A Beautiful Fall
Page 28
Deleted Scenes and Bonus Content
Most DVDs include a special-features section, deleted scenes, and glimpses into the making of the movie. I wanted to share a couple of deleted sections and behind-the-scenes notes from A Beautiful Fall. This paragraph below was written in longhand in a yellow legal notebook I carry with me. It outlined my first thoughts on the character of 1960s movie starlet, Janette Kerr. After the premise was written, these were the first words I wrote for the novel:
Marjorie Kerr lived a simple life, or least she had for the past twenty years. Ever since she’d left Hollywood, California, in a powder blue Cadillac convertible in 1972 following a brief, tumultuous career as B-movie starlet. Marjorie had seen the studio system up close as a working contract actress to MGM, been cast in many B-movie player roles as night-club cigarette girls, passengers on trains, and chorus line dancers. She’d even played opposite Clark Gable in Some Go East, collecting his coins at an onstage newspaper stand and delivering her one line on cue: “Twenty-five cents.” He’d replied: “Here you go, kid.” But she left Hollywood. Left it and didn’t ever care to go back …
o o o
This section below is an unedited swatch, a first-draft glimpse at A Beautiful Fall as it was being written. The barn-dance scene was written out of sequence with the rest of the novel. When this was written, none of the other scenes with Christina and Bo had been set to paper yet.
(Hayride Scene)
“Bo, thanks for coming on this hayride with me. Don’t know why the others didn’t want to come.”
“Some people aren’t as adventurous as you are.”
Christina snuggled closer, tighter to Bo. The faces of the other couples were in shadows cast by the darkness of the orchard. There was no wind, but the night air was chilled.
“I’m glad you are.”
The rumbling chug of Farmer Whitfield’s tractor up ahead of them made all talk private. Just two people in a group sitting on a blanket on the trailer’s floor, edged with bales of hay.
“You seem especially happy tonight. Having a good time?” Bo said.
“I’m having a wonderful time. I love being outdoors, even at night. I love being with all of our friends, and I love being here with you.”
“Sounds like you’ve got everything you need.”
“Yeah, Bo. I do. I just want the piece that’s missing. Knowing it’s always going to be this way.”
Bo joked. “You want me to hold back the changing of time? Try and keep things just the way they are?”
“No,” Christina let out in her soft voice of confidence and resolve. “I just want to wake up every morning with you sleeping next to me. That’s all.”
Christina lived by the confidence that if ideas could be put into words and expressed, then they could be understood. Bo was the kind of man who liked things he could put his hands on, not ideas that he couldn’t wrap his mind around. Still, he felt guilty when he heard the words that sprang out from her heart. He knew where they came from. He knew Christina was honest and could only say what she felt on the inside. Sometimes he thought he would just ask her. Just surprise her one day with a ring and get the whole thing over with. Bo knew he would be marrying up. Christina was a jewel. His own dad had told him that at Thanksgiving the year before. She was smarter, she was better looking, and she had to be making more money than he. No, just give it another spring, another summer. They were having a great time. Why rush it?
“As long as I’m the last man you kiss before you go to bed, we’re good. You aren’t seeing someone else after I drop you off, are you?”
“Yes, Bo. I keep him in my laundry room.”
Christina pinched Bo on his arm. The hayride turned the back loop of the dark trail and Christina watched the tractor’s headlights pass over the apple-less trees. The clouds above them moved south, heading for warmer weather. The bark on the trees seemed to hold close for warmth. Could it be cooler than forty?
“Hey, after the ride why don’t we invite everyone back to my house for hot chocolate or cider, or anything warm? Does that sound like a good idea?”
“Yeah, if everybody wants to. You’re just cold now.”
“Bo, I love these times when we’re alone.”
Christina sat in front of Bo on the blanket. She turned her head to face him.
“You know I love you, right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You know so. I couldn’t make anything more clear.”
Bo kept silent. Christina was in high spirits. This was everything she loved in one special night. He hoped she wasn’t going to use this moment to scratch the marriage itch. He didn’t think this was the time or place.
Christina reached her open hand up behind Bo’s neck and pulled him down for a kiss. “Maybe just you should come to my place for cocoa.”
Bo found the deep pool of Christina’s eyes among the shadows of the night. She sat still as a statue before him, unblinking. He wondered just what went on inside her, and if he would possibly drown if he fell off the edge. He kissed her again, a long kiss, and knew how deep was her love. Just like the song that played on her stereo when he’d picked her up that night. Just like the question she was asking him. How deep?
The tractor rounded the last bend and pulled in under the bright naked exterior lights mounted high in the corners of the barn. They were again in the company of friends, greeters in the night happy to see the couples return to the party.
“Anyone in the mood for a late-night hangout session at my place? We can make it the first official lighting of the fireplace.”
“Oh, it’s so late, hon,” Emma said, because she wanted to be alone with Michael.
