Today, I’m thrilled to have the fabulous Patti O’Shea here to talk about her new novel Edge of Dawn, the subject of deleted scenes (I’m interested in your thoughts on this subject, too) and, yay! giving away a copy of the first book in her Gineal series, In the Midnight Hour. This is a great series, so if you haven’t read it yet, here’s your chance!

Let us both know your thoughts in the comments.

Also, if you don’t leave a way to contact you via your comment profile or leaving an email address, then please commit to checking back on or before Monday, July 6 to see if you’re the winner of Patti’s book.

Take it away, Patti!

Before I get started, I want to announce that to celebrate the June 30th release of EDGE OF DAWN, I’m giving away a copy of IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, the first book in my Light Warriors series. A winner will be randomly drawn from all those who leave a comment.

I was having a hard time coming up with blog topics, so I put the question out on Twitter: What would you like to see an author talk about? Among the responses was the suggestion that I discuss scenes that were deleted from EDGE OF DAWN. Cool, I thought! It’s like DVD extras, but for my book!

There were two scenes that immediately came to mind, but for this blog to make sense, I need to explain. I write paranormal action/adventure romance and my current series is about a society of magic users and more specifically the troubleshooters whose job it is to fight demons and other evil beings. The Gineal remain hidden from humans, but work to keep us safe just the same. Logan, the hero in EDGE OF DAWN, is one of these troubleshooters and he’s assigned to protect a woman, Shona, who doesn’t know she has suppressed magical abilities. His bosses want it to stay that way, too.

But back to the two deleted scenes. The first was the original opening where Logan is at a Sunday barbecue at his parents’ house, and during dinner, he gets a call-out to fight a dark-force creature. I had this scene partially written, but abandoned it because 1) it was boring. Sure, I enjoyed watching Logan’s interaction with his brother, sisters, and parents, but no one else was going to share my fascination. 2) the call-out part of the scene was repetitive for people who’d read the other Light Warrior books. Maybe most wouldn’t remember, but some readers would and I knew I was repeating myself. I hate to do that.

The second scene that isn’t in the book was never written, but I had it playing in my head for most of the period in which I was writing the book. I imagined it would come later in the story, when Logan was emotionally committed to Shona even if he wasn’t aware of it yet. I saw him bringing Shona home to meet his family and their interaction with her. I saw how protective he was of her, but his family was welcoming. And they were curious because Logan had never brought any other woman home.

Again, it was more family dynamic stuff, but I think I could have made that aspect of the scene work. Why did I opt not to write it? There were a few reasons. The biggest was the timing in the book–it just never fit in anywhere. The other reasons were logistical. Logan is supposed to keep the fact he can do magic a secret from Shona, so he can’t use his transit spell to bring them from Seattle to Chicago in a matter of seconds and a plane ride means more than just one Sunday dinner. Having them spend a weekend in Illinois would bring the suspense to a screeching halt. It would be like yelling “time out” in the middle of the book.

You might have guessed from reading this post that I’m really into the relationship between my characters. I’m always fascinated by the male/female pull between my hero and heroine, but in EDGE OF DAWN, I also found myself held rapt by Logan’s family and how they all related to each other–which is probably why I wanted to write so many scenes exploring this. But it was Logan’s ties to his twin, Kel, that grabbed me hardest and wouldn’t let go.

Logan only has a few scenes with Kel and only mentions him a couple of times, but wow, I was hooked fast. There was love, and worry, and frustration, and teamwork, and all this other good stuff. These two are close, but much to Logan’s frustration, Kel is trying to put distance between them and he doesn’t know why. It seemed natural that when I finished Logan’s story, I started Kel’s. And this was fascinating, too–I was able to see the family dynamics from a different perspective. Fun for me!

BTW, just so you know, I did sneak in a family barbecue scene, but put it in the epilogue where it doesn’t slow down the pace of the story.

So let me ask y’all a question. Keeping in mind that most authors (okay, I mean me) cut scenes because they don’t work, do you like to see those deleted scenes on their websites? Are there any other things you particularly like to see on writers’ sites about a book or its characters?