Uh...oops...

I'm at just under 22,000 words for Blood Angel and ran out of story for the first part. That was kind of a shock. Of course, I'll be adding in missed details and expanding on areas I sort of glossed over, now that I know where it's going, but I seriously doubt I'll wind up with more than 24-25,000 words. Which is almost what the 5 parts of Hunter averaged out to, so I guess that's not bad.

I suppose I could pump up the final confrontation between Léon and Prior Paul. It sort of settled into an easy finish...but if he's going to come back in a thousand years to wreak havoc, I think I need to have Leon physically stop him and send him back to the Oiym for judgment.

I think the next section is going to take place during the 30 years war in Germany, when a huge part of the population was wiped out. 17th Century. Maybe. There were nonstop wars beginning in the 12th Century, including the Crusades. It amazes me man has continued to thrive despite the slaughters that occurred all through history. And Léonidès will be referring to a lot of them.

I also need to figure out how he makes money. Mercantile and trade starts expanding at about this time. Or shipping along the coasts? The Hanseatic League was also forming, including complete city-states in Germany geared to trade. Same with the Venice triad in Italy.

Agriculture was still the main way to wealth, but that is very land centric and it would be difficult to do without a castle and serfs and even a barony. People were pretty much self-sufficient with everything they needed, so it's not like he can start an early version of Ikea.

He is laying down one rule for his crew -- feed only on those caught committing serious crimes. While meeting with the Oiym in Alexandria, he fed on a man condemned to death for killing a merchant he'd worked for. It became quite terrifying for the man; a simple beheading would have been kinder...if that's how they executed people in Egypt at the time. 

It's just, Léon begins to wonder if perhaps the man had actually done nothing or was justified in the murder, so he decides to take more control of how it goes.

Yeah, I can see this reaching 25K in words.