Read 3 chapters to writer's group of Lucifer's Forge. Didn't get much reaction, which either means it's so bad there is no point in critiquing, or so good that nothing needs be improved. (In which case, it would be nice if they said so...)

Or just so middle of the road that neither warrants praise nor panning.

That pretty much covers it, right?

One of the chapters is one of my favorites in the book.

The group members are at a bit of a disadvantage, in that I started reading them new chapters as I wrote them from the middle of the book. But the way I write, each chapter is pretty much a little short story, with a beginning, middle, and an end. About 20% of each chapter might be contextual, but the other 80% should stand on its own.

My narratives aren't straightforward, except rarely. I jump around a lot among characters and settings. When I set out to write a chapter, I'm thinking of it as a complete unit. A book is an assemblage of these complete units.

I figure as long as I have the overall story clearly in my head, then the reader can probably keep up. Hopefully.

Compartmentalizing like this also helps me finish the book. I just keep writing these scenes, one after another, and eventually it turns into a book.

Each morning, I ask myself which of my characters needs to come to the forefront. Usually it becomes clear pretty fast. Sometimes I have to cycle through each character again and again until one rises to the fore.

Now 67K words into the book, and there is a fair distance to go, so the 80K minimum goal is going to be reached without any doubt.

I'm close enough to the end to start wondering what I should do with it. Right now, it's probably good enough to publish myself with some light editing. If I want to try to sell it as a horror novel, it will require some fairly heavy re-writing, bringing in the Jinn as an actual character. If I want to try to sell it as a "thriller" and use it to try to entice an agent, I probably need to spend much more time on technical details and research.

I guess I'll know when I'm finished where I think this should go.