So, the first chapter will run on May 11th as promised, but I've changed the name from "Bloodmail" to "Sodom All Over Again".

See, the story started with this concept... "Alain and Marie return to America and settle in postwar Los Angeles where we have a fun Raymond Chandler style mystery with a supernatural twist." But where do you go from there? You have to have bad guys and you have to have them want something. You have to come up with some reasons for some people to get killed.

I rarely like to post the same thing on my blog that I post on my Facebook page and on my Twitter feed, but I really want this to become a famous quote about writing (and I want it credited to me in all the quote books): "If you don't murder someone in the first chapter of your novel, why bother writing it?"

So the guys starting to materialize as the bad guys were the nephilim, angels who descended to live among men, mated with mortal women, fathered giants. According to the book of Genesis, the great flood was, in most part, to cleanse the evil of these giants from the land.

Before we get to Alain, we're going to need some backstory on the major angelic players in this story: Azazel and Shemhazai. These are the leaders of the "screw humanity" and the "save humanity" camps among the 200 angels God allowed to descend and live as men. We're going to spend the first couple of weeks generating some backstory on them, because the Nephilim are going to play a big part in the big crisis Alain and Marie have to avert.

I'm building them an interesting cast of friends and allies, creating characters and building plot around them. Reading books on how to do fake psychic readings and stage mentalism because Creswell is going to be a wonderful foil for Alain after he's accused of murder... I mean, come on, I have to give him something to investigate, an innocence to proove.

This is real fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writing. I'm committed to delivering 3000-4000 words a week. Each 1,000 words is approximately 3 pages in a paperback book, so the equivalent of 9-12 pages a week. Maybe sometimes more, maybe less.

Sleeping pill is really kicking in. Not much to say. I'll hit deadline, but 3,000-4,000 words a week is the committment I'm making.

So, the next novel begins two weeks from next Monday on May 11th. I finally settled on the title and a brief synopsis, so I thought I'd share them.

Hell on $5 A Day: Bloodmail

What happened to Alain and Marie in the 66+ years between Chapters 8 and 9 of Hell on $5 A Day? Hell on $5 A Day: Bloodmail picks up with them during the Battle of the Bulge and follows them to America, where Alain gets caught up in a mystery involving vampires, magicians, fallen angels, blackmail, and murder.

THANK YOU: First and foremost, a thanks to all of you for sticking with me through all of this. You could have spent that time watching cooking shows or playing solitaire. Instead, you decided to spend it on reading my novel and I'm honored you spent it that way. I promise to keep you updated as I try to find an angel agent who has the foresight and character to represent this novel with heart and vigor.

For those of you who can't leave Kurt and Alain quite yet, remember that I'll be posting a deleted scene with them early next week. I also figure that there might be some nagging questions. If you have a question, mail me. If I get a handful of good ones, I'll do a Q&A post toward the end of next week.

And if you want to make sure you don't miss the next novel, visit the Online Novels page and subscribe to the whole-blog feed or the "Novels and Stories" feed.

Getting back to the story, Kurt teleported from the throne room in Heaven back to his tiny shared apartment in New York...

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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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