How do you know if a story ends well?

Cross your fingers?

Hope that you’ve tied up all the necessary knots?

There is no way. Not really.

Okay, I’ve just finished – I mean minutes ago – the final edits on the end of my trilogy, and honestly I don’t know how I feel. I guess that’s the way it should be.

A story ends because the writer ends it but will it resonate with the readers?

I took, what I felt, was a little bit of a writing gamble in the last book of my trilogy. I sidelined two of the main characters for a large chunk of the book. I had my reasons, and if you read it, hopefully you will understand why I did it. I received positive feedback from my beta readers about the move, but still, it was kind of scary to do.

Ultimately, a writer is bound not by the reader or by an editor but by the story and its characters. A writer has to go where the characters are leading him or her. There can be no other way. The voices giving suggestions can only be that – voices. Not to be ignored, for sure, but they can’t speak louder than the rhythm of the language and the journey of the protagonist. Sometimes you have to make the tough choices and then ask yourself a simple question: are you happy with it?

I am. I am quite pleased at how it turned out. Even quite surprised because I wasn’t sure if the plot was going to hold up through the crazy twists and turns. But it’s done.

I just sent the first review copies out to reviewers.

Now it’s out of my hands.

Will it end well? In my mind, it did. I need to be content with that and move on to the next project.

Goodbye Bee and Ash! Perhaps we’ll meet again.