood Deep". It is hurtling toward that last line—the line that sums up the romance, the happy ending, the theme, and the growth of the characters. I’ve found that once I have that last line (or something hopefully close), even if I have nothing else on the story, not even a title, I suddenly "get" the story. Yesterday, I was thrilled because I also wrote the last line of my short epilogue. It may not be the final "final line", but it summed up (for me) what the series is about.

As a reader, do you get that sense of a story racing toward that one final line when you read? Are there any books that have left you remembering the last line? Do you ever sneak a peak at the last line while reading, or even while you’re in the bookstore?
And the image above is my cover for my next Aphrodisia, Hot Silk!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Furniture-hurray! We just spent a long weekend finally putting up some curtains in our dining room and replacing the sheers in our bedroom. I ironed 12 curtain panels-shriek! but it does look nice now-only took us 7 years to make a choice.

I'm not sure I could write the last line first-I have no ability to stick to a synopsis let alone a sentence :) Now first lines-they usually pop for me and tend to stay there through all my revisions.

Lovely cover btw!!

JRMullany said...

Oy, computers. I have a box containing a memory doohicky on my desk so I can upgrade my OS but I don't want to do it until I finish my book. I'm wondering whether I should have just bitten the bullet and bought a new hard drive.

Also after the book is finished I'm going to move into the spare room/office I'm planning so I'll be on the furniture kick too!

Great cover, Sharon!

Yowsers, writing the last line first??? My books all tend to hurtle to the last line but in the wrong sort of way. As for "getting" the story, I know when I'm there because I suddenly think of a Shakespeare play (Forbidden Shores was The Tempest, rather, ahem, obviously so, but also slightly The Merchant of Venice).

Lil said...

Interesting post. There are some books that make an impression with the last line. But having said that, these are generally books which move me through the entire story.