“Yeah, it’s getting kind of late,” Samantha echoed Emma’s thoughts, only for entirely different reasons. She was tired, tired enough to want to get home and go to sleep. It had been a wonderful night, but it was time to go to bed.
Jim fished the keys to the van out of his pocket and opened the driver door, turning on the dome light.
o o o
This last section is a deleted scene from chapter 1. Originally, I wanted to show a more complex relationship between Emma and Robert Adler. This became problematic fairly quickly, so I abandoned the idea. Here’s a sketch of Robert Adler’s thinking as he watched Emma in the courtroom in chapter 1.
Robert Adler, the firm’s senior partner, sat in the fifth row of the courtroom watching the woman he’d hired eight years earlier. He’d then mentored, apprenticed, and groomed her to the full extent of legal and business maturity.
Had he been twenty years younger, maybe. Maybe he would have acted not as senior partner, or as senior anything, but as someone else in her life. Robert Adler observed Emma presenting a case before the judge and jury that was as solid as stainless steel, yet as warm as a woman’s touch.
Hollywood calls that something extra the “it” that defines a person. Intelligence, humor, vulnerability, self-reliance—Adler saw those qualities in Emma the minute she’d taken her seat for the first of two interviews. When she’d told him the story of where she was from, down south, the Carolinas. And how far she’d come to Harvard law school, passing the Massachusetts state bar exam. Yet she’d retained so much of wherever it was she’d come from. That day he wondered if McCormick & Adler was a brilliant opportunity for Emma. Today in the courtroom he wondered if the firm was merely a stepping-stone on her inevitable journey into the stratosphere of practicing law.
Author Interview
Q: What’s the story behind A Beautiful Fall?
A: A Beautiful Fall tells the story of Emma Madison, a woman who grew up in a small, idyllic Southern town called Juneberry, South Carolina. Her mother passes away when Emma is young, and when Emma turns eighteen, she leaves Juneberry. Sixteen years later she’s a successful law partner in Boston. The day she wins her biggest court
case, Emma gets a phone call that her father has suffered a heart attack. She goes back for the first time in years and the experience is life-changing.
Q: What do you like best about the stories and characters in A Beautiful Fall?
A: I like the three love stories about three couples in very different situations. I think readers will identify with at least one of the stories, but probably there are aspects of each love story that will resonate.
Q: A Beautiful Fall is set in the fictional town of Juneberry, South Carolina. Did you grow up in a small town?
A: Yes, I grew up in the small town of Leslie, Michigan, which has a population of about two thousand. I also live in a small town today, so things like going to a barn dance or walking at night through a historic Southern town are real experiences for me. I’ve always valued the experience of growing up in a small town because I think it gives a person a unique perspective on the world. You know just about everybody. My graduating class was just over a hundred people and many of them I’d gone to school with since kindergarten. Life in a small town also affords you the time and space to be alone, to carve out a place in the world for yourself, and to develop an individual identity.
Q: In A Beautiful Fall, your writing again centers on the issues of singleness. This is obviously something close to home for you. Would you like to elaborate?
A: My first two novels have dealt with the realities of living life as a single, i.e., missing someone you love, reaching for a partner who feels just out of grasp, and recovering from painful breakups that can stunt us from growing into what God may desire for us. In A Beautiful Fall, I wanted to show single life from several perspectives. Christina loves Bo, but she lives with the tension of not being able to have what she wants. Michael is committed to Emma, a woman who has moved on with her life. Emma has so invested herself in career and in running from the past that she doesn’t really know what love in her life should look like. Bo’s been shredded by his marriage and doesn’t think he can go through anything that painful again. I think readers will identify with these situations because they’re real-life experiences.
Q: What’s your approach to writing a novel?
A: I start with a basic premise and let the story grow organically. I’m like a reader turning pages to find out what will happen in the story, so my first draft moves along quickly. I always pray before each writing session, and I like working without a predetermined direction or plot.
Q: What is it like being a man writing contemporary romantic fiction?
A: I like to think the stories I write are about people more than they’re about falling in love. Just as love and partnership are important to people, likewise it’s important to my characters. The greater number of layers there are in the story, the more it becomes something larger than just a love story. Readers are savvy, and I think they want to read a story that’s original and involving for their emotions, mind, and spirit.
Q: A Beautiful Fall is your second novel. What made you want to try writing a novel in just twelve weeks?
A: Twelve weeks went by a lot faster than what I thought it would, but I think having such a tight deadline helped shape me as a novelist. I just had time to focus on the points that really mattered. However, I don’t think I’ll do it again. I’m writing my next novel right now, and knowing there are many months until it’s due feels great.
Q: How can readers learn more about your work and ministry?
A: My Web site is chriscoppernoll.com. Readers will find my bio, info on my books, interviews, photos, speaking, and information on the Providence Cares Foundation. Or they can write me at chris@providencebook.com and get in touch with me that way.
