No, what I mean to say is: IAMFINISHEDWITHTHEBOOK!IAMFINISHEDWITHTHEBOOK!IAMFINISHEDWITHTHEBOOK!

I actually wrote the words “THE END” at 6:30 in the morning. (How corny is it to write “THE END”?–but, what can I say, the moment called for it.) I was so tired and shaky that cartwheels were out of the question–as was opening up the bottle of champagne that Nancy had brought over earlier in the week for The Moment of Completion.

It was an odd, but delirious, moment.

The house was quiet. Everybody was asleep, even the Faithful Writing Dog. I had been working all night long…because I needed a long, uninterrupted stretch during which the phone absolutely would not ring, and dinner would not need cooking, dogs wouldn’t need to go in and out, and during which I could carefully listen to what the resolution of this story would be.

I mean, I knew I wanted the end to be. But always there is that tension about the end: will it turn out just right, or will it feel contrived when I get there? Will it make sense, given all that has come before for the characters? Will I get to the end and think, “YUCK”?

Or worse…will it be page 2,460 by the time I wrap this turkey up?

All I felt was a sense of profound relief and happiness. Now, I’ll take a few days off from Jamie McClintock and Sam Goddard and their various children and insecurities and problems. Today I planted petunias and geraniums and pansies and snapdragons everywhere, and then sat in the sun on the lounge chair and just thought about nothing.

Early next week I’ll be ready to go back in and see where just what kind of journey that really was that we were on in this book. No doubt many changes will need to be made.

It’s called “Kissing Games of the World.” I hope they’ll let me keep that title.

And so I have a question for all of you writers who come and visit here sometimes: Is it this way for you, too, when you finish a book? Is it always in the dark of night, after a long stretch of furious, frantic writing–or is it ever broad, sane daylight, after which you go off to resume regular life, the carpool and dinner?

In my experience with my three novels, they always get done in the deep middle of the night, after a push that is reminiscent of childbirth. So my question: How do YOU finish a big project that’s taken a year to work on?

Oh, also–I hope you can come by and visit me at Conversations with Writers where I was interviewed by Ambrose Musiyiwa, a British freelance writer whose blog presents conversations with writers, with a view to promoting writers, reading, literacy, and small press publishers.