Through no fault of his own, Ellison Stewart had the looks and charisma of a 1940’s movie star. There was a lot of discussion about which one exactly; older women mentioned Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power, younger women said “Who?” and sighed when he passed. Tall, dark and handsome said it all. And he hated it.

Ellison had no sooner leveled a look at the matron in the pro shop who was fumbling all the golf balls off the shelves than he regretted it. How much more of his life was he going to have to put up with women going all slack-jawed when they first got a good look at his face? This lady had actually fallen over.

Maybe it was time for him to seriously consider plastic surgery, he thought. Or get fat, which was another option he had recently considered.

She smiled up at him, still with that stunned look on her plump face. Everyone in the pro shop was waiting to see what he would do.

To be continued…Excerpt from The Cowboy’s Baby, a romance by Gretchen Lee Rix, copyright July 2010. www.amazon.com/The-Cowboys-Baby-ebook/dp/B003UYUVZC.

Originally this novel had a prologue that started with “The dingoes have taken my baby” line from the Meryl Streep movie and continued through a detailed kidnapping scene and the breakdown and eventual recovery of my main character Cassandra Lennon. But I decided to throw it all out and start here, and with the other main character instead. (I still have the prologue on file if I want to look at it).

The tone of the prologue was so at odds with the tone of the rest of the novel I knew it would not work. Plus, they say don’t start with a prologue anyhow. I’ve got another novel I’ve been working on that I have the sneaking suspicion I’ll have to toss the first four chapters before I come to the true beginning of the story. Talk about painful!

My point? This is going to happen to you, too. Don’t be so attached to your prose or a subplot that you can’t recognize the dead weight.

Of note to Central Texans–Something fun to do in late August: www.armadillocon.org. And somewhere great to eat anytime except Mondays: www.cottonseedcafe.com