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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