Too Good to End

By James DiBenedetto (Guest Blogger)

Before I get started, I want to thank Lisabet for opening up her site to me today. So, thank you! And also, please read to the end – I’ve got a giveaway if you comment on this post!

I’m going to talk a little bit about endings. That’s on my mind now because I’m in the middle of writing the final book of my Dream Series. I’ve known since the third book where the series would end, and what event would be happening. The title of the book is DREAM WEDDING, so it’s not exactly hard to guess.

There’s no big, overarching plot in my series – it’s simply about my heroine, and following her through her life and the challenges she faces. Still, I knew I was working towards two things as the books went on. First, bringing them up to the present day (the first book takes place in 1989-90, and each one jumps ahead). And, second, bringing her character full circle. The first book of the series ends with Sara getting ready to graduate from college, and her boyfriend about to propose to her. By the third book, when we’ve jumped ahead to 1996, and she’s got a daughter, I knew that the series had to end with the daughter’s wedding. There have just been a a few bumps and detours along the way – mainly because Sara (and her daughter) have the gift (or curse) of being able to visit other people’s dreams, and that’s led to an awful lot of trouble for them!

Series endings are one thing, and individual book endings are something else. In most of the books, the climax comes a chapter or two before the end. That leaves quite a bit of space to explore what happens after the ending, and how Sara and her family feel about what happened. Mainly, I do that because it’s what I like to read (or watch, in a movie). We watch a lot of classic movies in my house (the TV is almost always tuned to Turner Classic Movies), and it’s striking how many older films end very suddenly. There’s the climax, the main conflict is resolved, and then THE END, roll the credits (except often there weren’t even credits at the end at all, until the 1950’s). Today’s movies are different – we often get a voiceover or a montage or even full scenes after the credits, letting us know what happened after the story ended. On some TV series, we get whole episodes that come after the climax to a season-long story, and sometimes mini-episodes on the web to follow up on subplots that didn’t get wrapped up.

If I like a story, If I’ve come to know and love the characters (or even love to hate them, sometimes), then I want to know more. I don’t want to leave them. And I guess I’ve carried that through in my books, too. And if I’ve spent several hours, or several hundred pages, engrossed in a story, I don’t want it to all be wrapped up quickly, in the last two minutes or ten pages.

I don’t know if I’ve managed to get the endings right in my books – I have to leave that to the reader to decide. I’ll also leave you with a sneak peek at my upcoming book, #10 in the Dream Series, DREAM WEDDING

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Seth Taylor is a senior at Crewe University, and he lives in the same dorm she does, two floors above her. He’s also been her on-and-off boyfriend for most of her three and a half years at college, and to hear Lizzie tell it it’s been a lot more on than off since their senior year began in September. If he weren’t smiling – although the smile is becoming more nervous with each passing second – I’d wonder if he was here to deliver bad news about my daughter.

“No, Dr. Alderson. She doesn’t know I’m here. It’s – it’s a surprise.” Yes, it is. Especially because Lizzie isn’t flying home until Wednesday, two days from now.

I let that pass. I also let it pass that it’s a little bit presumptuous to show up unannounced on our doorstep and expect me to find a spare bed for him for two nights. Not that I have any problem with him visiting, or sleeping in Ben’s room for a couple of nights. He’s done it enough times the last four years he’s known Lizzie, after all. Still, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some advance notice.

I put all that aside. “It’s Sara. Please. How many times do I have to tell you that?” I gesture for him to sit, and he does, but he can’t quite meet my eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call ahead, Doctor.” I’ve never known him to be this nervous. Granted, I don’t know him that well, but he’s always struck me as a very confident young man. “I didn’t want – I mean, it’s not the kind of thing you do over the phone. And I didn’t want her sister to find out and tell her. I want it to be a surprise.”

I have no idea what he’s…

Yes, I do. What was I just saying to myself? More on than off? I think he’s about to tell me that it’s about as “on” as you can get. 

 

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DREAM WEDDING isn’t out yet, or even up for pre-order, but you can find the rest of the books in the series on Amazon at:

http://viewAuthor.at/JJDiBenedetto

What’s the series about?

Sara Barnes thought her life was perfectly ordinary – until the night she began stepping into other people’s dreams.

