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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