Back to "Fires of Allah." It's good to be doing fiction again. It feels right.

I had to break off halfway through in order to go finish Tuskers IV.

Then, when I came back to "Fires of Allah" a couple of months ago, I just couldn't get a handle on it. Couldn't find an entry point. Decided not to force it. Intended to take only a month off, then went and wrote the first draft of my business book.

So two months off from writing fiction.

This time, I've got a pretty good idea of where I want to go.

This is a straight thriller. Nothing supernatural, not even anything fantastical (like poisonous black sea snakes.) I have thought of adding a Jinn to the story. That would work perfect with the theme of the story. I want to see how it comes out first as a straight thriller.

I was so happy with the way "Snaked" came out that I'm hoping to duplicate the experience. What it means is--trust completely in the subconscious. Completely. But also put some thought into it. Both at the same time.

At 40K words in, my task now is to both broadened and accelerate the story. The way to do that is to ramp up the danger. The way to do that is to bring the "bad guys" to the fore. Let them do their dirty work, then have the heroes respond. Pretty much action chapters from now on. All the characters and situations have been established.

I'm already settling into the fictional dream, which is where I like to live.