DELETED SCENES
I went through several full drafts and even more partial ones while writing The Tale That Twines. It was difficult to figure out how to arrange the prequel material, which all-in-all stretches over the course of about twelve years, not counting childhood flashbacks. I tried many different orders and configurations before I finally got it right. Some of these scenes come from those previous attempts, which may have some stark differences in plot detail compared to the official published version. Some can be considered more or less canonical, while others may be partially canonical or the equivalent of an AU. I’ve marked them as such.
These deleted scenes are unedited and may contain grammar errors, clunky writing, or [BRACKETS] where I intended to fill in proper nouns and other things at a later date. I hope you can enjoy these things as a behind-the-scenes look at my writing process. There’s close to 20,000 words of extra material here, so there’s a lot to read!
Content warnings marked where necessary. Click the titles to read.
Library tour scene, Aeronwy’s POV
Canon?: a little bit
Content warnings: innuendo and sex jokes
Originally, I wrote the Library tour scene in Chapter Four from Aeronwy’s point of view. Siobhan wasn’t on the tour at all, and they start with the Children’s Wing and clock tower instead of visiting them last. Those things plus some of the dialogue obviously don’t match what’s in the official book, but you can consider the peek into Aeronwy’s thoughts and feelings to be fairly accurate.
(every other deleted scene is from June’s POV)
Foraging and folk songs
Canon?: sort of
Content warnings: none
This is intended to happen during the camping trip in Chapter Seven, but is technically non-canonical. In the book, June doesn’t get up and go outside when e hears Aeronwy singing, and tells Aeronwy about Opal’s retirement during a different scene. It also suggests that Aeronwy was practicing Flamekeeping with the fire at that time, which is no longer correct. However, this is pretty much what I imagine the canonical foraging trips mentioned in the book to be like, so I’ve included it. I also really like the two songs, which should have made it into the official book, but didn’t because I absolutely forgot they were there in my drafts. Oh well, there’s always Book 3!
Cozy day trip
Canon? sure, why not?
Content warnings: mention of surgery & medical stuff
I think this scene got deleted because it doesn’t do very much? We do end up with a scene in the official where June is rethinking the amount of journaling e does, which was the main point I wanted to make, but… honestly, I’ve been through so many drafts, I don’t know exactly why this changed. This scene could effectively be canon if placed in the timeline properly. Siobhan does have surgery at some point during the Interlude (I think?) and this could be an outing they have around then. Some details may be off, but it’s a nice cozy little moment.
Lullaby
Canon? it could be, with adjustments
Content warnings: none
This scene is written in past tense as it was originally recounted as a flashback. I did end up using their topic of conversation in the official book, so if this scene were canon, I suppose they’d have to talk about something else. I absolutely love the trope of one character falling asleep and the other carrying them to bed, and I know others do, too, I thought I’d share it, haha. I like to think something like this happened during the Interlude years. Sorry there’s no actual song lyrics! I wrote most of the songs during the final draft.
Indigo spirit
Canon? effectively
Content warnings: none
I chopped this one for space reasons, but Opal and June do use indigo dye for the Planet of Honey Illuminated book, so this could have happened! It’s also from a recent enough draft that references to other bits of plot are more or less correct. You may notice that the song sounds familiar, and that’s because I rewrote it for the official version of Chapter Eleven. I had wanted to copy and paste the song, feeling proud of it, but I’d accidentally put the document with the original lyrics in the trash folder on Scrivener and couldn’t find it! I think I like the new version better now.
Stormy story night
Canon? could be
Content warnings: none
This was originally written as the memory that June and Aeronwy recover in Chapter Eleven. It wasn’t really serving the overall narrative/theme, so I changed it to the memory about going to the Library for art reference books. I also hadn’t really figured out what Hazel and Val’s personalities were like, so they’re kind of bland/OOC here. That said, something like this could totally have happened in June’s childhood. A little bit of the scene lives on in the conversation June and Aeronwy have in Chapter Twelve about what Aeronwy’s childhood was like telling stories around the fire.
The Astranet is a series of tubes
Canon: ABSOLUTELY NOT
Content warnings: depiction of anxiety, mild traumatic flashback emotions
In the original draft where Book 2 and 3 were one big combined story, June actually helps lay the physical foundation of the Astranet instead of just inspiring Dr. Azo with eir research. Don’t worry about the side characters mentioned here, they don’t exist anymore (unless I bring them back later). This ended up being replaced by all the memory retrieval and fandom plot and is no longer canon, although who knows what June will get up to in the background of Book 3 while we focus on Aeronwy. Anyway, I’m including this because I thought it would be interesting for people to see just how starkly a story can change from draft to draft sometimes. It’s practically a different novel entirely!
PAST LIFE MEMORIES
In prior drafts of the book, June also recovered past life memories with the other cast members, specifically the ones e didn’t know as a child—Inyene, Aeronwy, and Mairead. I ended up nixing them all because they were more a distraction from the point than anything, BUT THEY ARE TECHNICALLY STILL CANON. June makes a brief reference to getting the gist of them in eir Threads with Aeronwy in Chapter Eleven.