#GlitterBook: The Articles
So Glitter went through SO many incarnations as I made it into a book. I have never, ever rewritten the first half of a book so many times. At first it was set in space and had a Tudor-era English culture. There was sister involved, and the engagement was for a second marriage, and the king was, like, thirty-five, and ... well, there were a TON of changes. A ton. (And I’m glad for every single one! But it was a long road.) One of the last changes we made before my editor moved forward and acquired the book at about half-written, was taking out what I like to call The Articles. The tumble of events that led to my big corporation, Sonoma Agriculture, Inc., buying the Palace of Versailles could almost fill a book by itself. I think I make it clear enough in the book, but originally each chapter began with a short news article that essentially took the place of backstory in the book. The decision was finally made that readers would flip past the articles and wouldn’t understand the backstory. Which may or may not be true, but I went ahead and cut them out.
But I kept them. Because deleted scenes are awesome.:) So, with two weeks left before Glitter comes out, if you’d like to read the backstory of how the kingdom of Sonoman-Versailles came to be, you can. It starts with a grain blight that begins in ... seven years. It’s heavy reading. Articles, interviews, a Black’s...er... Grey’s Law encyclopedia entry. It’s not reflective of the voice in the rest of the book, but I worked hard on them, and I think they’re fun.:) Here’s the first article:
The Governor of Central California sought federal aid today after the Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed Norwegian Blight in wheat crops across the state. The Blight—named for its destruction of Norway’s modest rye crops in 2022—has been blamed for food riots in the Middle East and economic tension in the European Union and Asia. This is its first confirmed appearance in the western hemisphere.
The announcement comes at an inconvenient time for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which only last week defended existing trade regulations as “sufficient” to safeguard American crops. The administration’s remarks were likely prompted by Dr. Lydia Williams of Johns Hopkins University, the research scientist who recently predicted that Norwegian Blight would appear in the United States within the year. Her peer-reviewed models show over three-quarters of grain crops on all six habited continents at imminent risk of destruction, with global famine to follow by 2025—something never before experienced in the United States.
Whether Dr. Williams’ dire predictions of rationing and starvation will come to pass remains to be seen, but the consumer price index is already on the rise as the meat and dairy industries brace for a sharp increase in the cost of feed. The Renewable Fuels Association, a trade consortium of ethanol manufacturers, has also announced a $25 million bounty for an effective treatment of Norwegian Blight, which has thus far proven impervious to known fungicides.
Fox News, USA
18 March 2023
If you’re interested in reading the rest, there’s almost 5k words of articles. Here’s the link:
http://aprilynnepike.com/glitter-interstitials
