The new Chapter 7

I finished it the other day and it came out pretty decent. I had to make it a "talky" chapter because some groundwork had to be laid for stuff going on later on in the book. I fought off my fear of leaning too heavily towards the "tell" end of the spectrum and not enough on the "show" side... I had to remind myself that even the best books have long stretches of explain-y dialogue sometimes. Nothing wrong with it once in awhile. I hope it actually works and I am not fooling myself.

It's been such a great week of writing. I've got some stuff for Chapter 8 already, too, and I did some editing so that Chapter 6 flows better into 7. I'm all inspired and wanting to just write this thing. I love Halloween, but I can't wait for the party to be over so I have a little more time to spend on it.

A new game to play: when I go out to eat, quickly figure out what my four main characters would order. What movie would each of them pick to see? What would their Halloween costumes be? What car would they drive if they could each have their dream car? Stuff like that. Just find a way to dive deeper into who they are as individuals by thinking of the everyday stuff.

Notes:
* Can Clara be morphed into the character of Zoe? I never thought it could work until this week... hmmm.
* Why is she there right now?
* What is her rank in the military?
* How much older is she?
* Is she interested or turned off by Zachary? Make it clear, very early in the chapter.
* Keep in mind why Jacob is upset following the incident at the cliff. (Now that I shared this URL with people, I will keep the details of this in my head for now so as to not blow a big spoiler.)
* Isaac Asimov. Orson Scott Card. HP Lovecraft. But no Charles Dickens...he hates it. :)
* The behind-the-scenes backstory of Dr. Bergen. Write it up even if it never appears in the book.