A NEW BEGINNING AT THE END

It's been long in coming—reaching the end of my novel. But I'm actually at that critical point. I can go two ways. I've written a revised version of the ending—but think I may go back to the original ending. My husband, Bob, will give it a read through and his feedback will be my answer. It hasn't been easy getting to this point, and I'm still pushing myself to the finish line.

I've been living with my characters for a long time, and now it is time for all my characters to take leave, to be on their own, find an agent who will like them, maybe love them enough to take them on.

EATING MY WAY INTO MY NOVEL

I'm at 30,432K, kinda in the middle of Amanda's journey. I'm actually at a crossroads because I've got to come up with more leads for my protagonist to find her dad. I can't seem to plot it out, like write an outline or synopsis, or tags, it all seems to happen when my fingers are typing away, so I'll have to type and write away to the finish line. It hasn't been easy.

November, NaNoWri month inspired me to move on, having been there, done that, got to the finish line and wrote 50K. So I've got the bounded book on my desk to inspire me to finish Star Struck Girl.

What I realized without knowing how it happened, I've got food in my novel, even an Italian hero.

But food is great to create setting. More on that later.

Now back to Star Struck Girl.

THE STREETS OF TRI-BE-CA

Starstruck Girl begins on the streets of TriBeCa. This is the novel of my dreams. Can it happen? That is, can I actually finish my novel. It's been a long journey. A journey of obstacles that just got in the way. My goal is to get my novel out of the computer into the world. So I'd decided to write about my obstacles, and maybe, just maybe, this will free me to get my book into the hands of an agent. Goodness knows, my protagonist, Amanda Dunne, wants to walk free on the streets of TriBeCa.