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03/20/2007 Entry: " Finish the book."

Finish the book.

Last December I was at a dinner party, and it's usually that time of the year where I really start to feel the dread of going to any dinner party. It's almost New Year's and this is the time of the year where everyone checks in with each other and friend's you only meet at dinner parties will ask you the same question, well at least ask me the same question...how's the book?

To make a long story short I have been writing BikiniKat VS. The Super Ugly Beautifuls for a long time. I had never really written a story from beginning to end, aside from English papers, and writing a novel, well, at the time it didn't scare me because I was too ignorant to know what I was getting into.

But now, seven years later, it's not that I'm struggling to finish it, it's just that novels are hard, and in a world of talking pink cats and baton twirling ice cream cones, anything can happen. Anything. And so I look at the bookshelf behind me full of writing books, my education to the craft, and I know that all I have to do is...

"Finish the book."

Oh, that's my friend Jaina. We write together and compare notes and she is a very prolific writer who, as we determined one evening..."Writes books that blow your mind."

It was at this dinner party where she looked at me and said "Finish the book" in such a way that it stuck to my ribs. A few days later I filled my printer with paper and hit the print button; hole punched the pile and gave a copy, warts and all, to my friend Jean who was visiting for the holidays.

Jean hugged the binder and told me she would protect it with her life. I have really great friends. Since then I have printed more then ten copies and distributed them around the neighborhood. This simple act has made such a big difference that I think that I'm just about to...finish the book.