I have written a lot more than I am willing to publish. Besides all the passages that have been cut out of the first three books in the Strange Jewelry Series, I wrote a completely different first book. I decided that I didn’t want to publish it after completing the story as it’s much darker and more violent that the Green Ring and Blue Diamond. I stopped work on those books and completed two versions of Guarding Stones instead. The upshot of all this additional material is that I have a rich background on nearly every character in the stories.
For example, Cyan Ocean is from England and “inherited” the Turquoise Ring from his uncle, Bruce Cecil Pratt Bismarck II, otherwise known as Turk Oysian. Turk had been a member of the Agency before an accident with Tiffany and Jade left him a crimple. He had been in love with Tiffany and they had planned on marrying. Cy is a much nastier, slimier character than portrayed in The Green Ring. I cut his part in the story back immensely. The same can be said about Perry in Guarding Stones. I cut nearly 50% of his back story as it was slowing the book down too much. On the plus side, I know both of these characters much more intimately than the published writing would indicate.
Besides background on characters, I cut some people out of the books entirely. I have bios on both Marina Beach and Flint Lockhart of the Alliance though I never did write them into scenes of the books. I also cut some henchmen and Agency staff as they didn’t really add to the storyline.
I also cut complete ideas. Originally, the story of the Green Ring and Blue Diamond was centered around People with magic stones that gave them powers AND their pets that for lack of a better term, were their familiars. O got the idea because my sister has two very strange black cats that have very definate personalities. That’s where Esmerelda came from. However, it didn’t take long for me to decide that was too close to Harry Potter characters, and abandoned the pet angle. Besides, it was getting difficult to write interesting anecdotes for Jett’s pet iguana.
