Well, Chapelites, it's finally the end of the series and I say finally with a roll of the eyes because it has been (after checking and realising my initial calculation was wrong) three years since I started posting The Whitechapel Chronicles here on Wattpad.

Yes, I know. Three years. It seems vaguely ridiculous, if I'm being honest and while I'm sure many of you have been frustrated over the length of time it has taken me to finish the series, none of you could have possibly hit the levels of frustration that I have throughout. I never intended it to take this long but then again, when I first started writing Playing Dead, I never intended to write a series and I certainly never intended to finish on a book that was over 200k words long. Cue another roll of the eyes. 

I know I have often apologised before for the sporadic updates, but having finally come to the end, I feel I need to say it again, because let's face it, if this wasn't Wattpad, NO ONE would wait this long for a series to be finished. Playing Dead was a joy to write, having completed a massive chunk of the book before I started posting and it was something new and exciting. The Lost was a little more taxing, because suddenly I'd thrown Megan into this crazy supernatural world of God and the Devil, angels and demons, and it took a lot of working out what the Hell I was going to do with her. But Savage Wings was a whole other headache altogether.

I promised myself that I would do what I had done with Playing Dead and write as much as I could before starting to post and then I found myself getting drawn back in far too quickly, with no pre-written chapters to back me up. It's fair to say that the first half of 2015 was a total creative low for me, for reasons I won't go into here, but after that I struggled to pick up the pace again. I lost a lot of readers for different reasons, but many, I'm glad to say, stuck with me and continued to stick with me, despite the fact that the book wasn't going anywhere fast. Work got in the way far too many times and writing often took a back seat. In short, it wasn't the best writing experience I've ever had.

If anyone tells you that writing serialised fiction is fun: DON'T BELIEVE THEM. Those people are clearly insane and shouldn't be trusted. It's tough and it's pressurised and it's not particularly conducive for creativity and quite frankly, most of the time, the ONLY thing that kept me going was, well, you guys. As I sat languishing between updates, I watched in awe and envious horror as so many writers churned out book after book and I'll make no bones about the fact that I often wished that their fingers would fall off in the night and they'd have to learn to write with their toes. THINK YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO PRODUCTIVE TRYING TO TYPE WITH YOUR TOES, HUH? THINK AGAIN! 

But nobody's fingers fell off and I still struggled to update.

And so, three ridiculously long years after starting this series, it's done. Finished. Completed. And after spending so long, wishing that pixies would come along and magically finish the damn thing for me so I could move on and write something new, or maybe just devote more time to scouring the net for pictures of Kit Harington while crying into the bottom of my vodka glass, I feel a little bereft at the thought of this being the end. I'm not going to lie. I was a total sap and cried when writing those last few lines. I sat in my living room at 2am crying like a baby and suddenly realised I didn't really want it to end and that I wasn't quite sure what I'd do without Megan & co in my life.

Of course, that's sort of stupid, because they'll never really go anywhere plus there's the possibility of additional bonus chapters and prequel Harper novella (take note all!) and there will also always be shiny bright new characters to fall in love with, but you know....as Lucifer says, I do so hate goodbyes. 

I've spent a long time these past couple of weeks answering comments on the final chapters and epilogue and I've realised with a growing horror, that I'm totally rubbish with compliments and so, if after the umpteenth time it looks like I'm just regurgitating the same reply over and over, please know that it's not because it's not heartfelt, but because I don't find it easy to put into words just how to say thank you to people that have come to mean a great deal to me or indeed, to anyone who has taken time out to be incredibly kind and leave a lovely comment.

I do, however, want to say a few more thank you's here. Yeah, it's a bit wanky and indulgent I know, but I've just completed three years of work and have barely slept for two weeks, so grant me a little bit of wankiness and self-indulgence, okay?

TO MY REGULAR READERS – some of you have been with me since I joined the site. Some of you have found Whitechapel more recently. But when I see your faces on the comments board after every update, it really does make my day. I feel like I've gotten to know some of you very well over the course of the three books. I've gotten to know your personalities and quirks, I've gotten to see your passion and emotion and it's truly an incredibly thing. A writer is NOTHING without her readers and a Wattad writer is nothing without the people who come back time and time again to leave a comment. You guys rock. I adore you. Thank you.

