I turned in a blog post recently on what I do with stories and scenes that don’t necessarily make it into whatever book I’m currently working on. That got me thinking about ways books and stories have changed. In particular, I thought about the original opener for Counterfeit Conspiracies. While most of the original opener still makes up over half of the first chapter, the whole “reclamation” scene that starts the book now wasn’t even an idea for a long time. The book originally started with this:

This line is still in the first chapter, but the book was originally written to start with this line when she was in the castillo and trying to work through the party to find the contact who was supposed to give her the snuffbox. She was feeling ill at ease about the way things were going, and wishing she had some backup.

But even after adding the whole scene ahead of this opener, so the line was now buried about a third of the way into the first chapter, the line didn’t even get to stay where it was. Instead, it was moved to the the balcony scene where Laurel and Jack had their interchange–and yes, by that time her wanting the gun was more because of irritation and concern about Jack, than over all the other irritations and concerns she had by that point.

It really is fun to think back on all the ways books evolve between original idea and publication. The blog post I mentioned in the first paragraph is focused almost entirely on all the different openers I test-drove before I decided on the final one for Abstract Aliases, and what I’ve changed those earlier openers into in the meantime. When my guest post goes live on the 26th, I’ll add a link here in case anyone would like to read it, too.

And just noticed a little while ago that Abstract Aliases is already up for preorder. I didn’t think it was supposed to happen until Monday, but an early start is always good news. I’ve built the page to start revealing the extras I’m offering to people who preorder Abstract Aliases ahead of the 10/11 release day. Look on the banner line above for Preorder for Even More! There will be additional details about the freebies coming next week. There will also be a cover reveal on the Girl with Book Lungs blog, and her review of the book–so look for that link here on Monday 7/18.

Have a great weekend. What are you reading?