Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor
I’ve been packing stuff up to send to the Iowa University Special Collections people, which reminded me that I never circled back to identify “scenes from the cutting room floor” and other extras related to “Blood Enemies” and “Crimes Against Humanity.”
Within these last two novels I fielded a new character, the cargo handler Medith Riggs. She’s a second- or third-generation Gonebeyond Nurail (meaning that her people got out while the getting was good, before things started getting really ferocious for Nurail under Jurisdiction) from a matrilineal/matrifocal cultural tradition who happens across Stildyne, the thula, and the “wolf pack” shortly after their arrival in Gonebeyond. Since I could identify a clear narrative thread in the growth/definition of who she is, what her voice sounds like, and what she has to contribute to the story I thought it would be fun to present the process of character definition as it pertained to Medith (as messy and organic as that can be, at least when it’s me writing it).
So I’ve made an essay, “Medith Riggs: The Evolution of a Character” to explain where she “started” and how she’s developed/where she’s had her part to play in the over-all story. As with so many of the people who are important to me in my story, I started towards the end with her, and have been working backwards. There’s still a ways to go between where we are in “Crimes Against Humanity” and where we dove-tail back to her first appearance, but it’s early yet.
In the “extras” under “Blood Enemies,” you’ll find a copy of the essay; a copy of the little vignette in which she made her debut as a voice on the other side of the door to Stildyne’s office; a “first contact” story for her and the Kospodar thula which I’ve always enjoyed; and a link to her first formal/official appearance in the short story “Into Gonebeyond,” available in the Baen Free Library.
There’ll be more extras coming for Blood Enemies in addition to the first chapter and a little thing I’m calling “When Autocrats (attempt to) Escape!”. More on that, though, when I’ve got that material licked into shape.
I’ve got the first chapter posted for “Crimes Against Humanity.” In addition:
In the editorial revision process for CAH a goodly chunk of “eh, interesting, but not really required to drive the plot engine and slows the opening of the novel significantly” material dropped out. About half of that material appears on the Baen Free Library as “Chancellor Witt;” a short-story’s worth of action leading up to Chapter One is here, repurposed as “Extraordinary Rendition.” In addition, there’s a novella that was originally written as the separable second half of “Stalking Horse” (Baen omnibus “Fleet Insurgent”) included here as “Stalking Horse: Mutation.”
If you check out this just-added material I hope you find something that piques your interest or tickles your fancy. Let me know!
Off to finish working up that “Blood Enemies” material,
Susan