Follow Sara as she learns to cope with this extraordinary gift (or curse). The first three books of the series are:

DREAM STUDENT

It’s bad enough that, thanks to her supernatural talent, Sara is learning more than she ever needed to know about her friends and classmates, watching their most secret fantasies whether she wants to or not. Much worse are the other dreams, the ones she sees nearly every night, featuring a strange, terrifying man who commits unspeakable crimes. Now Sara wonders if she’s the only witness to a serial killer – and the only one who knows when and where he’s going to strike next.

DREAM DOCTOR

Medical school and life as a newlywed would be enough by themselves for anybody to handle. But Sara’s got another problem – her dreams have started up again. Almost everyone at the medical school is dreaming about the death of the school’s least popular teacher, Dr. Morris, and once again, Sara finds herself in the role of unwilling witness to a murder before it happens. But this time, there are too many suspects to count, and it doesn’t help matters that she hates Dr. Morris every bit as much as any of his would-be murderers do.

DREAM CHILD

Sara thought she had made peace with her dreaming talent, but she’s got a surprise coming: her four-year-old daughter has inherited it, too.

Unraveling a mystery with lives on the line is difficult enough under the best of circumstances. But when Sara has to view all the evidence through the eyes – and dreams - of a toddler, it may be an impossible task.

As for me, I live in Arlington, Virginia with my lovely wife and Danny, a white cat who’s trained us both. I’m originally from Yonkers, New York. I love the New York Giants, fondue, photography, travel, the opera and I’m a huge science-fiction and fantasy geek.

You can follow me at:

My website – http://www.writingdreams.net

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/DreamSeriesBooks

Twitter – https:twitter.com/JJDiBenedetto

Last but not least, here’s the giveaway. Comment on this post for a chance to win: an ebook or audiobook box set of the first three Dream Series books; a USB drive with all the books loaded onto it; and a signed paperback copy of the Dream Series book of your choice (that’s three separate prizes for three winners!) Be sure to include your email address in the comment so I can find you!

Ending with a Bang

By Willa Edwards (Guest Blogger)

I’ve always found endings to be the most important part of a book (most important part of a bunch of other stuff too, but I won’t get into that now). As a reader, if a book doesn’t end the right way (a.k.a. the way I want to) it can be very disappointing for me. If the hero doesn’t get the girl, or mystery is solved without enough build up, it can change my entire view of the book. Nothing frustrates me more than a plot line that goes unfinished, besides maybe one that gets to easily wrapped up, can sour my entire opinion about a book.

It is due to this belief that I work very hard on the endings for my books. I want the readers to be satisfied by how the story ends. I do try to leave wanting more, like the next book. But I also want every story line from that book to be tied up, and the reader to be left with a warm feeling. After all that’s what I write romance to feel, that warm loved feeling.

So for my most recent release, Dirty Work, I put even more pressure on myself to finish this book with a bang. Since this book is the last in my Naughty Holiday List series. Not only was I writing the ending of this story, which I prize, but the end of an entire series. I really wanted to end this series with a special bang, since it is such a special collection to me. This series started my publishing career, and I learned so much from writing them. I wanted to give the characters that I have come to love all the happy endings they deserved, without being so sappy sweet that everyone who read it got a few new cavities. I wanted it to sound real, like it could actually happen to any of us.

What I decided to do was write an epilogue that summed up all the stories in the series. It’s a quick four or five pages, but gives every couple their due. This is the only book in the series I have added an epilogue to, but I felt it was fitting with this final installment. This epilogue is my love letter to those who have read all the books of the series. I hope all those who have enjoyed the other Naughty Holiday List series books, and even those that have just read Giselle and Garrett’s story, will enjoy this fitting end for a series that has meant so much to me.

Below is an excerpt from the beginning of my newest release Dirty Work. To find out how it ends…well you’ll have to buy the book for that!

In honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, and to celebrate the release of Dirty Work I’ll be donating one dollar for every comment I get on my blog between now and Oct 31^st, to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Please stop by, leave a comment, and help me provide mammograms to women in need.

http://www.willaedwards.com/2/post/2013/10/celebrating-a-release-with-a-good-cause.html

If you want to find out more information about how you can help provide mammograms to those in need, or find out more about preventing and diagnosing breast cancer you can go to  

https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/

Blurb

As her friend's wedding approaches, Giselle Rossini feels more discouraged than ever. She's not where she wanted to be in life. She loves her job, but longs for something else to fill her days.

