As any of you who write well know, writers often have to axe scenes and even entire chapters in the name of editing. I am no exception. Thus far, I haven't had to cut anything I was really, really attached to.

Except for this.

I felt like there weren't enough steampunky devices in Corpses, so I wracked my brain trying to come up with another. I'm not really sure where the inspiration came from (maybe I was reminiscing about the safety assemblies my elementary school used to have around the Halloween season), but I suddenly decided to have Booker create the glowstick.

Well, sort of.

I did a good amount of research on this one, and I was so excited to use it! But as I went through with the second draft, I realized this clever contraption just wouldn't fit. It kinda broke my heart, but I had to delete this scene. Which is unfortunate, cuz not only did I think a glowing lamp was cool, but I feel like this scene helped to show that, even though Booker doesn't trust Frieda and is frankly rather afraid of her, he still admires her intelligence and skills. It was like a glimpse into the past with them as two strange but brilliant children creating monstrosities in the orphanage library.

Anyhow, here's the deleted scene. It's from the first draft (I can't believe I'm letting any part of my dumpster fire of a first draft see the light of day), so please be kind. I've made no revisions, so there are definitely errors.

It's from Chapter 39 of Corpses where Booker and Trinket are in the cemetery to retrieve the buried bodies and dissect them:

Rather than one of his autopsy tools, though, he pulled out an odd device Trinket hadn't seen before. It almost looked like the snakecatcher he'd made not so long ago, except this had something sticking out from the top.

"What that?" she asked, squinting through the dark.

"An alternative to a lantern," he explained, setting the device on the ground between them. "It's a jar filled with water, red dye, and a special chemical that, when combined with the hydrogen peroxide housed within a glass tube inside—"

He pushed down on the piece sticking out from the top, and there was a dull crunch like shattering glass. And then, as if by magic, an eerie red glow emanated from the small opening of the device. It wasn't as bright as a flame, but it was just enough by which to see the bodies they were about to cut open.

"That's amazing," Trinket whispered. "How did you come up with it?"

"Well, in full disclosure, Frieda helped." He moved the strange lantern towards the body labeled 957. "I told her I wanted to create a source of light that didn't attract as much attention as fire and that didn't require so many tools to ignite. She came up with the chemical compound that reacts to the peroxide, and I tweaked the snake catcher I made so that I could limit the amount of light that's visible."

The red moth that had been harrassing Trinket earlier now fluttered about the lantern, crashing into the sides like it was possessed. "When did you two have time to create something like this?"

"When I went to retrieve my coat from her earlier today. I picked her brain for some ideas. As frustrating as she can be, she's a true genius when it comes to chemicals and plants."