Good! I'm glad you were picking up on those "nuances." I had my wife read it first, but I wasn't sure if I was getting all of that across. I've rewritten this many times over the last few days. It should have been posted 2 days ago, but I kept doing rewrites. Also, (and you'll be happy to know this) it was originally going to cover more plot, but it got too long, so I had to split it. Therefore, the next part is already written, it just needs to go into rewrite. You'll like the next one. :)
Those are all good questions! They're ones that I was intentionally trying to get the reader to ask.
And apparently, there is at least one person who doesn't know, or doesn't care that you don't steal from No Name.
Yes, there is!
Thanks for your comments. They're insightful and probing, as always. Makes sense that you were in the publishing business. :)
I've had to write myself out of a few corners I've painted myself into, so I've found it's extremely useful to ask those questions before I paint myself into the corner, but strangely enough, I always had fun figuring out how to get out of it, regardless.
Ah, rewrites. Never seems like you have enough of them.
I'll have to start asking those questions to plan out where the story is going long-term... if I decide to go long-term. The advancements in the story have mainly been in response to the prompts from the writing group. I'll have the next one ready soon, but beyond that I'll need to start putting together a storyboard.