I’m on chapter 22 of 601 Suspense Street, page 335. Why did I ever wonder if I’d make it to 300? But here I am now, well… all of us I suppose. Will, Gemma, Fox, DC, Gemma’s grandmothers and the rest of the town of Eerie. Here we are at page 335, the beginning of the final chapter.
This was so hard to write, partly because Will took over from the very first chapter. He figured some things out and made some choices that I was not expecting, and I know better than to shackle my characters, so… I didn’t argue, I just wrote what I saw and heard and then feverishly reconfigured my plans for the book.
Then, halfway through, I completely changed the solution to the mystery, which meant going back over the first half of the book and making changes to fit that solution. It was a lot of work, but so worth it.
Writing this book has been stressful though, because of 715 Mystery Lane’s success. I’ve had such positive feedback (people tell me this personally, email, Facebook, etc. and I’d love to have that same feedback left on Amazon too, hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink). So no pressure, right? Wrong. Anyone reading 601 is going to want everything 715 had, and then some. I felt a little like Def Leppard after Pyromania. Could they pull off a second album and have fans raving because they liked it, or raving because it fell short? That’s pressure, baby. And I’ve felt it, up until the moment Will solved the mystery. All the pieces fell into place for him, and wow. This is awesome, is what I felt. Will–is awesome.
Almost every day at some point I call my Mom and read over what I’ve written. It helps me to do that. Well today, I almost made my mother cry. Not because she wanted me to stop, either. She nearly cried “oh my goodness that’s so perfect” tears. I will say no more.
Check out the description on Amazon if you haven’t. It’s available for preorder now, with a release date of October 16.
Happy reading, and now I’m going to get back to writing and finish the last chapter of 601.