Behind the Scenes of the Rymellan Series: A Deleted Snippet from Crossroads
I thought it might be fun to provide some behind the scenes details about the Rymellan series. Over the next month or two, I’ll discuss:
A couple of scenes that didn’t make it into publication
The most difficult story problem I ran into when writing the first three books
Which character turned out to be more important than I realized (can you guess who this is?)
Working story titles I threw out
I’ll start with a scene that I abandoned while I was writing the first draft, so it wasn’t cut, per se. In Crossroads, Lesley and Mo meet Jayne for dinner when Mo returns from 72. It’s the first time they’ve all gotten together since Mo admitted to Lesley that she has feelings for Jayne. In the published story, they fly Jayne home and the scene ends with Jayne saying good night and hopping off the aviacraft. The next scene is about Jayne telling Carol that she’s worried about Lesley and Mo’s relationship.
When I was writing the first draft, I started to write the scene below after the one in which Jayne hops off the craft. I stopped writing it because I didn’t think they were ready to have the conversation. Instead, they have a similar discussion after the horribly awkward supper at Jayne’s. The evening went so badly that they couldn’t help but talk about how they were feeling.
I want to stress that the writing is first draft material. It’s exactly as I originally wrote it, warts and all…
The moment the aviacraft door clicked shut, Mo groaned and rested her head on the panel in front of her. “I can’t do this.”
“Let me get the craft up so she doesn’t wonder why we’re not leaving,” Lesley murmured. She punched in the coordinates for the Thompson estate, then turned to Mo. “What can’t you do?”
“I can’t see you both at the same time!” Mo lifted her head. “I feel like you’re analyzing everything I say. And I’m sorry about the supper thing. She did ask me about it, and I told her to wait on it.”
“If she wants us to see the painting before she applies . . .”
“I know.” Mo blew out an exasperated sigh. “I feel bad for you, I feel bad for her because she has no clue what’s going on. And I’m just a mess!” She met Lesley’s eyes. “How did you feel?”
Not as bad as she’d expected, but only because there was nothing going on between Mo and Jayne—yet. Her most difficult challenge was to not resent Jayne. When she’d first seen her, the hurt and anger . . . Lesley had fought it, and had managed to hold it at bay. This wasn’t Jayne’s fault, and Jayne was her Chosen. Still, the destructive emotions were there, and it wouldn’t take much for them to burst to the surface. “I didn’t feel too bad. And you can’t worry about what I’m thinking. You have to be yourself.”
“I can’t! I’m too worried that something I do or say will hurt you.”
“Mo, something will. There’s nothing either one of us can do about that.”
As you can see, I didn’t get very far before I realized that I was writing the conversation prematurely. Sometimes that happens.
