Happy Pride! Here's a deleted scene from A COMMON BOND!
Dear reader, sometimes you have to deep six your favorite scene from the book.
Yes, I know. It broke my heart, too. Why? Because I was ten thousand words over budget and something had to go. What ended up going was this scene, along with a full chapter from the middle. (RIP Clover Hill Pride chapter.) Despite the fact it was very fun, the scene didn’t really add much to move the plot forward–I had plenty of scenes with Carneline and Rio interacting and I had other scenes that showed Rio’s funky little personality and hinted at xyr and Dre’s relationship. So sadly, this scene of Rio and their cat-pasties had to go. :(
The funniest part is this scene is based on a real thing that happened to me IRL! I was downtown in the city working an anime convention. It was Friday evening right before our shift, so my partner and I at the time decided to go out to dinner. It wasn’t that cold, despite it being October, so I didn’t grab a jacket for our quick scurry across the street to the restaurant. I was dressed like this... so naturally I ran directly into a Professional Contact from my Matte Life.
It was completely unexpected, one of those “the fuck are you doing here?!” moments. Thankfully, this woman was also in my grad school cohort and knew I was a little weird, just not….how weird. She took the fishnets and tight plaid pants in stride and very tactfully never mentioned them again. The interaction lived rent free in my head though, and I thought it would be funny to spoof into a book, so when I was writing a COMMON BOND and ended up with a perfect place to put it I thought….WHY NOT?!
Sadly, it did not make it into the final draft, but it still makes me smile. So without further ado, here's Carneline running into Rio at Spike's House! Happy Pride!
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Carneline wasn’t entirely sure how she had ended up in a cat-themed nightclub on a Saturday night, clutching a glass of something blessedly alcoholic, exceptionally fruity, and tweely named after an internet cat. It had been an exciting morning in which Carneline had spent far too much time browsing plants and Josie had very patiently waited until she made her purchases. After that it was brunch at Anisse and Clover, then back across town to stop at the local queer bookstore which Josie insisted they visit when she learned Carneline liked to read.
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