Finally got the sample sent off. I realized at what felt like the last moment that probably it'd be best to take the big, obvious hook from the synopsis I was given, and use that to end the first chapter. Because otherwise the story would be heading off in a misleading direction.

The problem was that this meant not going in chronological order. Shades of my swordfighting ms! I immediately had flashbacks of the horror that came from mismatched plot and emotional story. The dead ends, the lack of connection with the reader, the wasted time. And here was the same problem staring me right in the face: if I skipped the beginning and started with hook/action, I'd be playing catchup from page one and might not ever get everything working in concert.

I tried to feel it out (hard to do, on a deadline), and what I ended up doing was starting in scene leading up to the hook, and then I plunked a big old flashback in the middle. In the first chapter. Egad. I cut all other references to subplots down to almost nothing (they kept trying to clarify themselves, but that early on they just muddy the waters) and tried to smooth it out and make it work. There's no telling if it really does work, because I'd only know that if I let it sit a while before I looked at it again. Anyhoo, that's done.