It is a hot one here today in the Valley of the Sun. The high will approach 100. I'm trying to get my spirits up in order to get in there and finish up this epilogue to Claws today. Finishing a book is hard work. It's like exiting a party; that last moment, that's how everyone will remember you. And overthinking it can kill it just as fast as underthinking it.

The first 100 pages of a 400-page novel are a breeze. The next 100 are tricky, but navigable. The 3rd 100 are the most difficult because everything you've set up in the first 200 pages has to come together; it can't be forced. Either you did the right things in the first 200 pages or not, and pages 200-300 will show it. The last 100 pages are inevitable and can be either the most rewarding of the book or the most grueling. Of the novels I've written The Miracle had the hardest last 100 pages. Followed by Culpepper. The Colorado Sequence was just plain fun; the last 200 pages (it was a 700-page novel) were absolutely thrilling, liberating, and perfectly fun to write. I loved that novel in terms of the process that I followed to realize it. Claws has had its own unique final 100 pages. A major rewrite when I was 250 pages in slowed things down a little, but there were a couple of central images to hook the storyline on.

That's key, too. Finding a couple of central images on which to hang your hat. In The Colorado Sequence, it was the mountain Kevorak's Needle. The image of that mountain dominated the last 100 pages of the novel. In Claws, it has been 1) a mine and 2) the lake where the final battle takes place. Woman versus mountain lion.

And, now, I need something crisp, sharp, clear and true to cruise out on......

Stacey