"I'm just not that good with... confrontation."

Hammering back at the first section of Queen's Choice again. Haven't touched the opening--need more processing time on that--but am instead working on Marin's (my main character) first two scenes. I think they're working better now. I've taken them out of the solely descriptive, and tossing in some dialogue and inner thoughts seems to have helped them hang together better.

A problem with this book, perhaps, is that there's not really an antagonist. There is a goal, and a ticking clock, and several people who have done horrible things in the past for various reasons, but there is not a Bad Guy. But despite my tendencies to write The Village Full Of Happy Idiots type stories, I know there needs to be an Oppositional Force. So... some characters are going to have to become petty, or nasty, or just plain scarred up on the inside in interesting ways.