Don't know if this is confusing, calling this chapter one, since there were three chapters of prologue before it. Anyone, anyone?

Yes, this is the chapter I had the epiphany about in my car, which made me smack my steering wheel and accidentally engage cruise control. If you don't know about the epiphany, then you're probably one of the billions of people I am not yet friends with on Facebook. If you want to get my status updates in your friend feed, friend me on Facebook (and include a note that you're a fan of the novel).

Even after that epiphany, it still kicked my butt. I don't want to ruin any surprises, so I'll post an after-note in the comments about some of the issues I encountered while writing this chapter.

When we last left the story, Sodom was destroyed and God put a binding on the angels Azazel and Shemhazai not to fight again or to make major efforts to influence the course of humanity's development until the spring of 1946. And just so you don't have to go back and try to figure it out, the World War II sequence in the last novel ended in the late summer of 1943.

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I was thinking who I would cast if this was being made into a movie. I do that from time to time. I haven't got a bead on Shemhazai, yet. But I'm thinking Simon Pegg for Vikiel and Jim Parsons for Azazel. I know Parsons plays a wimpy brainiac in his current TV show, but I think he's got a great villain inside him, waiting to be set free.

Here's a question that bugged me as I wrote this chapter. I mention a donkey cart, but back in "the day" they called a donkey an ass. So would it have been more proper to call it an ass cart? That just didn't sound right.

This chapter finishes up the biblical-era prologue. Next week, we'll catch up with Alain and begin the main story.

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If you're one of my Facebook friends, you may have seen me posting status reports about this chapter reaching 7,200 words (or about 22 pages in a standard mass-market paperback). Yeah, I expected it to be shorter. I mean I'm only re-telling part of Genesis 19 and it's only around 1100 words. I do reference Genesis 14 (the war in which Lot was taken prisoner) and 17 (when God commanded Abraham to remove some excess skin), but I took 6.5 times as many words to tell the tale than the King James Version of the bible does.

Anyway, 7,200 words was too long, so I found a good break point and split it. You'll get approximately half today and the other half next Monday. I hope by the time we reach the conclusion of the tale of the destruction of Sodom next week, you'll feel it was worth the longer journey.

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The first chapter of a new novel. Been a long time since I wrote one of those.

Last time I started publishing a novel on my blog, I'd had 15 years to pick over the story, adjust, re-write lots of bits, and I came into the project with about 60% of the novel written, but just needing some tightening up.

This time around, I'm flying by the seat of my pants, creating a lot of it as I go. I've only plotted out the first few chapters and only have a general idea of where the end is and what happens. I'm more of a character-driven writer, though. I like to create characters who resonate with me, give them a destination, and then sort of see how they get me there. But without nearly as much writing in the can, two-chapters a week would be a bit tough. So for now, we'll have weekly installments on Mondays and I'll try to make sure they're relatively long.

The last thing I want to do is give some shouts out:

SHOUT 1: To Paramount Pictures and director J.J. Abrams whose new Star Trek movie rah-hocked. They have absolutely re-energized one of the best film franchises. J.J. Abrams should go to George Lucas's house and yell "Booyah! That's how ya do it, Bozo!" I loved it, wife loved it, you'll love it.

SHOUT 2: To Mr. Mike "Wit" Witmer, whose brilliant "Pinkerton" comic strip hits its landmark 400th strip today. Now that's some freakin' dedication, and all his many fans appreciate it.

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