19 pages and 4,400 words later -- REVISITED

I thought I'd respond to a few comments from my last blog -- about my 19 page sex scene. I guess that was a bit misleading. It isn't 19 pages of sex. It's 5 pages of lead up. Then 8 pages of undressing and shower foreplay followed by 2 pages of getting to the bedroom. THEN four pages of actual lovemaking. Finally, a couple of pages post lovemaking.

The good news, however, is that the love scene is done. It's really wordy. It isn't all sex, but it's 19+ pages. It starts when the hero and heroine leave the hospital where Kat's uncle is. He's in serious condition. It relates to Kat and Cris's case. She's in shock. This case was already personal, but now it's more so. She's so cold, not because its a bitter winter in Russia, but more of a soul cold. Cris knows it. With the emotions of the evening, their guards are down and both rationalize it's just a bit of comfort. But it isn't. They've already discovered that they can't trust anyone. They aren't ready to trust each other, but they've had no choice.

Kat's scars keep her from willingly letting go and it takes some work on Cris's part, but when he wakes up in the middle of the night next to her, he remembers Ray's words to clean up any loose ends and is reminded of why he doesn't work with anyone: working with Cris can get you killed. So he's resigned to make their first night, their last night. He's going to get the case solved and leave so that she can have a safe life. He still hasn't figured out that her life has never been safe, but he's about to find out.

It's all that stuff -- all that emotion, all that baggage, all that angst -- that takes up 19+ pages.

I'll have to cut it some, but I'm letting it ferment for awhile.

In the meantime, I'm playing with a new beginning.

Yes, I'm crazy. But I've felt for a long time that it's missing something. I've already cut the scene that inspired the whole book. So what if I cut the first two scenes and make it one high impact scene?

Maybe I'll just play with it and see what happens. I may do that for my pages tomorrow. I'm behind on the 70 days. I didn't write the last 3 days since I was at a work conference. But tomorrow, I'm back in for the week. My reduced goal this week is 20 pages.

Macy