Wrote two action scenes where I knew exactly where I was going, over the last two days.

Both chapters passed muster with Linda. When she gives me a pleased little smile, I know I hit the mark.

Now I need to write two action scenes where I don't have a clue.

I've always said, these last few chapters are some of the hardest. It's almost as if somewhere in my subconscious I'm afraid to finish, or don't want to finish. Of course, the final chapters are some of the most important, and they really need to be nailed, so they can't be rushed.

I do have a tendency to try to finish my books too soon. So it is important that I approach the ending with that in mind. Am I rushing it? Is there something I'm leaving out?

Geoff at Cohesion quite rightly pointed out that I'd dropped the snakes in "Snaked" in favor of the tsunami, and when I wrote new chapters to bring them back in at the ending, it did improve the book.

So with "Lucifer's Forge," I'm trying to keep the terrorists in the picture, even though the firestorms have become front and center.

I also have a tendency to wrap things up just a little too neatly. In some ways, this is cool. It shows an ability to construct a complete story arc. But I need to mess it up a little, go off in a slightly different direction than I want. I mean, I pause and say, "OK. This is where the story is going, where can I upset that and still get the results I want?"

There is a sense of rightness to a book. Either I feel like I've done it or I don't. Sometimes the doubts are minor and maybe only I would notice them. Other times I just look at the book and think, "This didn't do it."

I have 9 books I'm sitting on where I had that feeling. They're...all right. But to make them better than "all right" would take the same effort that it takes to write a brand new book, so....I sit on them.

This book is good. I'm not sure how good, but it meets my standards. I do intend to do much more rewriting with this book than normal, and for some reason that doesn't intimidate me this time. I think I've slowly worked out a process for rewriting that is tolerable.

And I know that most of the time, if I don't overdo it, the rewriting definitely improves the book.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I have about 9K words left to write, so we'll see where I end up.