I know that they’re not really related, but I opened my just-finished novel and “copied” the last two words into this post’s “Title” space so that you can at least share the joy of those two words with me - even though the ones you see are only the electronic cousins of the ones I typed earlier this evening.

Typing “The End” has never felt as sweet as when I completed the 52,455 words I wrote for my NaNoWriMo novel this year. It ended the first novel I’ve ever written, and the longest body of work I’ve ever tackled - easily longer than every story or poem I’ve written in my life combined, and then some.  The entire novel is 55,408 words after I integrated a short story I wrote a couple of years ago.  I even had time to edit it and make it fit appropriately.

I can call myself a novelist now, and I will be. I printed the final copy of the first draft of “The Secret to Escape” and fanned the pages, looking at all the words. It’s a great feeling. THANK YOU to everyone who wrote with encouragement. I hope to post a sample chapter or scene at some point in the future. For now, I’m going to back away from it slowly and try to ignore it while my wife reads it, then tackle it again for the rewrite sometime in December.