When she walks into her ex-sweetheart Garrett at her school, declaring he's the new auto shop teacher and he wants her back, Giselle finds her last refuge quickly vanishing. Years ago she loved Garrett, but all he did was break her heart and prove to her men are all the same.

Garrett Montgomery never stopped loving Giselle. And now he's back, determined to work his way into her life. He's not surprised Giselle isn't ready to welcome him back into her arms, but he'll do anything to earn her trust again. Garrett's never been afraid of a little hard work, especially when it includes some dirty talking and getting naughty in the backseat of a car.

But can he break through Giselle's perfect impregnable shell and into her heart, or will the labor be too much for him to withstand?

Buy Link: http://www.bookstrand.com/dirty-work

Story Excerpt

“Garrett?”

“That’s right, darlin’.” He smiled that wicked, devastating grin that had always been her downfall, his deep Southern drawl enough to melt any woman’s panties, and he certainly had hers, many times. Just as she always remembered him, he had a smudge of motor oil across his forehead and along his chin. He always got the stuff all over himself. Which only made him look sexier.

He took a step closer to her, invading her space. His spicy, familiar scent of motor oil and aftershave swirled around her, and her heart sped up a bit. She knew she should step away, run, flee. Anything to escape Garrett and the emotions he’d stir up in her. But she couldn’t move. Her feet were frozen to the cement auto shop floor.

He traced a knuckle down her cheek, her skin tingling beneath his touch. “It’s been too long, sweetheart.” His thumb smoothed over her bottom lip, his eyes focused down on her mouth. “I’ve missed you.”

As if his words broke some kind of spell over her, Giselle stepped back, severing the connection of their bodies.

Her head swam and her heartbeat sped up. How could this be? How could Garrett be here? After all these years. After all this time. Why would he come back now? Today of all days.

“What are you doing here, Garrett?” She crossed her arms over her chest, using the small gesture as another barrier between their bodies.

He smiled. “I’m getting ready for my first class. What are you doing here?” He cocked an eyebrow at her, but the smile on his face remained.

“You’re the new shop teacher?” Giselle focused on breathing, when he nodded in return. The reality of it slammed into her like a ton of bricks. She’d have to see him every day, walking through the halls, talking to the kids, working on the cars in this shop. He’d come into the teacher’s lounge with dirt under his fingernails and grease on his face. Leaving her in a permanent state of confusion.

“Garrett, what are you doing here? Why did you get a job at my school?” She took another step back, trying her best to appear casual, and not like she was running away. Which, of course, she wasn’t. But being close to Garrett had always been confusing. That’s how she’d gotten into the trouble before. That’s how she’d allowed him to push past her defenses.

“My daddy passed a few months ago.” He looked down, pushing his hands into his pockets. The sadness in the small gestures was apparent. Garrett loved his father. They’d been very close, even when they lived hours apart.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Hayden was a great man.”

Garrett nodded. He looked up at her. His sad eyes staring right into hers, pulling at her heart so hard it was difficult to breathe. The urge to walk up to him and wrap her arms around his neck, to pull him close, to do anything to erase the sadness in his eyes, battled through her system.

Damn it! She hated that! She didn’t want to feel any more emotion for this man. She certainly didn’t want to feel bad for him. He was the one that tricked her, the one that broke his promises and left her to pick up the mess.

“I made him a promise,” Garrett continued, unaware of her internal struggles, “on his deathbed that I’d go after the girl I’d been pining for all these years.” He took a step closer, filling in the distance between them in one long stride.

Giselle took a deep breath, her knees knocking together. The urge to flee filled her, but she fought it back. She wouldn’t run from him like a scared rabbit. Not this time. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“I never stopped thinking about you, Dixie.” He extended one finger to smooth across her cheek. Heat flared beneath his touch and the desire to melt into him, like two metals fused by his welder, flamed inside her.

He stepped closer, until their bodies just brushed against each other. His warmth called to a place deep inside her. “I never stopped loving you, Dixie. All these years.”

