Beginning at the End

This morning I was focused on Book 8 for some reason.  It started to work on one of the ending chapters even though I only have a rough outline for the beginning and middle of the book.  I guess I was worried about the big reveal with a new character and was as stressed as my heroine about how to go about it.  It was somehow worse than asking a guy to the prom.  How do you tell someone that you like, that likes you, a terrible secret that might send him screaming in the opposite direction?  I was actually nervous about how to explain to someone about Hell and angels and vampires and werewolves when this character had no idea any of them actually existed.  Up to that point the majority of my characters either knew about some or all of the above and it wasn't a complete shock to them.  Most of them had been swept up into the drama and learned about these things as the story progressed.  The good guy for Book 8 was isolated from all of the craziness and my heroine had to decide what to do.

I was afraid how my good guy was going to react to the bizarre world that surrounds my girl and even worse, felt guilty about doing it.  She had a choice.  She could leave him alone forever and let him think that the world was a safe boring place without evil creatures bent on destroying humanity or should she go to him and reveal everything.  I had to decide if she would take the high road and leave him alone or be selfish and bring him into her world.  I had to wonder what I would personally do.  Do you tell the guy you care about something bad or let him live a normal life without you?  Sadly I think most of us would be selfish enough to tell him the truth.

The ending for Book 8 plays directly into Book 9 so I need a big close.  Book 8 & 9 together show my heroine how far she has come on her journey.  She realizes how commonplace all the things in her life have become even though they are far from common.  These stories become a test for her.  How far has she gone down the rabbit hole?  How much as she changed?  Does she like the person that she has become?  It's hard to look back on your life from when you were a child through to present day.  We have to examine all the things that have made us who we are. It begs the question, can we ever go home again?  Have we changed so much that we don't recognize who we once were and worse, will the people that we knew growing up even like the person we have become. That's what my character has to ultimately decide in Book 9.  Will the person she is now be worthy of someone who knew her before she changed?