Chapter Six of Abigail’s Dragon is one of the most important chapters in the book. To use a Star Wars analogy, this chapter is the “Escape from the Death Star” scene. The Big Bad is shown to the hero in the flesh for the first time. This time the hero is a 13 year old girl and somehow she still manages to whine less than Luke. This chapter is the hinge chapter. It is the pay-off for the first half of the book and if you don’t believe this chapter, then the rest of the story will fall flat.

One of the things I did that I found fun was that one of the “sidekicks” has the special gift that is usually reserved for the hero in a story.

Despite the tension in this chapter, I still managed to amuse at least myself. I based one of the characters on my Aunt Jan’s mother-in-law.

Here is a snippet.

“Grandma, it’s so good to see you!”

Grandma Chung smiled. “You have the gift! I told you, didn’t I? Look at you! So skinny! Doesn’t your mother have time to feed you properly with her fancy job? What did you do to your hair? Pink! And your uncle is still not married. Shame on him! I deserve more grandchildren. Yen Cheung has three more grandchildren and I do, and two of them are named after her!”

Clara groaned and stomped her foot. Mrs. Aithne had warned her that spirits were difficult to anchor in the present. “Grandma, focus! I need you.”