TO MY SILENT READERS – yeah, I see you guys! You might not think I do, because you don't like to leave comments, but I still see your votes and I see the reads shooting up and know that you're there. It's okay if you've never left a comment. Who says you have to? The fact that anyone reads my stuff still astonishes me so it's more than enough to know that you're there and you're reading. Thank you.

TO MY DEDICATED CRAZY CHAPELITE ASYLUM GROUP – I wish I could name every single one of you here, but 1) it would take forever and everyone would just get bored and go paint their nails/fall asleep/drink excessively and 2) I'm bound to forget a name by accident and then I'll be hoping my fingers AND toes drop off in the night as punishment.  I hope without naming specific names you know if I'm referring to you here. You guys have held me steady for a long time, you've cheered me on, you've made me laugh (anyone remember that damn goat game??) and you are the craziest bunch of mo-fo's a writer could ever hope to have on her side. Some of you I've met, most of you I haven't, but you're all FREAKING BRILLIANT and I just hope that you'll stick around in the asylum for a while longer and keep the place looking beautiful. Thank you thank you thank you.

TO MY FAUSTUS CREW - RachelWatson4 NeverTrustaDuck bnlfan daniewhite - ladies, thank you for a brilliant day. It was amazing to meet those of you I hadn't met before and it's a day I'll treasure for a long time. There's not many people that can say they had the pleasure of watching Kit Harington's naked butt bobbing up and down and I'm glad that I got to share that experience with you! I vote more group outings please!

TO MY TWITTER CREW - again I'm not going to name drop, but I hope you know if I'm referring to you. Not all of my readers, or indeed all of the FB group are on Twitter, but for those of you who are and have diligently spent time posting TWC quotes, making edits and generally helping to promote the series, I love you heaps. Thank you <3

TO ScarletteDrake – yes you, you bloody beautiful genius, you. You joined the TWC gang late, but if I'm being honest I'd already fangirled at you from afar and was a little bit giddy when you started reading Playing Dead. You've been a total godsend behind the scenes, offering advice, kicking my butt when it's required a damn good kicking and generally being just fecking wonderful. You inspire me more than you could ever know and one day, soon, when you're a freaking famous author, I'll be able to sit proud and say that I know you and that I love you dearly. Thank you for being an inspiration, a friend and a genius. And sorry for sometimes hoping that your fingers would fall off.

TO VarsiA & Amy-Sharp  – literally what can I say? I've thought long and hard about how I could put this into words and I know you'll laugh at my pathetic British need to say thank you yet again, but in this case, IT'S FUCKING OBLIGATORY, OKAY??? I honestly don't know what I would do without you ladies in my life. You know, more than anyone, how difficult it's been for me to write this series. You know about all the crap that's happened, you've been there when I've wanted to throw in the towel and you've probably seen me at my lowest. You've helped look after the FB group, you've run through the asylum in your cheerleader outfits waving your pom-poms (that's not a euphemism, by the way, Amy, we're not talking boobs here) and you've helped to stick me with the cattle prod every time I've insisted on re-reading a chapter for the 50th time before updating. I honestly don't think I would have done this without you guys and I know that's an easy thing to trip off the tongue, but it happens to be the truth. I'd probably have given up a long time ago. You are a huge part of my world and while I'd always get over not having Megan, Harper etc in my life every day, I would never recover if you both suddenly disappeared too. You are the best. I mean, yeah, you are a couple of total witches at times to be fair, but you're MY witches and that's what counts. You truly are special souls and I love you both more than you could know. And yeah ...thank you again *said in my best British accent* xxxxxx

And so yeah, that's about it from me, but if you didn't catch the note above, there will be some bonus chapters to come (feel free to post your suggestions for what you'd like to see in the bonus chapters in the comments!) and there's a strong possibility of a prequel Harper POV novella (from when he was human right up until the point he first meets Megan).

If you haven't already, you can connect with me on various social media hang-outs -please do come and say hi!

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