We know the saying: Kill your Darlings.
But why must we kill them? Maybe I have excellent taste and my Darlings are wonderful.
Okay, maybe they didn’t work perfectly in the novel, but just because your creative nature didn’t work out in the finance department, where making things up can result in Federal Prison time, doesn’t mean you have to be killed , jailed, or fired. Not when Marketing is actually looking for creative people.
Like many authors, I lost many darlings in the editing of this book. However, I did not KILL them. I put them in a file so I would have FRESH MEAT during the promotional banquet for my book.
Here is the first serving of LOST DARLINGS FROM WORST WEEK EVER:
Setting of scene: Tiny and Tall are fabulous Comical Magicians who have a show on Broadway. They join Trent and Carrie for dinner after the show and this is a darling conversation that was kicked out of book for telling rather than showing.
Tiny narrowed his focus upon Carrie. “Tell me moment by moment your first day at work.”
Trent suspected Tiny sought new material to put in their show, and he had no doubt the ‘boss’ would come off looking like a jerk, immortalized on Broadway, but honestly he also wanted to hear Carrie’s view of her first days. So he propped his head up with the palms of his hands and listened to a new recruit’s workweek from hell.
“Trent had interviewed and hired me the day before and told me to be at work by nine the next day. However, from the research I had done on the hiring process and what to expect during my first day, I thought I’d spend most of the morning in HR signing documents, getting on the payroll, filling out forms for health insurance, making selections for my 401K, watching a dull film about safety issues and then show up at an empty desk around noon, where some helpful person would walk me around, introduce me to the other staff, tell me what they do, show me the supply room, the location of the copier and fax, the staff eating area, the bathroom, tell me rules of the microwave and refrigerator—”
“We have rules?” Trent asked in shock.
“Not when I came, but you needed a few, like ‘clean the microwave if your food explodes inside’, and ‘don’t steal other people’s food left in the fridge’, and ‘don’t leave food in fridge for months because the bacteria it grows could wipe out New York City’.”
He couldn’t argue with those rules. “So do we have rules now?”
“Yes, they are reposted daily on the refrigerator.”
“Why daily?” Trent asked, certain he wouldn’t like the answer.
She sighed. “Because each day someone writes FU on the page.”
“Does anyone but you follow these rules?” Tall asked.
She smiled at him. “Not yet, but I am ever hopeful.”
On this matter, Trent could read her mind. She hoped a new staff would obey logical and reasonable rules. So did he.
“So what really happened when you showed up at nine?” Tiny asked.
“I feared my boss actually expected to see me at my desk at nine ready to work. He had made a great point of the importance of such during our interview, so I showed up at seven hoping the HR people arrived early and could process me quickly.”
“Did it work?” Tall asked.
She grimaced. “No, for two reasons. The company didn’t have an HR department and most of the other employees don’t wander in until ten or so.”
Tall looked at Trent. “Do you also wander in at ten?”
“No, I’m normally in by six, but that particular morning I had a meeting with a client.” He sighed and glanced apologetically over to Carrie. “…but I did call in at nine to see if I had an EA manning my phones.”
Carrie grimaced. “At nine, your executive assistant still sat outside on the dirty concrete steps waiting for someone to come to work. I worried the city had some sort of holiday both my new boss and I had forgotten about. Finally, this guy from the systems arrives and lets me in. However, since he doesn’t know me, he insists I sit in a chair by his desk until someone can verify I’m supposed to be in the building.”
Trent snorted. “Would this fellow have a penchant for cookies?”
She laughed. “Yes, he does.”
Trent rolled his eyes.
Tall looked at Trent. “Did you tell anyone to expect her?”
“No. I didn’t see the need. Nor did I see my new EA when I arrived at ten.”
***
Liza: I hoped you enjoy this Partial Scene on a permanent Walkabout from WWE. If you did, think how good the book must be to kick out this darling.
And if you didn’t, then rest assured it didn’t make the book for whatever reason you didn’t like it.
Worst Week Ever
by Liza O’Connor
New Adult, Humor, Contemporary
Available Now
BLURB
What do you get when you put a hardworking, can-do middle-class young woman together with a egoistical, outrageous, billionaire boss, then throw in the worst week of disasters imaginable?
Book 1 of the 3 book series A Long Road to Love.
Worst Week Ever.
Trent Lancaster spends one month without his Executive Assistant, or as his drivers refers to Carrie: ‘Trent’s brain, left hand, and right hand’. He’s had a miserable month without her at his side and to ensure it never happens again, he intends to marry his brilliant beauty. Only given all the times he’s threatened to fire her, he’s not sure she even likes him. However, the future of his company and his happiness depend upon him succeeding, so Trent begins a slow one week seduction that happens to coincide with Carrie’s Worst Week Ever when everything that can go wrong does so in hilarious form.
(Hilarious to the reader–Carrie is not having much fun this week.)
EXCERPT
Closing his eyes, Trent enjoyed the pleasure of Carrie’s body pressed against his.
His eyes popped open in horror. Oh God, David’s right. I am besotted.
What the hell was he thinking?
Statistically, his relationships never lasted more than a month and they always ended badly. A billionaire who couldn’t make a relationship last more than a month. How horrible did he have to be to chase off women who had a billion reasons to stick it out?
If he became involved with his most valuable employee, in a month, she’d dump him and quit. Then his business would collapse into chaos and he’d finally prove his father right. The old man constantly claimed Trent was a worthless human being and the world’s worst businessman.
And then Carrie arrived and single handedly saved his company. She never gave up. If one solution failed, she’d find another way to resolve the problem.
He smiled at his sleeping EA. If anyone could make him into a better man, it would be her. Carrie could solve any problem, had the patience of a saint, and the determination of a pitbull. Best of all, she loved a challenge.
Author Bio:
Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.
Author Links
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
LIZA O’CONNOR
Liza’s Blog and Website Facebook Twitter
Don’t forget to leave a comment and provide your email address to win one of the tour prizes.
Want to increase your chances of winning a prize?
Follow Liza’s Craziest Blog Tour Ever
through all its stops.
