WeWriWa: Revisiting a Tempting Trail

Main Posts Background Image

Main Posts Background Image

Sunday, August 21, 2016

WeWriWa: Revisiting a Tempting Trail


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!!


Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

27 comments

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually the reformatting was the only time consuming part. The writing was in surprisingly good shape! Get those books out again, Ed!

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Thanks, Carmanine! A lot of Work but not really creative writing work so it's very different and not much of a conflict.

      Delete
  3. Must be quite a challenge, updating a 1990's book, so much has changed since then! Best wishes with the series...interesting snippet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, 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!

      Delete
  4. Sounds interesting and so cool that you're rewriting an old story, I wouldn't have the patience for that. ^^;

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not e-writing, just airing out and brushing off. I would rather write a new book than completely redo an old one!

      Delete
  5. Sounds like these two are in for an adventure!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great 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. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Stephanie Frustrating and time consuming but it came together quite quickly.

      Delete
  7. Well done, Nancy.
    I will send you my most accurate and efficient fairies to help you;-)
    Love your dialogue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Kim!!! Maybe those fairies can tidy up the semi colons.

      Delete
  8. Well done, Nancy.
    I will send you my most accurate and efficient fairies to help you;-)
    Love your dialogue.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rachel! At least I had something to scan. It would have been a nightmare to retype all 106k!!

      Delete
  10. Love their dialogue! Great snippet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Amy! I had a blast rereading it after all this time.

      Delete
  11. Fantastic banter. Love that he secretly wants to play the hero of her fantasy. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lordy, 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!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great banter, Nancy! And that last line--went right to my heart. :-)

    ReplyDelete