It’s Time to Say Goodbye

It’s Time to Say Goodbye

With over sixty titles between three pen names, I’ve only said goodbye to a handful of characters, and one of those I brought back in the very next book as a ghost. Only the bad guys have died and had to be hauled away, leaving the good guys to fight another day. I mean, who wants to see something bad happen to the good guys in the end, right?

Well, as I told the girls the other day, it’s time for someone to die. And Thanksgiving in Bull Creek seemed like the best place to start. I mean, what shakes a holiday up more than someone dying?

All right, I’ll let you in on a secret. I didn’t kill anyone. That’s not exactly true. Someone did die, but it wasn’t one of our Bull Creek gang. Instead, I said goodbye to someone who has been around since the beginning. You’ll have to read the book to find out who, but for me, it was an emotional ending. I described it to the girls as the ending of one of our favorite TV shows when they say goodbye to one of the beloved characters, and there’s a lot of goodbyes, or a surprise departure that churns everyone’s heartstrings into one knot of snot-flying sobbing. And yeah, I cried as I wrote it. There’s one line in particular that I can’t even repeat without tears pooling in my eyes. And I didn’t even intend to send them off until the day before I wrote it. It wasn’t the plan in the beginning, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and it made for a more dramatic, better ending. It also stayed true to the characters.

From time to time, it’s good to shake things up, keeping it real for the characters and readers alike. It also keeps me from getting bored with the stories. But it hurts. I’ll tell you, it was emotional saying goodbye to this character. I’ve seen them grow, change, sacrifice, survive, and then thrive. When I said goodbye to this fictional character, it was like saying goodbye to a dear friend. I bet it’s that way for you when you read a book and it finally ends, isn’t it?

I’m not saying someone won’t die later, but for now, I started with a simple farewell. It was heartbreaking, but I think future stories will be better for it. And there’s no plan to bring them back. They’re not spinning off into their own series or visiting home. They’ve moved on to the next chapter of their life, and we wish them well. Now it’s time to focus on the other characters.

Furthermore, in Thanksgiving in Bull Creek, things turned slightly darker. You’ve noticed in the previous books that I’ve been splitting the factions more as each strives to govern themselves, putting more angst in the stories and conflict in the characters. We’re talking about a town with witches, shifters, and vampires. Things shouldn’t always be sweet and tender. People turn on each other, have their own agendas, and stay true to the monster within them. It’ll be fun watching what happens from this point forward, and I hope you remain on this journey with us. There will be more goodbyes, I’m sure, but for now, Bull Creek has some growing pains to survive. Let’s hope they make it.


Until next time, 

Robbie

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