Hooks, Book Trailers and Chapter Thirty-Six

I've finished the first revision of the new novel. It's not so much a second draft, as draft 1.1. I tweaked a few early points to tie in with what happens later in the novel, but I'm probably still too close to it to make a substantial rewrite. It therefore needs a dispassionate eye to find the weaknesses I'm blind to at the moment. Two kindly beta readers will shortly be receiving their copies to scrutinise.

There is one thing I know I have to rewrite, though. Specifically, chapter thirty-six. This should be a frightening, exciting chapter, but somehow it falls flat. If it stood alone, it would be fine, and it works as part of the overall plot, but in the context of events before and after on the time line, what should be heart-thumping stuff is just kind of ... meh.

I need to find a new angle on it, but nothing is coming to mind, so I may let the beta readers have at it to see how they feel about it.

While nursing a mystery foot injury (I don't know how I did it, but it hurt like hell) I took some time to rustle up a query hook for the novel. As I suspected, it was much easier this time around than it was for the last novel, simply because the premise is so much stronger, and the story has a real spine. At some point over the next day or two I'll post it over at the Crapometer, where it'll probably get trashed! :)

Also, just for the sake of experimentation, I've been messing about with making a book trailer for it. So far, it looks pretty cool. I'm not sure what purpose it serves, seeing as the book isn't published, but I thought it would make an interesting exercise.