Ten things that tell you the novel is done

How do you know when the book you are writing is actually finished?

1. It tastes like a crisp apple.
2. It burns in your throat like homemade ginger beer on a summer's day.
3. It smells like clean cotton sheets.
4. It preens like a Drake in breeding plumage.
5. It is like dozing in sunshine.
6. It is as if you have discovered Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine for the first time.
7. It is your eleventh birthday.
8. It is the first day of the summer holidays
9. For me, it seems like 1964.
10. ... someone else agrees that it is ok.

If it is all these things and it just feels right, then it is done. You have to stop somewhere.
Sometimes you have to be content with good enough.