In Your Dream Guest blog post "Deleted Scenes" with Marsha Moore

[John]

So…, book one was riddled with tiny deleted scenes. Every book has them, whether its dialogue or major chapters. For whatever reason, most of which are due to the author’s ramblings, they don’t fit or flow and drag on too long with little to offer the actual story. But In Your Dreams did have a few major ones that I cut for design and flow. It pained me to do so, and I had a lot of juvenile arguments with my agent that usually started with, “Oh, but did you really read it. I mean, come on, it’s so good for character development!” But then I started being objective, and in the end I cut them from the story. However, I wanted to share them with you, my amazing readers and supporters, because if you love the story I figure you’d appreciate the extras. And I love bonus material! I like it on all of my favorite DVD’s, books, etc. It makes for fun speculation and gives a glimpse into how I write, and how I delete certain scenes.

The first, and probably the most major in terms of length, was the 30 pages or so that I cut with Bette’s beauty pageant. Yes, I said it; beauty pageant. It was after the girls arrived at the Vale and get settled into Gracemere. It was my attempt to get the reader involved in more of their daily lives. It was neat, I promise, but unfortunately didn’t make the cut. It was part of the Far Darron festival, and was a pageant for all of the girls from the Vale and surrounding towns to compete in. Bette, who really is a true beauty, advanced very far. But you got to see this quirky part of her as she became used to the dresses and lifestyle of being comfortable and feeling beautiful for the first time. You also got to see the friendly disgust and sarcasm of Mim about the whole thing, which she thinks is completely trivial. It was also a plot device to get Mim and Bette to the festival, but in the end it wasn’t needed. So beauty pageant = delete.

The next was a good 15-20 pages during the Vale as well. It took you through more of the castle through the eyes of the girls, and into their daily schedules and with more of the Deans. A major part of this was on the top of the star tower, where Mim actually kisses a boy for the first time in her life. I thought people would eat it up, but instead my editor thought it was too caddy. And it really didn’t do anything for the story, especially when I started developing Mim’s actual love interest as the series goes on.
The next one is actually backtracking in the story’s timeline, but runs through READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>>> http://bit.ly/1sEU9Ml & http://bit.ly/1uUdMR2