Hey y'all!
I hope your weekends were fabulous!
As I've mentioned in posts before, I love reading. I could probably take a week of PTO and read the entire time, never leaving my house. My favorite type of book though, is a series with characters that I can relate to. One where I feel like I become friends with those characters as the series continues.
I went to college with Erin and she is a fellow Kappa Delta alum, so when I found out she was writing a series, I was ALL about it. In her first book, Taking Flight, I was so excited to love her characters and the story line. In the second book of the series, Making Headlines, I loved the characters even more and became completely engrossed in their stories. It helps that a lot of the situations they are in are incredibly easy to relate to.
When I found out that Erin was writing a third book, Finding Slope, I was super excited! And then when I heard that she was doing a blog tour, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
My FAVORITE part of reading blogs on books is seeing the deleted scenes. How would it have changed the book if the author had used that one instead? Was there more that I'm missing and would have wanted to see? Erin is letting me share with YOU a deleted scene from Finding Slope with a little information from the author herself! Check it out!
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When I wrote this scene, I could not figure out what to make my characters talk about. This particular scene features the Mizzou group—and Luke’s little brother Kip, who you’ll get a pretty big dose of in this sene—which means that they’re all friends who already know each other. So, what would a group of friends on spring break talk about?
The answer is anything.
And that can be a very overwhelming answer for a writer.
I tried a whole bunch of different things, but nothing seemed right. I hated this scene. In fact, I tweeted one day about it saying something along the lines of, “My characters are stuck in a scene. Considering writing, ‘And then a meteor fell on them. The end.’”
But of course I couldn’t do that to them.
So I ended up writing a scene that involved a discussion of pregnancy and parenthood—this is derived from my own life, where many of my friends are starting families and it seems as if a new pregnancy is announced every day.
The scene never really sat right with me. I knew it felt awkward. Perhaps disingenuous. But I’d had such a hell of a time writing it, that I left it as it was, telling myself that thinking about the future and wondering about it aloud with your college friends was normal. Everyone thinks about it, after all. So, even though I didn’t love the scene, I left it as it was when I sent the draft to my editor, the oh-so-wise-and-wonderful, Tara Quigley.
She attacked this scene. It made her uncomfortable. It made her think that maybe one of the characters was going to get pregnant. That this conversation was a foreshadowing, and while she read the rest of the book, she kept thinking about the possible pregnancy and when it would show up.
But it never did. Because spoiler: none of my characters announce they are pregnant in this book.
So, Tara told me to cut it. Change it. Whatever I wanted to do to it so long as it went away.
And I knew she was right. So I changed it and am much, much happier with the way the scene reads in the final version. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t share the deleted version with you, giving you a little glimpse into the world of writing, editing, and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
So, without further ado, please feast upon this sucker and be very glad that you won’t have to read this in the final version of Finding Slope.
-EB
Willa
I watch Sophie and Luke in the kitchen, mixing brownies and stealing kisses. Despite how much she says she hates the cold and snow, and how sore she is from skiing, she is glowing with happiness.
Maybe the glow is because she’s pregnant.
Oh God, why did I think that? I force my brain to think of anything else and I tell whoever it is that controls fate and things of that nature that I take it back, in case it turns out that I can will life into existence via my best friend’s uterus.
My name is Willa, after all.
I push all thoughts of pregnancy and babies out of my mind and try to focus on my book.
Besides, I know way too much about her and Luke’s habits than to think that there’s any way in hell that they’re pregnant. They are very cautious.
SHUT UP, BRAIN.
“You okay over there?” Kip asks.
“Huh?”
“You just said, ‘Shut up, brain,’ out loud.”
“I did?”
“You did.”
He comes over to sit by me on the couch and I move my legs to make room for him. “So, I’m guessing you weren’t reading,” he says, eyeing my latest true crime book.
“I was. Earlier.”
“But now you’re telling your brain to shut up.”
“Apparently.”
“So what were you thinking about?” Kip asks.
“If I tell you, you can’t breathe a word to anyone.”
“I am so excited about what you’re about to tell me,” Kip says.
I look around and lower my voice before saying, “I noticed how happy Sophie looks today, and my brain immediately thought, ‘Maybe she’s pregnant and her hormones are making her happy because she’s growing a baby.’”
Kip roars with laughter. I hurriedly shush him, but there’s no point. Sophie and Luke are looking this way, as are Kate, Adam, and Courtney, who are playing a card game at the kitchen table.
“What’s going on in there?” Luke asks.
“Oh, nothing,” Kip says. “Willa is practicing her stand-up routine. She’s really funny.”
“I’m going to kill you,” I whisper to him.
“I’ve got this,” he whispers back.
“She has her moments,” Sophie says, peering at us over Luke’s shoulder. She searches my face, which I can feel is bright red, narrows her eyes for a second, but then says, “I think it’s hot tub time. Anyone else?”
Everyone scrambles to their feet, excited for the glorious feeling that is sitting in a vat of hot water when it’s below freezing outside. When we’re all changed and finally relaxing in the hot tub, we make small talk about our days on the mountain. Sophie marvels at how there are toddlers who are skiing blues and how weird it is to see them with their tiny skis whipping around the slopes.
“Were you that little when you started?” Sophie asks me.
“Not that little,” I say. “I think I was five when my parents took me for the first time.”
“So crazy. I know that these two,” she says, pointing to Luke and Kip, “were basically born with skis on their feet, but I figured that was a requirement if you’re going to grow up in Colorado.”
“You’re exactly right,” Luke deadpans. “Colorado law requires babies be born with skis on their feet.”
Kip catches my eye, obviously thinking about my comments, and I flush all over again. Then he says, “So, what my brother is saying is that you better prepare yourself, Sophie.”
She blanches and the rest of us go silent, with me staring daggers at Kip, before Sophie recovers and says, “Well, that’s going to be one hell of a labor, having a kid with skis on its feet and a cowboy hat on its head.”
Luke and Adam roar with laughter and I shake my head at her. Sophie rolls her eyes and then Luke leans over and plants a kiss on her temple. “It’s going to be a long time before we consider that,” he says. “But thanks for the visual of an infant with skis and a cowboy hat.”
“I guess that means our kid would have a football helmet and cleats,” Adam says to Courtney.
“Ew, we cannot have this conversation,” she says.
“It’s a joke.”
“But still,” she says. “I’m nineteen years old. All talk of babies, joking or otherwise, needs to be delayed for at least five more years.”
“Just five?” I ask. I know that a lot of couples get married right out of college and start families immediately, but five years doesn’t seem that far away.
“Five at minimum,” she says. “Can you imagine being a mom within the next five years? Because I sure as hell can’t. I’m barely responsible enough to take care of myself, let alone a tiny human.”
“I cosign that,” Kate says. “There’s no way I’ll be doing anything until I’m out of medical school and finished with residency.”
“Okay,” I say. “All this talk of babies is creeping me out. I’m not nearly grown-up enough for this conversation.”
“None of us are,” Sophie says.
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What do y'all think?? I can really relate to the scene, because like Erin (and because we have a lot of mutual friends), I am getting news what seems like every other day that a friend is having announcing their pregnancy. But based on the age of the characters, I think she made a great call!
Even though I'm the last post of the blog tour, you can still check out the rest of the blog tour? Here's the list of everywhere it's been so far!
The full schedule is as follows:
March 16th: You're looking at it!
Until next time,
