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Mrs. Dalloway’s Event and Cut Sex-Ed Scene from VORTEX

Happy Friday!

I just wanted to announce here that I’ll be moderating a panel on March 24th at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley! The featured authors will be Susan Adrian, author of the excellent TUNNEL VISION (I blurbed it!), Whitney Miller, author of THE VIOLET HOUR and THE CRIMSON GATE, and Stacey Lee, author of UNDER A PAINTED SKY. More information here! Come see us!

That said, I was going through some files on my computer yesterday and found a bunch of cut scenes from VORTEX and CATALYST. Here, I thought I’d share something for your reading pleasure– a cut scene from VORTEX between Tom and Blackburn.

The context: Heather already knows what Tom can do. She’s trying to manipulate him. In this version, Yuri is not yet stricken. They have a mock duel that ends awkwardly.

Followed by this:


 
Tom just goggled at her. He’d seen them. He’d just seen…

“Sir,” Heather said, straightening suddenly.

Tom gave a start, realizing Blackburn was in there, having walked up unnoticed during their duel.

“I need someone smaller than me to climb into a repair shaft,” Blackburn said.

Heather flushed a bit. So did Tom, because every inch of him was painfully aware of the boobs he’d just seen. The glorious, wonderful pair of boobs.

“I was going to order Raines, but now, Akron, I think you can do it. Instructions are in your processor.” Blackburn tapped at his forearm keyboard.

“But sir!” Heather objected. “What if there’s a Russo-Chinese attack and I’m needed?”

“I’ll take the risk.”

“General Marsh won’t like it,” she threatened.

Blackburn’s smile was dangerous. “You’re eighteen, Ms. Akron. Raines is fifteen. I think, rather than bother General Marsh over this minor request, you’ll go and do what I’m asking you to do.”

Heather’s face grew glacially cold. She nodded stiffly, then stalked past him.

Blackburn turned to regard him, then said, “Come with me.”

Tom didn’t move. “Why? Sir?”

“Just follow me.”

Minutes later, they settled across from each other in Blackburn’s office. Tom sat there, wondering what he’d done wrong. Blackburn was tapping his fingers on his desk, and seemed to be looking anywhere but at him.

“Mr. Raines,” he said, “we’ve had our differences.”

“That’s what you call trying to rip my mind apart? Having our differences?”

“Exactly,” Blackburn said flatly. “But the fact remains, I’ve seen enough memories of your childhood to know a few things about your upbringing, and I just walked in on… that. I have to ask you an awkward question now.”

“No, you really don’t.”

“The Spire is a highly politically charged environment,” Blackburn said, his voice tense. “Congressmen debate your curriculum on the House floor. In short: there’s no sex ed here. Did your father or any concerned adult ever educate you about women?”

Tom felt heat flood his face. “I didn’t do that. Her shirt just popped open and out they came. It was like a force of nature. Two forces of nature. And… and that means I don’t need to hear it.” He felt like he was in anguish, he was so desperate for this conversation to end. “I know all about the girl stuff, okay? I’ve got the internet.”

Blackburn made a pained face. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was afraid you’d say that. Listen, if you don’t want to hear it from me, you can hear it from Ms. Ossare. Want me to call her? “

Tom sat there, mortified. He couldn’t speak.

“I’ll send you down to her–”

“No!” God, that would be awkward, a woman telling him about… about all that stuff. “Isn’t there a pamphlet or something?”

“Shut up, Raines. This will be quick. Let’s start with some basic human biology. Human beings have cycles, you see, but the female cycle is the one most relevant to our discussion…”

* * *

It was the most horrifying twenty minutes of Tom’s life. He sat there, frozen in place, a hostage, waiting for Blackburn to conclude. At least he seemed as awkward with this as Tom felt.

“And that,” Blackburn concluded, “Is how a fun night out becomes a lifetime of child support and drug-resistant syphilis.”

14 Comments
  1. Will there be a 4th book to the insignia series? I think a lot of people would enjoy it. I know i would.

    • Hi Konner,
      So glad you enjoyed the series! CATALYST is the end… For now. I’ll see if I change my mind!

    • so at last from the making of TMK to it’s release and finally to its response SRK is responsible everywhere…SRK doesn’t need to celebrate the failure or success of TMK as he is nowhere attached with it…..and for instance i have not in once have heard any response of SRK abt TMK….but i have heard a lot from the mouth of FA8;&&#R230;H#8230A.so plz stop blaming SRK…..SRK doesn’t need any TMK……

    • I only just realized how often I think this myself! That’s brliailnt.”Thomas, really…is this working for you? I think you need to do more with this.””But it’s just a peanut butter…””Try some jelly. I know you’ll make it.”

  2. I just finished reading the series for the second time, and I love it even more. I agree with Konnor, I think there should be a fourth book too. I would like to know though, how old Vik, Wyatt, Yuri and Medusa and when are their birthdays? I want to know so much more about them.

    • Thank you so much, Annabelle! At the end of the series, Tom and Wyatt are eighteen, Vik is nineteen, Yuri and Medusa are twenty.

    • Hi Anon! No, the movie option lapsed, so not anytime soon… But I’ll let you know if that changes!

  3. Hi SJ Kincaid. I just read the series and I LOVE IT. I literally, literally, could not put it down. I am a girl and find it nice that there are a lot of books out there with females as their leads, but it is very refreshing reading something with a male lead. I just wanted to let you know that if you decide to write a fourth book I would be overjoyed because you are such a great author. Despite this I completely understand if you would like to stop. Sometimes you must let something end because nothing good comes out of holding onto something for too long. It would be very wonderful if you could post more deleted scenes from the books. Even if they are rough drafts and you don’t believe they are amazing, I doubt anyone who read your books will judge because we know how hard it is to make a story flow. (ESPECIALLY FOR THREE WHOLE BOOKS!) Thank you so much for writing those books. Also, I had a question about making it into a movie but it is somewhat of a private matter, so if you would like perhaps you could email me.
    Thank you again!

  4. Hey SJ Kincaid, i just finished the Book and i must say it was an amazing experience all along. It has been a long time since i was reminded that reading a Book while crying is really hard 🙂 I really want my Friends and Family to read it too, the thing is only insignia is avaidable in German. So i want to ask if there is any chance Vortex and Catalyst will be translated to german as well? (Sorry for my bad grammar like i said englisch isn’t my first language)

  5. This is so freaking awesome haha! I think it would have been great in the book. I first read it months ago, but I still like to come back and reread it from time to time. I loved the series; thanks for creating such a genial story!!!

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