This is a watershed chapter, plain and simple. A lot of the story gets laid out before Rowan (though she understands little of it) and as the reader continues on with the novel they will (hopefully) see many of the story threads leading back to Chapter Eight.

With so much information needing to be crammed into this chapter, it was a challenge for me to avoid long, heavy blocks of exposition and info-dumps (the bane of any Fantasy novel, it seems). The most obvious and effective way to relay information like this is dialogue and I took that concept and ran with it. In fact, the majority of this chapter simply consists of Rowan, Fitheal and another character sitting huddled in a room, deep in the bowels of a Cathedral, shooting the shit.

Of course, there’s a lot more to the chapter than that. Rowan’s now fully immersed in the Faerie world and her life is looking anything but stable. She’s also told, in no uncertain terms, that if she value’s her life she’ll drop the search for her son. But, as any self-respecting, spunky heroine would attest to, those just aren’t very compelling terms. Rowan doesn’t exactly put her Fey host in his place, but I was surprised by how well she was able to hold her own in the argument.

I expect that when I sit down to edit (a process I’ve started, actually) that this chapter will require quite a bit of revision. There’s a definite balancing act between revealing enough to hook the reader into the main story and not giving too much away, and that’s going to require a very close look when I go back to reread the chapter in the future. I’m confident that I’ve got a good solid skeleton for the chapter, all the pieces are there, I’ll just have to spend some time moving things around, add in some fat and try to get it looking more like a living, breathing thing than a stumbling zombie.

Through Bended Grass is split up into three parts - First, Second and Third Act, you know the deal - and Chapter Eight marks the end of the first part. The story’s been set up, the ball’s rolling and things start getting messy. From this point onward the Fey world, and it’s relationship to our own, opens wide and Rowan doesn’t look back as she’s shoved in head first. Her story flits back and forth between the Feylands and our world and each has its own sights to see for the reader.

On another note, the excerpt that I’ve constantly promised is done. It’s all edited, but still I dilly-dally about putting it up here for everyone to see. I suppose part of it is fear that I’ll get torn apart, but I need to be confident in the story I’m telling.

I’ve also put aside editing the first 8 chapters in lieu of getting on to Chapter Nine. The desire to tell the story is burning much too brightly for me to put it aside for editing. On top of this, my brother is currently travelling through Ireland and just visited a major Irish monument that plays an important role in Chapter Nine, so that has me all kinds of motivated!