Justify Those Scenes

What I'm reading (bike) Up Close and Personal, by Carla Cassidy.

First -- Happy New Year to those who are celebrating the arrival of the year 5772 in the Jewish calendar.

Next, Thanks to Karen Cote and Avery Aames for being my guests. There's still time to join the Thanksgiving Project and to win Avery's book, so scroll down if you haven't read their posts.

Please keep an eye on my sidebar. That's where you'll find updates, including savings on books and more.

And I've been negligent in mentioning that Sept. 24 - Oct. 1st is Banned Book Week. Don't take for granted our freedom to read. Check out these frequently challenged classics. 

When I was re-editing FINDING SARAH for its re-release, I thought I'd check to see if there were any scenes I'd cut that might be worth slipping back into the book, now that length was not the issue it was for the print version. I did expand one scene showing Randy at work as a detective, in what I'd called his "kitchen caper" scene, but when I looked at another scene I'd enjoyed writing, I decided it still didn't belong in the book.

Why? Because the scene didn't do anything other than keep Randy from getting back to Sarah. Now, pulling the hero and heroine apart can create conflict, but a scene needs more than one reason to exist in a book. And this scene just didn't have it.

But, because it was fun, I've added it to my Cutting Room Floor files on my website. Why don't you pop over and read it, and then come back to see the final, very much abridged, version.

Banned Book Week 2010

Are you aware Banned Books Week started on Saturday? Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. For more, click here .

The trouble with censorship is that once it starts it is hard to stop. Just about every book contains something that someone objects to.
~Studs Terkel

A Texas town has banned the Harry Potter books because they glorify magic, and learning to read.
~Craig Kilborn

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
~Joseph Brodsky

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
-- Mark Twain

"Adam was but human - this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent."
-- Mark Twain

"All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States -- and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!"
-- Kurt Vonnegut, author

"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."
-- Walt Whitman

"There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all."
-- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame." Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." -- Oscar Wilde

How many of these books have you read?

When I was it high school, it was Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and Lady Chatterley's Lover that were making the headlines. I wonder how many of the books I've been reading lately (heck, even the ones I've written) would fare by those standards.

Tomorrow, my guest is writing duo Tia Dani, and they're talking about haunted houses--based on their own experiences. Be sure to come back.

Breaking News.

I just realized we're in the middle of Banned Book Week and thought it was worth putting up a second post today.

Remember to celebrate the freedom to read whatever you choose.



And for those in the romance community, editor Kate Duffy passed away. She will be missed. Sarah, at Smart Bitches, summed it up when she said, "She's the Julia Child of Romance."