Conversations with Characters - Happily Ever Afters

I'm a huge fan of the happily ever after epilogue in romance books I read, and I plan on writing them for all of my books as long as the characters cooperate. I needed to sit down and start working on Shauna's book. If you read the blog post catching up with Micah, you know that I had to toss the first four chapters because Micah jumped in, claimed Shauna, and took her story in an ENTIRELY different direction from what I had planned. I posted this on my Facebook author page a few days before Thanksgiving:

My plan this morning was to look through some stock photo websites and find inspiration for the next project, and then once I had those, I was going to spend the day reading. I'm still on my writing break. I already have inspiration photos for the couple, but I wanted some for their epilogue/HEA. Every time I came across photos of a couple of kids or a group of kids that I thought would work, Shauna got really chatty, and I ended up having an internal conversation with her.

Me - I think these are your kids.

Shauna - nope. Definitely not. Try again.

Me - These two are cute.

Shauna - no, those definitely X's and those three girls that look like a dramatic handful

belong to Y.

Me - I'm pretty sure those three could be yours.

Shauna - keep scrolling. I'm not even sure we want kids. We might want to be the fun Aunt and Uncle.

Me - that could work. You could spend your vacations traveling and spoil all the kids everyone else wants. You could be kid-free. I really like the idea of at least one couple o be choosing to be kid-free.

Shauna - I'm leaning towards kid-free. Keep scrolling. Stop. That group, right there. Those kids belong to M&M.

Me - That works, if they get a book.

Shauna - they need a book.

Me - Maybe.

Shauna - they're getting a book.

I continue to scroll.

Shauna - STOP!

Me - Why are you yelling at me?

Shauna - You missed it. Scroll up. That photo, right there. It's mine. That's my HEA Epilogue inspiration. I want that.

Me - you sure about this? I thought we just decided on kid-free.

Shauna - Definitely, I'm sure. Look at the facial expression and attitude. Definitely me. Are there more pictures?

Me - I'll search for the same model.

Shauna - that Valentine's day theme with heart balloons is definitely something I'd plan. It's the perfect gift for Rocky and Mom.

Me - nice idea. Remind me when I write your epilogue.

Shauna - you're writing that first. I'm not talking about anything until my HEA is written.

Me - okay, remind me when I'm writing.

Shauna - it's cute how you thought you were reading today. Go start some laundry, pour a drink, and get your laptop. I'm feeling chatty.

That is how I ended up writing Shauna and Micah's HEA Epilogue before anything else in the book. She also helped me write everyone else's baby portion of the HEAs and convinced me that a couple you haven't met yet really need their own book.

If you want more sneak peeks as I'm writing, be sure to join the chat group Jabbering with JLynn.