Epilogues are Meant to be Cheesy- No One Can Change My Mind

Another way to say: I finished WHEN IN DECEMBER!

Jul 12, 2024

Cue the champagne and the tiny finger confetti cannons. I finished writing When in December!

Or at least, I finished it and am moments away from sending it off to Editor.

Same thing. Kind of.

Sure there is still a lot left to do. Editor is going to mark it all up full of her grammar magic to make everything stunningly pretty and then I will go through those edits (or eventually glance through them and hit “apply all” when I get too overwhelmed—because I trust her). Once that happens, I’ll hopefully run through the story one more time before formatting and sending ARC copies out to all the wonderful readers and reviewers.

And then, I’ll go through a proof copy again since there are always—ALWAYS—at least 3 typos that I and Editor managed to somehow miss because we are wonderful creative humans who just want to send out a story, not noticing the word vein and vain are used incorrectly by accident or my personal favorite, when someone’s clothes come off in a romantic scene more than once. I mean, how many layers do these people have?

But then we will have the final version of When in December.

But for now, I’m finished. And I’ve decided something very important. When it comes to romance novels and epilogues, they are meant to be at least 90% cheesy. It’s just what it is. Creating a HEA* or HFN* just makes it come with the territory.

I first noticed this cheese phenomenon when writing Call You Mine’s epilogue. As I was racing to the finish line and putting together just this one last chapter I couldn’t help but think, this is so ridiculous and unrealistic? But also, who cares? It’s satisfying. It makes a reader’s little heart swoon and smile at the last page. And that is the true goal of romance I’ve always thought. Enjoyment.

And a good dose of love for yourself that makes hope for a brighter more lovely future ahead.

This being said, prepare for swoons and maybe a happy eye roll at the end of When in December. Because I am making sure that almost everything works out exactly how it is meant to for this love story.

One thing I still need to do however for When in December? Come up with the dedication.

You just wait.