It is FINISHED!!

I've had a lot of people over the past couple of weeks ask me if I was going to finish the book on time. The answer was that I honestly didn't know. Some days I thought I would make it. Others, I started thinking about how I would let people know that I didn't..... I contemplated sending in the first 16 chapters, as I knew that they were closest to completion.

And then suddenly everything came together!  That happens sometimes. It doesn't always, but I'm grateful when it does. Chapters suddenly click. I put in several really long days this week. And by Wednesday, I knew I would finish by my self-imposed deadline. I worked until 12:45 am on Thursday and was almost there. By Friday morning, I was finishing the final touches, putting together the front matter and table of contents. By Friday afternoon, I was shipping it off to my editor. She was delighted to hear from me (and yes, Deborah, if you are reading this, I'm talking about you!).

I found that I really underestimated the length of the manuscript. The chapters were all separate files, and I hadn't stopped and added them up. I thought it would be around 400 pages. Instead, it weighed in at a whopping 605 pages!! No wonder I've been working like a crazy woman. (The first edition of the book was only about 250 pages. Some of the length of the new edition has to do with how much new research there has been in this field.)

Yes, I'm pleased with final product.....I'm also pleased that I have finally (finally!!) finished it.

So there you have it. How to write a book in (about) 50 days. I leave for Spain on Wednesday morning. And I can do so knowing that I've taken this big to-do off my list.

Thanks for coming along on this journey. It's amazing how effective having the public deadline was for me. And I thought I would keep this blog open as the book moves through production, so you can get an idea what that process is like.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. And thanks again for all your support. It made this process seem a little less lonely.  :-)  I will keep you posted on the final product.