This week has been really busy for the both of us. We’ve been working on getting the final touches done on Windmill Keepers and sending it off to be formatted. Someday, I really want to be able to do it on my own, but with no prior knowledge, we’re willing to pay a bit extra to make sure it looks professional.

Izzy added a map to help the readers understand the layout of the Glasgow Windmill Farm a bit better. I feel like it was a good addition and helps clarify the daily travels of the characters. I attempted to draw one out for her as a template. My lack of drawing talent, however, created something that looked like a kindergartner’s self-portrait. Good thing I have an artist as my co-writer.

I’m starting to get really excited about this book. I mean, I’ve always had some confidence in it, but this is the realest it has ever felt. Izzy and I are looking forward to the day when we can finally hold it in our hands. Even if not very many people read it, I don’t regret the time I spent working on this novel.

It’s difficult to explain, but this is more than just a story to me now. It’s a piece of my life. And over the course of its creation, a lot of mine and Izzy’s lives have changed. Izzy changed colleges, changed majors, and hacked her way through a difficult art program. I finished two degrees, made it through boot camp, and moved to southern Florida, and then back across the country to northern California. We’ve moved into our first, second, and third apartments. Somewhere between all of this, I started dating my best friend. Back in March, we said our vows in the shadow of a lighthouse on Sanibel Island.

Through all of this, Windmill Keepers has been my only constant. Although the main character and I are very different, we both went through immense changes. From the first page to the last, I left my college years and entered an entirely new life. From the first page to the last, the Keeper, Kite Lyons, grew and changed and embraced the greatness that always lived inside of her.

It’s amazing and terrifying to finally see this stretch of road coming to an end.