Chapters 8 & 9 are fine.

Wrote two chapters yesterday. Was done with Chapter 8 early enough to take a slight break and start in on Chapter 9.

They are character/plot chapters. After 7 seven action chapters, I thought it was fine to spend some time moving characters around.

Here's the thing about disaster/creature books. You don't really have to have a bunch of bad guys, or a Big Bad. Nature is the Big Bad, and even then, not really. So I can create a bunch of characters, most of whom I like, and have them interact and have the plot derive from those interactions.

So I'm a third of the way through and the set up is complete and now I just need to ratchet it up a notch, put these characters in greater danger.

The third act is when the disaster fully strikes and it will be action scenes from that point on.

It is so weird when in Chapter 9 a whole bunch of stuff happens that bring up things I introduced way back in the first few chapters. Was my subconscious working to bring the story back to this spot?

The last three chapters I've written all take place around the same time, from different point of views, with the characters meeting at the end.  Linda was a little confused, but I didn't think it was confusing at all.

But this whole story is going to take place over a couple of days (maybe three). I could actually prefaced every chapter with a timeline and it wouldn't be out of place.

Anyway, this story really has come together, in my estimation. I'm not sure I've ever gotten this far into a book without running into problems.