When writing a book, I have the tendency to write too much book. My first novel had at least 20,000 words knocked off before it was published, and even then it probably could have been scaled back another 5,000. For BRAN HAMBRIC: THE SPECTER KEY, my editor chopped out 30,000 words right from the start: literally severing about 1/4 of my novel. I suppose writing too much is a far better issue than writing too little: except, of course, when you have to watch 30,000 of your little children meet their doom :D

BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE took nearly six years to write. The original story was finished in about six months, leaving the remainder to editing and rewriting — so much that little of the original wording was left in the final draft that was published, though the story and plot were closely the same. Commonly, there are certain scenes that are taken out of the book entirely, usually because they simply have no place. If the book can stand on its own without a scene, then there’s no point in that scene being there.

So for the BranFans, I’m posting a very old, barely edited excerpt from the original BRAN HAMBRIC: THE FARFIELD CURSE (then it was, THE FARFIELD PLOT). As you will see, this is an example of the type of thing that doesn’t belong in a book. It’s a scene I had fun writing when I was 14, but inevitably does nothing to further the plot.

I’ve prefaced this so you don’t take this as an example of my writing and go “Fah! What nonsense! I’m tossing this book in the trash compactor immediately!” or something similar. Also keep in mind if you haven’t read the book, you won’t understand this at all. Without further ado, you can download it here (PDF) or read below: