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*****
I always wondered about 'cut'
material from the books? Why and who makes those decisions and how
about some that you had cut (if you have) from both books?
“Cut” materials in almost any of
my books are dictated by me. I’m a “fly into the mist” kind of writer and
sometimes when I’m not entirely certain where I’m going, I do a lot of
circling. It may be good material, snappy dialogue, whatever, but if it doesn’t
keep the story line moving forward, it gets whacked.
And in the case of THE MARQUESS
and THE ENGLISH HEIRESS, I was writing in an older Regency style that required
a lot of circumlocutions, which required a lot of repetition, and the verbiage
simply stacked up. Adding to that haystack was the fact that I was writing on
an old DOS computer with limited capacity, so I wrote and edited everything by
hand. (The ghosts in my attic kept crashing my machine and I was terrified of
losing text.) And I didn’t have the time or equipment to go back and hack unnecessary
scenery.
Since THE MARQUESS made it into
print and has been reissued frequently, I’ve edited it several times over the
years and no longer have any excerpts at hand. Michael’s book, however, is
another story. Scattered over corrupted Word 6 disks and in various versions
and hard copy in my basement, I have
umpteen versions and edited scenes scattered all over, and trying to remember
which version contained what would be a major headache.
Even after I pieced the story
back together and edited out huge chunks, my fantastic editor at Book View
Café, Sherwood Smith, cut nearly 20,000 words of repetitive text. I could
probably fill another book with cut material.
I’ll copy the first small excised text I found below. As you can tell,
there’s nothing wrong with it. It just doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already
been said.
That Blanche’s breath
caught when his muscles rippled beneath his coat didn’t mean anything. She
admired fine horse flesh too. Sunny days and the laughter of children made her
heart sing with joy. What she felt for Michael was little more.
But it wasn’t the
return of a horse or a sunny day she awaited now.
She wanted Michael, the one man
in her world she couldn’t have.
I also cut a lot of material about
secondary characters from Michael’s book that would lead to the other books in
the series. I knew the third book, IRISH DUCHESS, wasn’t even in my computer
because the entire back-up disk had corrupted. I had only one copy of the
manuscript I’d sold umpteen years ago. I’d spent so many years putting Michael
back together again, I didn’t think I’d ever have the time or patience to
bother re-creating the DUCHESS. I still
may not. But readers have been so wonderfully supportive of THE ENGLISH HEIRESS
that I’ve bitten the bullet, made a copy of those old pages, and sent the DUCHESS
in for scanning. I may have mountains more of text littering the cutting room
floor in the months to come!
***
With several million books in print and New York Times and
USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one of
romance's hottest authors. Her forty-ninth book, The Lure of Song and Magic, is a magical
contemporary romance. Dylan Ives “Oz”Oswin is desperate enough to follow any
clue in his search for his kidnapped son. A mysterious e-mail sets him on a
search for the former rock star Syrene, but she is now the reclusive children’s
book author Philippa “Pippa” Malcolm James, who believes she can destroy lives
with her dangerous voice. She refuses his request—until she learns it’s about a
lost child. For readers who loved Patricia Rice's paranormal romantic
historical “Magic” series, The
Lure of Song and Magic introduces characters descended from that
series, in a contemporary romance setting.
In
her forty-eighth book, The Devilish Montague, Blake Montague wants to save
Europe. Ladybyrd Carrington only wants to save her family and a foul-mouthed
parrot. Marriage wasn’t on their incompatible minds—until they realized they
each had what the other needed... Nominated for the 2011 RT Book Reviews Historical Love and
Laughter award.
Her
forty-seventh book, The
Wicked Wyckerly, was nominated for the 2010 Romance Writers of
America’s RITA® and 2010
RT Book Reviews Historical Love and Laughter award.
Patricia
Rice's emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won
numerous awards, including the RT
Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards.
In
addition to receiving the Bookrak Bestselling Paperback award, her books have
also been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA® finalists in the
historical, regency and contemporary categories.
A
firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high
school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a
past resident of North Carolina, she currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri,
and now does accounting only for herself. She is a member of Romance Writers of
America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc.
