I first had the idea for this book in 2013, but didn’t consider it seriously until early the next year. This story was originally called “Downline”, which describes the structure of the community the book is about, but I discovered that there was already a book called that. I can’t remember where I first heard the phrase “Cotton Covered World”, and I can’t find a specific origin for it, but I’ve seen it in numerous places since to describe when someone insulates themselves from the real world, and that seemed a perfection summary of the book to me.
By the summer of 2014 I’d planned to write this novel in the late autumn as part of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) competition. It would give me a deadline and a daily expectation of my progress. So in just under 3 weeks (writing an hour or two a day) I wrote over 50,000 words. I later added another 40,000 words.
UPDATE:
The first three chapters of my novel are available to read online:
Nate's Projects 