After 20 + years of working on my novel I finally finished it. It was always something I was working on. Every once in a while someone that knew I was writing a novel would ask how it was going and I would say, "I'm still working on it," or some version of that. I was starting to think I would never actually complete it. Why so long? Not one thing exactly. I lost a version of it completely in a computer crash a long time ago, and the backups turned out to be blank. Sooooo....I just decided that was one way to go about a re-write. I was actually happier for it in the long run. One time I went on a tangent of about 100 pages and realized I got totally off track of what I was trying to accomplish, so tucked those away and back-tracked 100 or so pages. I can go on with work and mood etc. I often joked it would take some miracle to get this novel done and on Friday the 13th with a full moon (6-13-2014) I finished The Nexus: Samhain! The next full moon on Friday the 13th won't happen again unitl 2049. I'll get the other novels done before then!
It was pretty exciting when I was making a lot of progress and I could tell I was getting close to the end. My heart was beating fast in anticipation. James knew I was getting toward the end and asked how much I thought I had to go. I said, "like two pages." And he was completely shocked. He thought I had several chapters to go. After finishing the novel I took a break (part was trying to find an agent). I was sitting down one day watching TV and James turns to me and says, "that's so weird. You're not writing. I've never known you NOT to be writing." That struck me as profound. And, of course, I'm well into the second novel of the series.