I just wanted to announce that I am three major scenes away from finishing Tijuana Nights. THREE! I’m so close, I can almost smell the paper it will be printed on. It’s crazy. I haven’t ‘finished’ a book in ages, well – not a draft book, and I’m really looking forward to it. Usually I feel pretty depressed after I finish writing something… normally because I don’t want to say goodbye to my characters.

This time around though, I don’t have to say goodbye, because the main character team features in the next book that I’m going to write – Venetian Nights. And I’m chuffed I don’t have to say goodbye. My characters will face new challenging circumstances, and bond with new people, in a completely different part of the world.

It’s great writing a series of books that are all individual stories. Once I start writing Venetian Nights, I’ll also start the planning for the next book, set in another beautiful location. Hopefully I won’t be completely sick of my Character Team by then, and hey – if I need to, I can always kill one of them off and bring in a new dynamic character.

I can’t honestly say that Tijuana in Mexico has been a beautiful location, per se, but it certainly set the scene for the first book. The research into the Mexican Cartel’s has been pretty extreme, and I’ve had to lock down my research in my system, because to be honest – I don’t want anyone stumbling across some of that stuff. It’s brutal, unbelievable, and yet deadly serious. I have learnt a hell of a lot of the darker side of the human race in recent months. A part of it is great, because the depth of my knowledge has seriously expanded.

The end is nigh, in my world, and I can’t wait. Seriously. I’m at that point where I just want to put aside everything and write, write, write. I don’t feel like doing Christmas, or social engagements, or anything distracting. I just want to dive into my little writer’s hole and crank this book out. It’s a wonderful feeling. Finger’s crossed I get it written by Christmas though, because my Mother in Law is going to be my rough draft reading tester.

Laini Taylor, author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone wrote a really great post about how she goes away to finish off her drafts. I think it’s a brilliant idea, and I would love to do that for this book, but I actually don’t have time at the moment. Maybe for the next book? Fingers crossed. Perhaps with this book I’ll just have my own little Celebration of Completion Party… I may even be the only one attending. But that will be my own little sad story that I’ll be sure to probably blog about. 🙂