Get Nerdy With Me No. 14

Tracy Deonn's ephemeral scene transitions in Bloodmarked

Feb 24, 2025

I love a sleek segue: something clever that connects two scenes.

Today, in this 14th installment of Get Nerdy With Me, I’m highlighting something I call “the ephemeral scene transition.” It happens when an author creates a faint echo between back-to-back scenes or chapters. The echo is usually very quiet, a reverberating image, action, or feeling that appears in each scene.

Tracy Deonn is really good at crafting echoes between scenes.

As a reader, when I find myself gliding from one scene to the next, in an almost lulled state, I start looking for faint echos. Somehow, these echoes make me feel grounded in multiple scenes at once. In Bloodmarked, there are two examples of the “ephemeral scene transition” or these type of faint echoes that I really like. More importantly, I can clearly articulate how they work for me. So, here it goes!

(Ephemeral Scene Transition 1)

A fancy dinner reservation in Chapters 16 & 17 echoes a fancy-dinner escape in Chapter 18

In their last grueling interrogation of Bree, the regents lackadaisically dismiss Bree because they have a dinner reservation. It’s a skin-crawling moment, to say the least.

“She leaves us no choice.” Gabriel stands with a long sigh, buttoning his jacket. “It will be quite a lot of mesmerwork, Tacitus, but this girl has taken too much of our time. I, too, grow tired of the ceremony, and we have a dinner reservation.”
Bloodmarked, Chapter 16, page 170

In the next chapter, Erebus escorts Bree to her quarters, then leaves to make that dinner reservation.

“I think you’ll enjoy your stay here. I need to rejoin the other members of the Council for our reservation.” Erebus clasps his hands at his waist, giving me time to respond.
Bloodmarked, Chapter 17, page 174

Screw the regents and their dinner plans, Bree has her own dinner reservation—and escape—to get to!

In her quarters, Bree receives lackluster meals through a flap in the door. On this day, things are different. A tray with a surprisingly enticing steak dinner arrives. Bree slices into the meat and strikes “a tiny black case about the size of [her] thumb […] It’s…an earpiece.”1

Breaking down the echoes: hunger, listening, leaving

The regents are presumably hangry, don’t want to listen to Bree anymore, and leave the compound for their dinner reservation.
Next scene: Bree digs into a nice steak dinner, discovers a listening device in her meat, makes contact with her rescuers, and escapes the compound.

How I saw this 👇🏻

A lot of people ask how I see patterns like this as I read. I can explain this one pretty well. I knew, going into my reread of Bloodmarked, that demonic hunger and the figure of The Great Devourer were important in this book. So, on my reread, I decided to annotate all the food in the books - just to see what I could see. I didn’t stop to wonder if the food was important. If I ran across food in any form, I quickly marked it and kept reading. THEN, when I reviewed my food annotations, I realized there was a very cool “regents leave the compound because of dinner + Bree leaves the compound because of dinner” combo!

(Ephemeral Scene Transition 2)

Untranslated Welsh (said on a balcony) echoes between Chapter 51 and Chapter 52

In Chapter 51, Bree takes a blood walk with Nick and Sel in one of Arthur’s memories. Toward the end of the walk, the trio steps onto a castle balcony. Sel and Nick begin speaking in modern Welsh, as Bree gazes out at the lake.2 Bree knows they’re talking about her, but she can’t fully translate everything they say.

This blood-walk-balcony moment in Bloodmarked echoes a Legendborn balcony scene, the one where Sel claims Bree as his king and calls her “cariad.” It’s not until Chapter 52 of Bloodmarked that Bree and Sel finally discuss the meaning of “cariad.” Just like Chapter 51, untranslated modern Welsh (that was said on a balcony) is driving this scene.

“Really? Now is when you want a Welsh lesson on something I said months ago?”
“Be nice, it’s my birthday,” I shoot back.
Bloodmarked, Chapter 52, page 476