Holiday Heat is done. It’s finally, finally done. Two years of work, of writing, of complaining about not writing, of forcing the words out, of publishing, of editing, of marketing… it’s all done.

And it was done by the deadline. I actually finished it last Tuesday, the 29th, but I had a couple of posts I wanted to make first so I saved the news. Okay, so the original deadline was the end of 2023, but as I mentioned way back in June of last year, going back to the office made it really hard to work on my writing. These last few days, though, I went on a tear, getting as much done as I could, sometimes as many as three or four stories per day. And yes, a couple of them were reworked trunk stories; and yes, a couple of them have the holidays crammed in awkwardly. When you’re writing 365 stories, these things happen.

Still, I’m proud of these 628,000 words. I don’t think I’ll ever accomplish anything quite like this again. But it was worth it.

Now I just have some editing and typesetting to finish up, and I’ll be done with the project. Then I can take a break, and maybe work on something new, like the third Plans book — which takes place prior to Holiday Heat and features Shawn, Julie, and Rachel.

For now, though, I think I’m just going to sit back and breathe.

It’s. Finally. Done.