Come to think of it, *Illusion* has only been out for a little over forty days—just over a month.
I really didn't expect at the start that I'd be riding such a volatile roller coaster…
The difficulty of writing an ensemble cast increases by at least threefold (I calculated this in a lab, wearing a white coat and repeatedly pouring green liquid back and forth), and the audience shrinks by a factor of three (same source, very scientific). I was actually prepared for all that.
Or rather, I *thought* I was prepared.
When I first started the novel, I was still coasting on the inertia and illusions left over from my apocalypse novel. Looking out, it felt like I could still see the ghosts of its past splendor.
(I know the apocalypse novel wasn't *that* huge, but relatively speaking, it was far more mainstream.)
