The Unbroken: Deleted Scenes 1 - Young Touraine
A deleted prologue from The Unbroken and a reflection on why I wrote it and why it didn't make the cut.
Hello, beloved subscribers!
I've just gotten back from a great time at Cymera, a book festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. I like to think I've become something of a regular there, and I enjoy my traditional run up to Arthur's Seat before I get kicked out of the hotel. (Also, if you’re the person I met wearing the queers for Palestine shirt, please raise your hand, I have a question!)
Now I'm settling in for a little bit before I head to the States for an exciting new thing—I'm officially teaching again! Soft launching my new status as a fiction faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts low-residency MFA, ayyy. I love teaching, as some of you who have taken classes with me know, so I'm excited to do it a bit more regularly. I'm sure I'll talk more about all this on my next proper update.
First, an update regarding the physical side of the pre-order campaign: because of the cost of postage, I'll only be mailing bookplates to bookstores—but if you have a favorite book shop (or work at one!), let me know and I'll reach out to them. Then you can order from them and receive a bookplate. (If you've already submitted a pre-order form, don't worry about changing it. You'll still get the digital deleted scenes.) See what bookstores I have so far here. Thanks for understanding.
Next, ICYMI: "We Mow Lawns," a NSFW AU that I wrote featuring Touraine and Luca is now FREE to read. Check it out if you haven't and...share it with a good friend. 😏
Finally, mark your calendars:
- There will be a special announcement on Instagram on Jun 20. 🤫
- There will be a Goodreads giveaway for The Sovereign, starting Jun 30.
Anylight. Let's get to the real reason you're all here.
As I mentioned previously, I wanted to share with those of you who have stuck with me for so long a bit of a treat, something that may be of interest if you’re curious about what goes into (or rather, what doesn't) the making of a book. The bulk of the cut scenes will be in the preorder campaign, which will go out on September 30 when The Sovereign goes out. However, I did want to share a few of them in the lead-up to publication, along with a bit of reflection to go along. I've enjoyed having a bit of a retro as I get excited about where I want to go next.
NB: Most of it hasn’t been edited because, well, it didn’t survive the editing process, so there may be errors. I have tried to go and correct names that I changed and brackets that I left, but not the ones where I didn’t make decisions on names of places/people/things.
This first snippet is from a possible prologue that I toyed with in middle drafts of The Unbroken.