the End is upon us!

Very excited tonight. I've got two or three small sections of chapter twenty-five to revise/rewrite tomorrow evening and I'll be finished the all the major changes I wanted to make to I HAD TO FALL. I'm working all day Saturday (setting up all those nice trade show displays I've been designing) but after that I've got a week scheduled for making a few last minor revisions to the story, and then another week for a line-by-line polish of the copy.

And then it's done. Like, really done.

To share in my excitement, I've got a nice little excerpt for you here. One of my biggest changes to the story was the relationship between Cal and Deyl. Their interactions and face time remained the same, but their opinions, treatment and feelings about each other changed significantly. This is from chapter twenty, a bit of Cal and Deyl working together towards a common goal. Not that they wanted to, but they didn't have much choice.

(Yeah, I know you have no context for this. Sorry. Hope you love it anyway.)

I turned slowly towards Cal, who was dropping the choked body to the ground. We just stared at each other, his breathing heavy against the steadiness of my own. In that moment I knew something between us had changed, our uneasy truce complicated by the bond that came only from fighting side by side together.

"We have to clear this," was all he said.

I nodded.

Blood would leave the most visible signs of our ambush so I grabbed the two bleeding men first, taking one by the arm in each hand and dragging them across the narrow road into the dark shade of the birch trees. Beside me, Cal carried two more. In a minute we had the road cleared of the bodies and all trace of the fight.

The last man dropped from my arms. It was the tall one with my knife still embedded in his chest. I pulled it out as he fell to the grass at my feet, wiping it clean on a nearby patch of moss before tucking it back into my shoulder strap.

"Nice toss," Cal remarked, his tone casual.

Gazing up at him, I tried to gauge his thoughts. His expression was carefully closed. It struck me that he meant it.

A broad grin lit up my face, the adrenaline crashing and making me feel a bit giddy.

"Thanks," I said smiling even wider. A distant, low boom echoed on the morning breeze. We both turned to look towards the sound.

The charge had blown.

Cal turned back to me and I met his gaze soberly, the giddiness evaporating. He snatched both shotguns up and tossed one to me.

"We need to move."

"Right." I fell into step behind him again.