NEWS ON THE NEXT NOVEL: There will be one. The planned start-date is May 11, 2009 (4 weeks from next Monday). And that's all I can tell you right now, mostly because I still have to decide which back-burner project gets promoted to active development and get going on it.

If you want to be 100% sure you don't miss it (or the deleted scene and other cool stuff I'll post during the 4-week break), go to the Online Novels page and subscribe via e-mail or feed reader. You can subscribe just to the "Novels and Stories" posts or to a whole-blog feed.

So get thee hence and subscribe to the next novel now.

Getting back to the story, the archangel Michael was chasing Kurt around God's throne room with a flaming sword (sounds vaguely dirty when I say it that way) while Alain just watched Deuce "unmake" Satan...

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Welcome to the final week of Hell on $5 a Day. We'll be having three chapters this week: today, Thursday, and Friday. Next week, though the story is over, I'm going to post a deleted scene or two for anyone who's interested. In an earlier incarnation of the novel, Kurt and Alain first met in a vampire bar during its poetry night. Bad vampire poetry... makes ya tingle all over, don't it?

Now here's something very strange... You'll meet a character named Vic once you get into the chapter. Vic is a dipwad. This is Vic's third name since I created him. First he was named after a camp counselor from my childhood who was a sadistic bastard, but the name had a spelling that could be mispronounced as the name of a well-liked celebrity, and I didn't want to risk offending people who thought I was trying to take a veiled swipe at the celebrity.

So then I changed his name to that of a guy I just loathed in high school; a jerk who liked to bully and insult people. I reconnected with an old friend from high school via Facebook this past week and told her that I was naming a dipwad after this guy. She says: "Okay... not sure if you knew this... [Name Removed] is dead... no kidding. He died in a plane crash in 2001."

I give up. Now the character is named Vic. There is no one I know named Vic.

On a lighter note... I haven't done a movie casting note in a while, but if I were casting Vic, he'd be played by Scott Krinsky, a.k.a. Jeff from NBC's "Chuck".

IS ANOTHER NOVEL FORTHCOMING? There were a lot of comments in answer to my question: "Who wants me to start another online story after this?" Many were posted and more came in privately via e-mail. If you haven't added your voice to the chorus of people requesting another story, please go post a comment there now. Knowing that people are enjoying this is what encourages me to keep at it.

Getting back to the story, Kurt learned how to perform miracles and Albert signed on to help Alain stir things up...

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The last chapter of Hell on $5 a Day publishes in 8 days, a week from tomorrow. Wow, we're almost done. So I'm going to take an informal poll...

Post your opinion in the comments section on this chapter or e-mail me at burgerguy@gmail.com. The numbers from Feedburner and analytics are encouraging, but a personal message will mean the world to me.

Getting back to the story, Kurt brought Mick to Heaven to teach him how to make miracles...

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We're in our last two weeks now. I know what's going to happen and even I'm biting my nails.

Getting back to the story... Alain ended up in Albert's lab after an angel told him to hitch a ride in a shipping container while Kurt ended up in Nowhere after an angel knocked him unconscious.

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