Today marks the end of my first Insta-novel, The Chinese Century.

It's been a trip.

As some friends already know I began the book after the U.S. election in a state of depression. Looking for a way out of the events of the day, I found a refuge in fiction.

But I didn't go far. The dollar really is falling in value. New centers designed to attract talent with ordered liberty, like Dubai, are taking off. China really is becoming more aggressive diplomatically, gaining a reputation for maturity.

Of course, all the "real" characters in my book -- Jiang Zemin, Richard Branson, Mark Cuban -- are made up. But what I have them doing is based on what they have already done. I just sprinkled in some imagination.

Whenever you do something no one else has done before, and I doubt anyone has blogged a full-blown novel live before, with no idea where it's going until it gets there, you are going to find surprises.

For me the biggest surprise (other than the character of Jiang Zemin, who I never expected to encounter in this way) was the creation of Virgin Maverick, a "new city" based on trading, then outsourcing, which I imagined existing in the center of Johannesburg, and to which my character moved at the end of the book. Combining elements of Hong Kong, Dubai, and the Cayman Islands, and built on undervalued real estate, it became more and more intriguing to me as time went on. I began, in fact, to do some real research and explore the idea further.

Virgin Maverick has some aspects of Allen Steele's imaginary space worlds. But as I read more on South Africa I saw the impracticality of my original vision, and created Teresa Heinz Kerry (as a character) to spell out those qualms. Separating this oasis from the rest of the country would not do.

So I'm going to explore this further in my next book, The American Diaspora. In this book more of the characters will be purely imaginary, and the rich-and-famous encountered in this book will appear quite rarely.

I'm also going to slow the process down a little, writing perhaps once a week instead of every day. And the chapters will be longer. This second book is intended to be printed, not just blogged, so if you're a publisher or editor or agent with an interest in my work or this story, please don't hesitate to write.

And, of course, I won't quit my day job. You'll still see me here at Mooreslore, and wherever else I can find work.

Finally, I want to thank my family, my friends, my teachers, but most especially my very patient boss here at Corante, Hylton Jolliffe, for their unswerving support of this project. No one in the blogosphere has ever green-lighted a novel before. Thanks, Hylton.

Until next time, to all of you...all the best...