Every now and again I reach a point in the composition of a novel where I have to ask myself the following questions:

1. Is there a beginning, middle, and an end? In other words, is the book complete?

2. Is the book perfect?

3. Can I make the book better?

4. Can I make the book better right now?

5. Is the book due?

If the answers to questions 1 and 5 are yes, and the answer to question 4 is no, then I send the book to my editor and I allow myself to say that I have written a novel.

The Osteomancer’s Son, Book 1, is the fifth novel I’ve written (counting my first, trunk novel). I hope the book is good. I hope my editor thinks it’s good. I hope things from here lead smoothly and steadily to publication, and I hope readers will think it’s good.

Sending a book to your editor is not anything close to the last stage. There’ll be more revisions, and going over copyedits and proofs, and all the crazy things you have to do before a book comes out, and all the things you have to do in order to not go crazy before a books comes out. There’s still work.

I’m yet a young man, and I have a lot of books left in me. But I am not immortal, and I will not write an infinite number of books. So a day in which I send off a completed book will never not be a big deal to me. I’ll have a celebratory drink tonight, and we have dinner reservations at Searsucker for Friday night.

What I want from my life is to love people, to be loved by people, to enjoy a million small moments of pleasure, and to do good work. On these rare, few days like today, I allow myself to feel satisfied with how things are going.

And tomorrow is tomorrow.