His rich, chocolate eyes focused on her, warm and sweet. Those eyes had always been her undoing. One look from him and she’d forgive everything.

“I’ve come back for you, baby. And this time I’m not leaving without a fight.”

Find me Online: www.willaedwards.com

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Bittersweet Endings

By Cari Z (Guest Blogger)

When it comes to my own writing, I personally am a fan of the “Happily” convention. Happily Ever After or Happily For Now, or even just whoever I’m writing about being satisfied and, well, happy. I don’t like to leave uncomfortable hooks, and even if I don’t resolve every line of tension in a story, I try to leave things more positive than conflicted. Sometimes it takes a while to get there, though. Stories can hit the back burner as life intervenes, and life is about to intervene in a really big way.

After more than two years, my Peace Corps service is coming to a close. In a little over a month my husband and I will be packed up, all our worldly possessions stuffed back into the duffel bags we brought to Africa with us originally, our dog crated and ready to fly, and that will be it. We’ll be out of here. Back to America. I haven’t stepped foot in America for two years, and I’ve only spent a few weeks of that time span outside of Africa. It’s an ending, and it’s one that I’m feeling kind of conflicted about.

Living in rural West Africa has been incredibly tense, boring as hell, beautiful, frightening and eye-opening. I’ve learned more living here in two years than I ever thought I would, and I’ve done a lot of my best writing to date because, in part, of all the damn learning I’ve had to do. You can’t do this kind of work and not experience the full range of emotions, from deliriously happy to so enraged that you want to scream and break things. Everything is magnified here because life is fairly austere. You can’t take solace in American comfort food or television or your vast library of books, so most times you have to just feel whatever you’re feeling and try not to let it carry you too far off. It’s been more emotion and drama and excitement than I’ve ever sought in my life, and in a lot of ways I’m looking forward to the end.

It’s also scary. We’re going back to America and while that’s incredible, and I can’t wait to see family and friends and go out to my favorite places, it’s also hard. We’re leaving a place where we’re established, where we’re respected, and where our work makes a difference. We don’t have a house to go back to, a car to drive, and I don’t have a job waiting for me. Is it time for me to think more seriously about writing? Time to go back to school? Time to scramble for anything to pay for all the things we’ve been helped with here? (Health insurance and rent, yeah, I’m looking at you.)

Sometimes endings aren’t unequivocally happy. Sometimes they feel like a death or a separation, and this is a level of realism that a lot of writers incorporate in their work. You have to take the pain with the sweetness and pleasure, and sometimes things just don’t work out the way you’d like best. I wish we were leaving our community with more tangible results from our work here. I wish we could have done more. I wish fewer people had tried to take advantage of us and more of them had wanted to learn. I wish we had tried harder, even though at the time it felt like we were trying as much as we could. We’ve made a lot of friends and made a difference for some people, though, and that has to be enough now, because there’s no more middle. It’s the end.

A story of mine was recently published in the anthology Wild Passions by Storm Moon Press. It’s called "Opening Worlds", and it touches on the difficulty an ending can pose, both for characters and for their authors. Originally I thought to end this story with the main characters going their separate ways, with no intention of them coming together again. It just seemed like a logical place for the plot to stop, but the siren call of Happily overtook me, and I rewrote. The reviews I’ve read of my contribution to the anthology have been mostly positive, but they’ve also called me out on the “too perfect” ending for my conflicted lovers. On the other hand, one reviewer said if it hadn’t ended that way that she would have cried, which sounds like a decided conundrum to me. You can find read an excerpt of my story here and find out more about the book (even buy it!) here. If you like variety and creativity in your m/m romance, this is a good book for you!

Lisabet, you are entirely a gem, rare, precious and enduring. Thanks for hosting me yet again. You make visits to the internet café far less onerous. I will be a better e-neighbor soon.

Bio: Cari Z is originally from Colorado, but she and her husband have been living and working in West Africa for the past two years. That’s all coming to an end soon, though, and she’ll be off to America once more. It’s been a craaazy ride. Cari has been writing for many years, publishing for a few years and trying to get the hang of blogging and the like for less than a year, but it’s slowly coming together. She loves visitors, but she doesn’t expect you to fly to Africa to see her. Come and visit her blog instead: http://carizerotica.blogspot.com.