A.M. Leibowitz

queer slice-of-life stories

holiday

Rainbow Snippets: Christmas, sales, and announcements!

Books, Writing

Happy Saturday! I hadn’t intended to do another snippet because I thought today would be too busy. Turns out it’s only my kid who is busy. He’s in the Festive High School Chorale, singing with 200 students from 35 schools around the county. They’re on performances 4 and 5 today with our local professional orchestra’s annual pops concert. Tomorrow they close out the show.

In other news, hopefully folks will be happy to know that all my collections of short stories will be on sale for 99 cents each from 12/26/2019 – 1/1/2019. Here are the links:

Leaps of Faith: Amazon Universal | All Other 

(S)no(w) Angels: Amazon Universal | All Other

The Law of Radical Expressions: Amazon Universal | All Other

Imperfections: Amazon Universal | All Other

My YA novella, Year of the Guilty Soul, is also currently on sale through January 1.

I’m snipping today from another short story, this time found in Leaps of Faith. In this one, Pam and Zayne are learning that parenting doesn’t stop when your kids reach adulthood.

Pam heard Cooper’s exasperated sigh. “I haven’t gotten my last paycheck this month.”

And used the previous one to travel to see the boyfriend who just dumped him, no doubt. Pam rubbed her temple to ease the throb starting there. Zayne looked up from where she was sorting the last of their Christmas cards from the previous day’s mail.

“Tell him we’re on our way.”

Pam put on her best oh, really look. Zayne had always been much softer on the kids than Pam, maybe because she was their stepmother or maybe because she was generally more tenderhearted than Pam. Zayne met Pam’s stare with one of her own which plainly said she wasn’t budging on this.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

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Rainbow Snippets: Holiday Fun

Books, Writing

Happy Saturday! I haven’t done one of these in a while. Life has been incredibly busy for the last month. This is probably the last one I’ll do this year.

Since it’s almost Christmas (yes, I’m counting 10 days as almost), I thought I’d share from some of my holiday-themed short stories in (S)no(w) Angels. These were written at various times and collected later. All but one feature LGBTQ+ characters. Some are set with the same people and places as previous novels. Here’s the blurb:

A set of holiday-themed short fiction. Phin’s home sick, but Alex will take good care of him; Jeanine is about to deliver something more than red shoes to the boy who keeps asking for them; Santa’s son is in love with his sexy best friend, Elf Robin, and is trying to find a way to tell him; best friends, lovers, and co-teachers at a dance studio, Elinor and Giovanna enjoy their ballet with a side of spanking; eleven-year-old Cat wants to be Mary in his church’s Christmas play, but not everyone thinks that’s a good idea; Zayne wonders which part of her life will cause Pam to decide she’s better off looking for someone with fewer issues.

Amazon | Other Sellers

This story is from one titled “Pas de Deux.” It was written for a challenge with the prompts Christmas, ballet, wooden spoon, and spanking (yes, really).

I slip out the door to peek in the next room.

Elinor is doing what I should be—working out some choreography for her solo dance in the winter charity performance. I pause with my hand on the doorknob, mesmerized by her movement. She isn’t like me, all her height in her legs. She’s compact and muscular, a powerhouse built perfectly for the energetic jazz dance she loves. I can just barely hear the thump of her feet and the pounding backbeat of the music filtered by the soundproofing we’ve done to the rooms.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

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Rainbow Snippets: Broken hearted

Books, Writing

Happy Saturday! I can’t believe this is the last Rainbow Snippet of the year. It’s also nearing the end of my vacation. It’s been nice to have the time off.

I meant to get to everyone’s snippets last weekend, but it ended up being a whirlwind of cleaning and wrapping and family in and out. Hopefully I’ll be able to do better this week.

This is my last holiday-themed snippet. It’s from another story in Leaps of Faith, “Hope of All the Earth,” once again in Zayne’s POV. The story is a crossover of several of my novels and was my Christmas story last year. It takes place roughly ten years after the one I posted last week. Here, it’s Christmas Eve, and Cooper (now in his early twenties) has broken up with his long-term boyfriend.

