And the answer-or lack of an answer-that each of us comes up with is what provides us with a moral system to live by. I'd say the answer to that question is crucial. We're alive on this earth for less than 100 years (most of us, anyway), and then there's the question of what happens to us for the rest of eternity. My feeling has always been that religion, the supernatural and the afterlife are *the* most important issues any human has to face. It's hard for me to believe that everybody doesn't think about this stuff all the time. I'm very glad my editor kept handing it back to me instead of saying, 'Eh, I guess this'll do.'Ī.M. I don't remember how many times I rewrote that scene, but it was a bunch. My editor would read it and say, 'Nope, this doesn't ring emotionally true.' So I'd tackle it again, trying to nail it without pushing the characters around. That last scene between Kiriel and Lane took several different rewrites after the rest of the book was done I knew what happened in that scene, but I couldn't get the emotional arc of it right, and by that point I had looked at the ms so many times I couldn't really 'see' it anymore. Girl characters are not my strong point and I kept going off course with her and that made Kiriel's reactions inaccurate. But most of the bumbling I did with Lane wasn't due to Kiriel-it was due to Lane herself. With Kiriel and Lane, same old same old I knew where they were ultimately heading, and there were the usual dead ends.

I have to back up, reassess, delete, and rewrite.

Jenkins: When I write a book, I generally know what will happen in the end, and then my process always takes me down blind alleys while I'm getting there.

Repossessed by am jenkins