I read, edited, reread it and was not happy with the ending. I tinkered with it, but it felt like I was droning on and not adding to the story. I had already cut out an entire chapter that wasn't moving the story ahead and I added one sentence later that conveyed what I had said in that chapter. So I went to bed and during the night, my mind solved the ending. Early the next morning, I rewrote it. It was much much better. Off the manuscript went to the publisher.
As usual, I worked hard to make the characters 3-dimensional. I've talked about this before -- characters need a rich background to make them who they are when readers meet them. If they aren't interesting, why would the reader care about them? In this case, Brielle had watched her mother walk away when she was four. This feeling of abandonment coated everything in her life. All her choices were safe ones, ones made so she wouldn't be hurt again.
This quote from the book gives you a peek into what Brielle is feeling...
"Every single thing in her life was in shambles except for her job. Who had she become, letting her selfish hate taint everything. She had lied to Philip about her mother, had tolerated his condescension because he wasn't a threat to her, to breaking her heart like her mother had. She had never grown close to anyone because if they walked away or died, it wouldn't hurt like when her mother had abandoned her. And now her mother was dead, her grandparents and Philip, all gone. Would she end her life like Jeanne Dubois, a recluse?"
Well, you'll have to wait till the book is released to find out what happens to her. :-)
Keep writing and reading. Work hard on making your characters real, gritty, soft, tender... whatever they have to be to make your readers love them or hate them. There is no middle of the road.
I'll be back when I hear from the publisher... I hope. In the meantime, I'm working on the sequel to "She's Not You," a new Oyster Point Mystery!
Till, Judi
