WriteLife

A little something about endings. The picture shows a lined page that reads; The End. The End? The. End.

This week, and the previous two, I have been working hard to finish The Price of Pandemonium. And by finish, I mean write the last chapter. More specifically, write the final thousand words. Given I haven’t had to write the ending of a novel from scratch in almost a decade, it would be dishonest to say I was finding it easy. In fact, it has been the complete opposite. The pressure to get it perfect left me paralysed in my words, and searching for inspiration. So, I turned to the endings of some of my favourite books:

“And the world was all around us, with new possibility.” – Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

“It was a great deal to have found, a treasure house, and she would guard it well.” – Song of the Hills by Margaret Evans

Did the words of these authors help? Not really. But they did make me realise I had to let the book end itself naturally. The final words would find themselves, and they did.

Am I happy with the ending now? Mostly. Could it be better? Definitely.

But that’s what editing (and Sarah) is for.

A.

LabLife

I’m an aspiring author by night but qualified scientist by day. A chemist. That means spending my days in the laboratory trying to discover new and interesting things to do with the chemicals on this earth. Ideally, in an environmentally sustainable fashion. And even more ideally, to try and rectify the damage we’ve done to our planet.

Since this is my first blog post here, I thought I’d better introduce you to my lab mates I work with everyday. Without them, I couldn’t get any research done.

Firstly, there’s Mike and Harvey. And, before you ask, yes, I named them after the Suits’ characters. Mike (AKA my fail proof IKA hotplate) is the standard issue for an organic chemist. He can heat and stir with accuracy (410 rpm, in this instance), and you can’t really ask him to do anymore. But he’s an absolute beast, and does all the grunt work. Then there’s Harvey (AKA The Electrasyn). He can do things Mike could never dream of. He’s sleek, efficient and innovative. Since most of you probably aren’t familiar with hardcore organic synthesis, let’s just say Harvey’s a ‘supercharged’ version of Mike, and my lab life revolves around him. In fact, he’s so revolutionary my entire research project is based around what he can do. Lastly there’s Pat, the potentiostat. He may be old, but he’s vital in helping me uncover information to make Harvey work better. Invaluable.