Into the void

At last, I've begun to write the chapter that may be the first chapter. Lol, how many first chapters did I write in my previous magnum opus? Not nearly enough, I suspect. It's a tentative step, though only the successful writing of it will convince me that it's the correct one. This new chapter must illustrate the danger the hero and his friends are in. Otherwise it will fail and I will revert to the beginning I have.
The beginning I have, with the prologue now removed, is a good one. The chapter I'm now creating must be at least as good.
I remember a conversation way back at Litopia, where Oscuridad (Dave Bartram in their podcasts) said that he had written a story that was full of intrigue and politics, yet it seemed that the more successful stories he was looking at, at the time, were more likely to contain murder, or attempted murder. Something along those lines.
It's a fact that if the reader is not placed in mortal danger through the people in the story, then if the genre in which the tale is set requires such a scenario, your story is in mortal danger, too - of failing.
I will be attempting to illustrate this in the new chapter. Failure will only be temporary, as I really will need to move on to the rest of the tale. Future writings may reveal a truer opening chapter. But let's see how I get on.
p.s.
Little foxy got a pork pie out of me, yesterday. At one with nature...