Husband Post

As the only member of the Hale household currently near an internet spigot, Shannon has asked me to post something for her information-hungry blog visitors. I asked her what, exactly, I should post, and she couldn't think of anything. Anything she felt confident I could convey, at least. I don't have a real good handle on why Mr. Darcy is so fascinating or why reading books shouldn't be painful, awkward and boring, so my skillz are limited.

News, though...let's see. Austenland and Princess Academy are both in Hollywood limbo, but it's still Hollywood. Nobody really knows if anything will happen. Shannon's given up worrying about it. We're both itching to see Rapunzel's Revenge bound and in print - it seems like it's been forever. We're still slogging through the sequel, and I think Shannon hopes I will magically produce a perfectly polished act 3 for the thing while I'm home and she's not. We'll see. Without rational oversight, I might actually be able to sneak in that gopher scene that we had to cut from Rapunzel. Here's a clip of dialogue from the first draft of RR that got cut:

It's dark. Jack is asleep, rock as pillow.

Voice: Psst.

Jack: Hmm?

Voice: You awake?

Jack, eyes still closed.

Jack: Er...uh...yeah. Of course.

Voice: Can I have some of those berries?

Jack: We're supposed to save 'em, aren't we?

Rapunzel: Jack! Who are you talking to?

Jack: Whuh?

Wee see a gopher-like face come up close to Jack.

Jack: Yai!

Gopher enters moonlight. Obviously small. You know, gopher-sized.

Todd: Hi. I'm Todd.

Jack: Um...um...um...

Rapunzel sits up.

Rapunzel: I'm Rapunzel. Can we help you, little beastie?

Todd: We were just wondering if we could have some of your berries.

Rapunzel: We?

From the darkness, we start to see little shapes emerge.

Todd: My family.

Todds 1-10: Hi. I'm Todd.

Rapunzel: Well hello there, everyone!

Jack: You're all named...Todd?

Todd: All of us here are, sure.

Jack: Isn't that a little, um, repetitive?

Todd: I don't know. Is it?

Rapunzel: Are you the Devourers?

Todd: The what?

Jack: Have you been taking Jasper's stuff?

Todd: The crazy man? Oh, certainly.

Rapunzel: He isn't happy about it.

Todd: He's not? I thought that was the game. We take his food, he tries to hit us with rocks.

Jack: Did he ever get one of you?

Todd: No, not so much. He's a pretty bad shot.

Rapunzel: Sounds like you won the game then.

So there you go. Shannon will be back late Saturday night, so she'll probably put something "real" up sometime after that.
-Dean