Part 4 of Tits for Tates is now live, which means Alex and Brad's story has officially reached its end. (Or an ending, anyway. I'm not totally convinced endings are ever really final in this genre.)
This one fought me. I knew from the start they'd hit thirty complaints—that was always the destination—but figuring out how to stick the landing took more drafts than I'd like to admit. How much do you show? How much do you leave ambiguous? When do you cut to black and trust your readers to sit with the discomfort? And it didn't help that I decided to take a detour into not one, but two Christmas stories, and a website redesign for good measure!
The early parts wrote themselves. Two brothers, one magical contract, escalating consequences, all wrapped up in a sitcom tribute that made it fun and sort of silly. Easy! But the finale? That required figuring out what the story was actually about. Turns out it wasn't really about sitcoms at all. It was about two people who'd spent forty years hurting each other and whether forgetting all of that was mercy or tragedy.
(I'm still not sure I have an answer?)
Thanks to everyone who's been following along since "Distrust and Estates." Your comments, messages, and theories kept me motivated through the longer chapters and helped me see what was working, and what absolutely wasn't. I genuinely love hearing from you!
What's next? I'm taking a short breather to let my brain reset, but I've got a couple of new ideas percolating that I'm excited about. Stay tuned!
xoxo, Paige
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