Skip to content

Category Archives: Deleted Scenes

Scenes, and bits of scenes, I cut from the novel because they didn’t fully support the story –or– because they slowed the pace of the story.

Deleted Scene – Invasion! – The Burr vs. Hamilton Duel

Share

This slowed the story’s pace, delaying the reader’s view of Dolley killing the highwaymen in 1810. Bits of it have been placed into other scenes, for example, Sukey’s introduction to Dolley is part of the opening scene of Subversion!  Dolley’s reconstruction and analysis of the Burr-Hamilton duel is spot-on. I might slip it into Subversion! […]

Deleted Scene – Invasion! – Fort Lafayette wives artillery competition

Share

This was one of the first scenes I wrote, after spending days researching 1810 artillery procedures. A year or so later I yanked it because it went into too much detail, diluting the other events of Organization Day that had far-reaching implications.  I added a few cannon-firing snippets later on. Her described experience is based […]

Deleted Scene – Invasion! – A pier, an ox, and those Blue Lights

Share

This scene was to appear in Chapter 7 – Blue Lightning just after the voyage with Commodore Barney in the Blacksnake, illustrating how Dolley and Sukey came up with the idea for discouraging American farmers from trading produce for British gold, since shooting the American traitor would be vigilante-style murder. I brainstormed this scene in […]

Deleted Scene – Invasion! – Sukey immitates Dolley’s manner of speech.

Share

I liked the humor, but I killed it because Dolley did NOT speak with a modern Virginia accent! To our ears she’d probably sound British. Also, it doesn’t contribute much to the story. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Warning! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The following is a deleted scene, mercilessly cut from […]

Deleted Scene — Invasion! — Delay

Share

These two snippets came from Chapter 9 – Delay. The first occurs as Dolley, Sukey and James Smith ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to meet the British. I pulled it when I realized there is no way Sailing Master John Webster would let her do that alone: he’d either encircle the cart with a force superior […]

Deleted Scene – Retribution! – Chinese New Year

Share

To write this I flew to Tibet and consulted an obscure Buddhist monk within a remote monastery found a cool & authentic (looking) Chinese Astrology website and ran the actual birthdays for Dolley, Sukey and Bobby to get the described results. But the story evolved a bit and this scene no longer fit in. Oh […]