So much backlist, so little time!
For the past month, I've been spending my lunch hours at the grueling task of making sense of a scan from the cut-out pages of a long out of print paperback. The end result will be the reissuing of a five-book award-winning Western Historical romance series I'd written as Dana Ransom, with a follow up original novel. Yeah! The '90s floppy discs had long since degraded, so it was either re-type or de-cipher. Scans are tricky business. Format jumps all over the place, hieroglyphics mysteriously appear in lieu of words, font styles change in mid-sentence. The upside - remembering just how much I loved this story, these characters - enough to carry them through five going on six books! Here's a peek at my half-Apache Dime Novel hero saddled with an Eastern runaway in search of her missing brother and a fortune in jewels following TEMPTATION'S TRAIL . . .
"When I tell you to do something, I'm not talking just because I like the sound of my voice."
"I don't know why you're so mad at me," she declared angrily, "when I'm paying you good money and you back down at the first sign of trouble. Some hero. The Harmon Bass."
"I fight when I can win," he told her with a curious quiet, "and I don't let pride make me foolish when I have to watch out for a little girl who doesn't know how to follow directions."
"They didn't tell us anything."
"And they weren't likely to, either, not when they were running stolen cattle down into Mexico." He goaded his horse forward with the thump of his heels, his thoughts hot with fury because she'd disobeyed him and placed them in terrible jeopardy. Not from cattle thieves, but from men who were hungry for the sight of a woman like Amanda.
And because part of him wanted to play Harmon Bass, the Hero in her dreamy eyes.
My next task, redoing the cover that made my sleek, short hero uber steroidal.
Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose - Here I come!
Happy Weekend Y'all!!
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It's so cool that you're doing this. I have three Silhouettes from back then, and I've thought about resurrecting them, but frankly the work scares me. I'd rather work on something new ... but I still admire you for doing this.
ReplyDeleteActually the reformatting was the only time consuming part. The writing was in surprisingly good shape! Get those books out again, Ed!
DeleteOh I do like this and what a job!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carmanine! A lot of Work but not really creative writing work so it's very different and not much of a conflict.
DeleteMust be quite a challenge, updating a 1990's book, so much has changed since then! Best wishes with the series...interesting snippet.
ReplyDeleteActually, not much has changed since it's a historical! LOL! I did find some stylistic difference in what used to be accepted re: POV and those pesky semi colons!
DeleteSounds interesting and so cool that you're rewriting an old story, I wouldn't have the patience for that. ^^;
ReplyDeleteNot e-writing, just airing out and brushing off. I would rather write a new book than completely redo an old one!
DeleteSounds like these two are in for an adventure!
ReplyDeleteYou just aren't kidding! They have NO idea.
DeleteGreat snippet! What an adventure it must be to decipher scans from your older books in order to bring them back to life. Sounds like it's worthwhile though. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stephanie Frustrating and time consuming but it came together quite quickly.
DeleteWell done, Nancy.
ReplyDeleteI will send you my most accurate and efficient fairies to help you;-)
Love your dialogue.
Thanks, Kim!!! Maybe those fairies can tidy up the semi colons.
DeleteWell done, Nancy.
ReplyDeleteI will send you my most accurate and efficient fairies to help you;-)
Love your dialogue.
That is the problem with modern technology. In time it becomes obsolete. Whereas paper and ink remains accessible. Looking forward to reading more of this story.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel! At least I had something to scan. It would have been a nightmare to retype all 106k!!
DeleteLove their dialogue! Great snippet!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amy! I had a blast rereading it after all this time.
DeleteFantastic banter. Love that he secretly wants to play the hero of her fantasy. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karen!! Don't they all?
DeleteLordy, woman, I knew Dana even before I knew you! LOVED that series! So happy to see it out of mothballs and on the way back to stardom! Congrats and happy scandom...yikes!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dr. E!!
DeleteThanks, Dr. E!!
DeleteGreat banter, Nancy! And that last line--went right to my heart. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Teresa. That's where I was aiming!
DeleteThanks, Teresa. That's where I was aiming!
Delete