Christmas has come early!

I just finished the (hopefully) final read-through and edit of Chapter 59 ("A Little Night Music"), to be posted tomorrow. This one took me almost as long to work through as Chapter 57 ("Nightmare"), with everything that needed to be written, moved, edited, cut, and reworked, from first draft to final. But I'm pretty pleased with it, regardless of what reviewers might come back and say.

First of all, the chronological setting of the story is no haphazard choice. Christmas in Japan is all about romance (unlike the Western traditions), so I've used that setting to broach the last big subject in the story. There's not much that I haven't planned in this monster, right down to what needs to happen on what day. I hope that readers don't gloss over those details...but if they do but still enjoy the story regardless, that's what matters, I suppose.

There's an awful lot of talking in Chapter 59, but as I mention in the Author's Notes (and in the previous blog entry), the conversations are necessary to the progression of the relationships and the story as a whole. It helps that a couple of those conversations are almost verbatim actual experience, but I've used a lot of my own personal life as fodder for this story already, and I feel like I've put so much of myself into Chie as a character, that I couldn't quite resist shuffling some of my life into this latest chapter.

There's also quite a bit of sex in 59, but that, too, is necessary to the plot, at least in its function. I really wanted to address the changes that have occurred between the characters at a sexual level, based on the events of the preceding chapters. These are two people - specifically lovers - who are growing as a couple just as much as they're growing as individuals, and that's important to their intimacy and the way that they relate, both emotionally and sexually.

The talking and the sex in this chapter also leads up to the next logical progression of the relationship, and not just because it's instigated by a circle of friends. Into this, too, I've tried to inject some realism, and some honest feelings. It's crazy and confusing and nerve-wracking for Chie just like it is for a lot of adults. But hopefully I've managed to create some personal humor about it all, too.

You may agree or disagree. I'd like to hear your answers, though, when you get around to reading the latest chapter. :)