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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A Bit of Funny: After reading this "Surviving Retail" strip, I was reminded of tech support making you go through all the steps you've already gone through. That reminded me of this humor bit about an evil genius calling tech support about his death ray.

On a More Personal Note: With the end of the novel in sight, I'm planning to take a rest while I plot my next literary move, but I don't want to let the creative mojo dry up. I thought of getting involved with an online writing community to try to keep my head in a creative space. I used to participate in the misc.writing newsgroup back in the 90s when I was just out of school, and it helped keep the creative juices flowing.

Now it seems like there are a zillion forums and it feels like I'm looking up bars in the Yellow Pages to try to find one where I'd want to hang out. Since I know I have some writers among my readers, I thought I'd ask for recommendations. Which sites/forums for writers do you find yourself frequenting to be among likeminded people and talk shop? Feel free to e-mail me if you don't want to publicly announce it in the comments.

Getting Back to the Story: The boys snuck into Heaven only to find someone shouting George's name the moment they got out of the arrival hall...

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Since I've got nothing interesting to say about myself today (and some might argue that hasn't stopped me before), let me say this: "Bullfinch" is one of the most imaginative and funny sci-fi/fantasy comic strips it's been my pleasure to read.

When its author, T.L. Collins, isn't bringin' the funny and the top-notch art on "Bullfinch", he's lending his considerable drawing skills to Brock Heasley's widely acclaimed funny on "SuperFogeys Origins". Last week's strip with Mr. Crook was gold from all angles.

And speaking of talented web comics artists, I won a "write the dialogue for this strip" contest over at Adam Rutten's site and my prize was this cool piece of art featuring his character Ant Guy.

Getting back to the story, Kurt's apparently so holy he blew up the holy detector (which I like to call a "holiometer"), Duke's best subject in angel school was Volleyball, and they're heading to the fourth level of Purgatory to deal with a demonic intrusion.

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So, I've been trying to think of a really compelling synopsis to use as I begin querying agents. I mean, the one on Web Fiction Guide is workable, but not very exciting. I was reading an agent's blog recently (lost the URL), but she said describe it like you'd describe it to a friend. So...

Imagine the Army's "Super Soldier" formula had transformed Steve Rogers into a vampire instead of Captain America, but he retained Cap's essential goodness. Now imagine they also gave it to a handful of iffy characters and put him in charge of commanding the unit while it battled Nazis along the French/German border in 1943. That's Alain: good guy, bad situation, gets worse.

Jump to the present day. Alain survived the war, met and married a mortal woman, and stayed with her until she died of old age. Now he's going to go through Hell (literally) to steal back the "collateral" they took from him and try to get to Heaven to be reunited with her. One hitch in the plan... he's got two mortals he has to keep alive while he does it.

I think it gives away too much. And that leaves me wondering, how do you sell a novel without revealing the juicy bits? I can't jumble together a trailer with a bunch of visual bits that give away little or no story but make you go "ooooh":

• Kurt and Alain running from Cerberus
• Kurt, George, and Junior running ahead of the horde of souls in Purgatory
• Vinnie clotheslines Kurt in the arena
• Kurt leaping on the snake
• the holiometer exploding
• pause the non-stop action for: "I never would have pictured you as a tighty whities guy." -- "You pictured me in my underwear?"
• Kurt decks Mammon
• something from chapter 33 that I can't give away just yet
• the slingshot chair flings the guys out of the cave
• Vinnie and Kurt fall through the portal in slow-motion
• Kurt runs through the first ring's warren of shacks
• end the trailer tight on Charon's incredulous face: "Bouncin' Beelzebub, you're alive."

I can't just grab "ooh, pretty" images and fling them at you in random order so you have no idea of the actual plot, but you get excited by all the action. So I've got to figure out how to describe the plot without giving away the plot.

Any suggestions?