So this afternoon, a comment came in for the final page of Kochi.

“wait! wut?! Ok I need a better explanation then what ever just occurred…
If that was truly the ending (which i hope it weren’t) you have just kicked something beautiful full on in the nuts and left it in a gutter to die.” – Jim

Actually a few people have been a little incredulous with how Kochi ends, so I wanted to reply. In fact, I’ll give you three (possible) replies.

1) Hey, you got a whole book to read for free. It can end how it wants.
This is, of course, utter bullshit. The fact that anyone is angry about the ending of Kochi means that they care, and they care because they’ve gotten involved in the story. So If you’ve been angry about the ending, I take that as a huge compliment about the book as a whole. However, you may need more than that…

2) The ending of Kochi is right and fits the book’s underlying message.
I have said Kochi is to be interpreted by the reader. That then leaves the ending to be interpreted in a number of different ways, depending on how you’ve read the book and what you think it means, so if it’s left you cold perhaps it requires some thinking. I don’t want to spell it out, so I’m not going to detail it. I will, one day, write out some of the ideas I was trying to weave underneath Kochi. But I’m not going to spoon feed you what it all means, never.

3) It’s not the end anyway, it’s the prologue.
Is this the end of the Kochi story? No. It was never intended to be. This book was meant to stand alone as a tale in itself, with its own message and subtexts, and I’m proud that it does. It is self-contained. But when I was writing this first book, I was also planning out the rest of the story, it continues where it left off and gets a lot more mental than this.
Whether I’ll ever get the time or opportunity to do it justice, I don’t know.

ALL comments are really appreciated, the feedback has been really humbling. Thank you!