VICTORY IS MINE!!!

The "Secrets" epilogue is FINISHED! Only in rough draft, of course -- I have to edit it so much, you have no idea how stupidly drawn-out and angsty it is right now -- but it is a thousand times easier to fix a story than to create it out of nothing.

I owe HUGE thanks to Vicky for her help. I was talking to her on the phone tonight, catching up on our lives in general, and I mentioned that I'd been having problems with the epilogue and that it was set during the Weasleys' trip to Egypt, and she mentioned something that gave me the perfect reason and way to wrap up the conversation (which I had thought might turn out to be a real-life perpetual motion machine, it was going on so long without any sign of a conclusion) and also a useful bit of scene-setting to work into the opening paragraphs. I <3 my sister. There is a reason I say she is my best editor, even in cases where she is totally unfamiliar with the fandoms I'm working in -- she knows me, you see, and knows how I think, what I overlook, and where I cut corners.

The file is currently at 3,650 words. I hope I can trim that down closer to 3,000 words even -- I wasn't kidding when I said the draft is drawn-out -- but that will have to wait at least one day to give me a vague pretense of perspective.

But still. Finished! *throws virtual confetti all over the internet*

this is why sleep is a good and necessary thing

Apparently sometime last night or very early this morning, I was really, truly, seriously out of it. You know how I know this?

( cut for TMI of a feminine hygeine product nature )

So yeah, that's my embarrassing TMI moment of the month. Hopefully it will remain the high point on that scale for the rest of the year as well.