Cooper flopped on the bed with one arm flung over his eyes. Zayne wished there were something she could do to ease the pain. She would never tell Cooper, but she’d sensed before that he’d felt obligated in some way to Terry and like it would make him a terrible person for initiating a break-up. The two of them had shared a lot of firsts and a lot of secrets together. Cooper may not have wanted to be the one to end things, but he hadn’t necessarily been an enthusiastic participant, either. There were little things he’d said over the last year and the slow, steady decline in their affection for each other. It wasn’t like the comfort of a long-term relationship, more like the symptoms of impending illness.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

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Rainbow Snippets: Signing up

Books, Writing

Happy Saturday! I’m pausing in the midst of my cleaning frenzy to post this. We’re having company for Christmas tomorrow, so we’re getting the house in shape. Today, I’ll have a bit of last-minute shopping and wrapping, and then tomorrow we have two church services where my kids are playing. Busy, but fun.

Today’s snippet is a bit sad. Which I suppose is all right. I find this time of year difficult, even when everything is relatively harmonious. I’ve taken this bit from Leaps of Faith in a story titled “Noel and Silent Night.” The two people speaking here are Zayne, a bisexual trans woman, and Pam, the lesbian cisgender woman she’s been seeing. Their date has been interrupted by Zayne’s best friend, Micah, having a mental health crisis.

“Are you sure you want a next time?” Zayne asked. “This is my life. I live alone, I do nails at a salon, and I take care of my drunk, suicidal friend. You didn’t sign up for any of this.”

“And you didn’t sign up for a formerly sheltered, recently out woman with children and a pathetic excuse of an ex husband. No one ever ‘signs up for’ anything in a relationship, sweetheart.”

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

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Review: The Eighth Night by Caraway Carter

Books, Reviews

About the Book

Title: The Eighth Night

Author: Caraway Carter

Length: 51 pages

Publication Date: December 1, 2017

Categories: Gay, Contemporary, Holiday

Goodreads

Purchase Links

Amazon

Synopsis

A Chanukah Secret Admirer Romance

Davi has eight nights to try and convince his former professor that he should break his rule: no students for lovers. Dr. Sol Gerber has another plan in mind. After the first night, Sol goes out of town and arranges for someone else to get the gifts. That someone else is his TA, Jon Ellis, a hot blond grad student in Literature.

Over eight nights, Davi delivers gifts ranging from socks to a hotel room key. In between chance meetings and the secret admirer gifts, the two men connect, finally meet, and sparks fly.

Review

A very quick read, I sneaked this one in during the length of time my kids were in music lessons. Cute, quirky, and just the right amount of holiday fun. Despite the steamy nature of some of Davi’s gifts, this is a sweet romance rather than a hot one.

Everything about this has, to me, a flavor of authenticity. While there is a bit of falling in love and a happily-for-now ending, that isn’t what I liked best. My favorite part in the whole thing was when Davi and Jon talked about the books they loved. Maybe my bias is that I’m a book enthusiast myself, or maybe it’s that I was finally reading a story where the characters had more in common than finding each other hot. Either way, that part rang so true to me that I almost cheered.

Besides that, I loved the university setting, the distinctly Jewish flare, and the few side characters. All of those elements were so well-drawn and brought me right into the story. If I have any complaints, it’s that we may never get to revisit this place. I’ll have to settle for re-reading it, perhaps right on the eighth night itself.

For a authentic detail, humor and heart, and sweet holiday fun, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.

About the Author

Caraway Carter has worn numerous hats. He’s been a furniture salesman, a dresser, a costumer, an actor/waiter, a rabble rouser, a poet and most recently a writer. He married his husband on Halloween and they are the loving parents of an adorable cat, named Molly. He loves words and stringing them together, he loves sex and sexy men. He loves seeing how far his muse will take him and he’s looking forward to entertaining you.

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