I’m nearing completion of the final draft of my new novel, The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky. A few more days and it will be time to send my latest offering to the editor.

Finishing final edits for a new novel is always a cause for celebration and sadness: celebration for finishing a project after all that hard work and reaching a point where the novel may be worthy to be published; sadness because I have to leave the world I’ve been visiting for the past year and say goodbye to the characters I’ve come to know so well.

But most of all, there’s that lingering doubt. Could I have done more? Should I have done better? It’s at times like this I think of one of my favorite quotes from Vince Lombardi:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

After a year of searching for the perfect word, the exactly appropriate turn of a phrase, I know I’ve fallen short of perfection. Hopefully, I’ve at least achieved some level of excellence.

Time to let the editor decide.