Wow - I really should update this from time to time

Work on "Muse" is going very well - currently at 310 pages. Funny thing is, along the way I discovered that "Muse" is actually "Muse", and "Muse, Book 2" I had a plotline in mind from the very start, and have followed it pretty faithfully, though some of the sub-plots throw in some great brain fodder along the way.

But as I was checking page count -vs- length, I realized I was going to have to find a 'break point' for the story (and I've got a great one that's going to get me called all sorts of names at the end of book one I figure Book 1 ends at about 370 - 400 pages, and book two will end up weighing in at probably 450 pages based on my current writing -vs- plotline progress. It's not that the book is slow writing or reading, it's actually just packed with a lot of detail. And stuff done way back in Chapter 3, for instance, had to be explained well because it comes back around in the second book. (I'm not giving anything away saying that, as there's nothing specific about Chapter 3 - stuff that happens in just about every chapter comes back around eventually.)

I like the writing. Some of the stuff I've written in there is just... well, great, in my opinion. Which is saying something - I hated my writing on The Story of Gamer Zone. Just like TSGZ, there's some "raw nerve" writing in there at times - stuff that evokes a lot of emotion from me, to the point of getting teary eyed at one point when writing a rather hard area. But often I just pick a section at random, and read it just to see how I feel about the writing. Oh, there's still typos at times, and it's going to need editing, but it works very well.

One of the things that happens in Muse is "unintended consequences", most of them intentional. But towards the end of my current "goal line" for book one, I saw this interesting loophole I had created in the plot. I thought about closing it, but I've left it - it leaves the possibility of future "Muse" books if I really feel like doing it (or, if for some weird reason, it should become successful.)

Feedback from my couple of reads that read as I write has been pretty positive. But then again, feed back during the writing of TSGZ was positive too, and that hasn't been a wild commercial success

It's not until after Book 2 is done that I'll be doing something expressly for the purpose of making as much money as possible on it. "Villian" (that's not the name of the book, it's a working title - trust me, the name of the book gives a hell of a lot of what it's about away will be targeted with the idea of traditional publishing and making as much bloody money from it as I can. TSGZ, The Horror Game (which is done, and setting on my much abused Editor's desk), and Muse will end up benefiting sales-wise if "Villain" should happen to do decently.

Fun part about "Villain" - I have no idea how long it is. I know it's at least two books long, but if my writing on it is anything like my writing on Muse, I might as well start off by calling it a trilogy from the very beginning.

Davis