Wow, this hit me hard. You’ve put into words exactly what I’ve felt. Except in my case, the grief is multilayered. Yes, I miss my dear, sweet characters who are like children to me, so much, and that makes me sad. But, in my case, I’ve yet to have an agent or editor fall in love with my wonderful characters, in the way that I have. And that makes me doubly sad, for my characters, and for me. It’s so hard to let them go, and I feel like I’m betraying them to give up.

Fantastic piece.