It’s taken writing over 500,000 words to get here.

From the first attempt of converting 13 television scripts into a novel to 100 drafts later to a near finished product to tossing it out and starting over. From turning the idea of five novels into five novellas and five novels to then deciding to write nine novels and no novellas. From listening to one, then three, then eight podcasts about independent and traditional publishing to creating a company and formulating a production schedule. It’s been a steep and invigorating learning curve to get from “I should write a novel” to having finally finishing the pre-editor draft which has taken 14 months and almost every evening for the last 400 days.

In my day job, I was in management for nearly a decade and it was hard to ever feel a sense of accomplishment. Not because my team didn’t accomplish things, but because, as the manager, I was always looking six months ahead. When we achieved a goal, I recognized it, but never paused because there were another five things that had to be done in the next few weeks.

Writing can be a lot like that. It’s a never ending process in many ways. Ideas keep flowing and stories keep coming. But, I’ve learned my lesson. It’s important to take a moment and feel good about completing milestones. Printing out my pre-editor versions of the first Gabby Wells novel, Kneel & Prey, was one of them.

The next step is to send it off to our editor and get the finalized version so we can publish the book in the first quarter of 2015, but I’m going to allow myself to indulge in 24 hours of happiness and contentment before I get back to the second novel, Lost & Found.

This moment of happiness feels good.