About the Author
Photo by Allen Clark
Chris Coppernoll is the author of five books, including 2008’s David C Cook release, A Beautiful Fall, and his 2007 novel, Providence. He is the founder and host of the internationally syndicated radio program, Soul2Soul, a national speaker on issues of importance to singles, and an acclaimed interviewer of people of faith, including Amy Grant, Billy Ray Cyrus, Randy Travis, Frank Peretti, Max Lucado, Point of Grace, Ce Ce Winans, MercyMe, Sheila Walsh, Third Day, Casting Crowns, Natalie Grant, Brennan Manning, and Michael W. Smith. Chris holds a master’s of ministry leadership degree from Rockbridge Seminary, and serves as a deacon at The People’s Church outside Nashville, Tennessee.
Books by Chris Coppernoll:
A Beautiful Fall
Providence
God’s Calling: Searching for Your Purpose in Life
Secrets of a Faith Well Lived
Soul2Soul
If you enjoyed this title, visit DCCeBooks.com for more great reads.
A BEAUTIFUL FALL
Published by David C Cook
4050 Lee Vance View
Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.
David C Cook Distribution Canada
55 Woodslee Avenue, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E5
David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications
Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England
The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.
All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, scanned, resold, or distributed by or through any print or electronic medium without written permission from the publisher. This ebook is licensed solely for the personal and noncommercial use of the original authorized purchaser, subject to the terms of use under which it was purchased. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This story is a work of fiction. All characters and events are
the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance
to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.
LCCN 2008933682
ISBN 978-1-4347-6852-0
eISBN 978-0-7814-0714-4
© 2008 Chris Coppernoll
The author is represented by MacGregor Literary.
The Team: Andrea Christian, Stephen Parolini, Amy Kiechlin,
Jack Campbell, and Susan Vannaman
Cover Design: David Uttley, The DesignWorks Group
Cover Photos: Getty Images (woman in swing);
Steve Gardner, PixelWorks Studios (cowboy)
First Edition 2008
www.DavidCCook.com
What people are saying about …
A BEAUTIFUL FALL
“A beautiful story of romance, healing, and redemption … a reminder that God so often uses the people in our lives to show us what really matters and to demonstrate His steady love that forever pursues us.”
Meredith Andrews, singer, songwriter, and worship leader
“For the born romantic in all of us, a sweet tale of the simple life rediscovered.”
Ginger Garrett, author of In the Shadow of Lions
“In A Beautiful Fall, Chris Coppernoll shows himself once again to be a master at bringing characters so close you can touch their hearts. If you dare get this close, don’t be surprised to meet yourself somewhere in the pages.”
J. Sam Simmons, PhD, cofounder of Rockbridge Seminary
“You’ll find yourself longing for more of this book as it draws to a close. You won’t be ready to put it down. And in the end, you will discover that love is all that matters after all.”
Marlene A. Rauch, Mall of GA Book Ends Book Club
“In A Beautiful Fall, Coppernoll made going home again an interesting and intriguing prospect.”
Tisha Cleveland, Mall of GA Book Ends Book Club
“Chris Coppernoll once again shows his unique talent for capturing the true heart and emotions of relationships—the promise of hope and restoration.”
Robin Motsinger, Mall of GA Book Ends Book Club
“A
Beautiful Fall is a fast-paced, enjoyable read with rich characters and profound truth. There truly is no place like home!”
Marcia Massie, Mall of GA Book Ends Book Club
“A Beautiful Fall is a beautiful story of redemption, second chances, and enduring love crafted by an author with the heart of a true romantic.”
Angela Roberts, Mall of GA Book Ends Book Club
“Chris Coppernoll has shown us that you can go home again and that your family and special friends are always there for you no matter what happened in the past.”
Gail Mundy, Mall of GA Book Ends Book Club
“A Beautiful Fall exposes the heart of relationships, love, and the real meaning of life. Chris Coppernoll is a romantic at heart and his second novel shows how versatile he is. I can’t wait to see what he does in his third novel. After reading this story you’ll be waiting too.”
Nora St. Laurent, Mall of GA Book Club servant leader
What readers are saying about …
PROVIDENCE
“I purchased your book on Sunday and literally could not put it down once I opened the first page. The story you have told is truly amazing and it defies my ability to find the right adjectives to describe it.”
Skip Kroeger, Nashville, Tennessee
“Just finished Providence. What a great story! Your writing is very similar to that of Nicholas Sparks, who is my favorite author. Now I have two favorites!”
Shirley Dotson, Cleveland, Ohio
“I just finished Providence. It was absolutely gripping and powerful. Not wanting to be done with the book, I read everything in the back as though I could prolong the experience! I keep track of the authors and books I really like. Yours will be in there with the best.”
Geannine Miller, Greenville, Ohio