The end of Chimera came to me this night. Believe me, I wasn’t at all happy with what was waiting for me at four in the morning. I knew it was likely to be a sad ending. Sami, the main character, has been hinting at it for quite a while, despite all those close to her refusing to give in to her fears. But this level of grief is just too much. All through the writing of Chimera, I have clung to the hope that another ending would turn up; the miracle alternative. Surely such a tragic ending is not inevitable. Even now, I am tempted to push aside what I witnessed and look for alternatives, or at least to ease the shock. But once the story ending is written down, albeit in note form, it takes on a solidity that, if not unavoidable, exerts an attraction that is hard to ignore.
Photo: a modified version of the back cover photo from Chimera.