Happy Saturday! It’s Pride this weekend, so I’ll be proudly sporting my bi colors and my fancy confetti-streaked nails. It’s probably hard to tell in the pic, but the middle ones are rainbow, and there’s one each, L-R, for asexual, bi, genderqueer, and trans (for myself and the people closest to me).
Today’s snippet is from my new anthology of interconnected stories, Leaps of Faith. They’re all in the same setting as Passing on Faith and Walking by Faith. People kept asking me for more of Cat and Micah and their friends, so here it is. This is a bit of the first story, “From the Lips of Children.” (Cat is 13 here, his sister is 11.)
[Cat] knew he liked boys but not girls, and he knew the word for boys-who-only-liked-boys was gay, but did it still apply if he wasn’t sure he was a boy? Cat didn’t know a word for that, someone who wasn’t a boy or a girl, and it wasn’t like there were people to ask. Cat did not think he was a girl, not even after all the times he’d sneaked into LR’s room after lights-out so she could let him try on the dresses she saved for special occasions.
LR had good taste, and the two of them were almost the same size, due to LR still being flat-chested and Cat not growing right because he was always sick. He was used to having Mom fuss over him constantly because of his hemophilia and the complications he had from reacting to the synthetic clotting factor. Having a son—or whatever you called a kid who only felt like a boy part-time—who dressed in “girls’ clothes” would, in her mind, invite trouble.
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!
Funky nails! 🙂 Have a wonderful Pride weekend!
I love the way Cat reasons through his feelings about himself…definitely been there and done that.
I’ve been experimenting with nail art lately. There are some fun tutorials on how to do all kinds of things. Today should be fun—it’s the kids’ first Pride event!
I may have based a lot of Cat’s feelings on my own, LOL.
Oh, I loved this 🙂 You’ve captured his uncertainty perfectly.
Thank you! 😀 I may have some experience with that kind of uncertainty myself.
Oh I love Cat so much. Even more in this one, He seems to know himself pretty well even though he doesn’t quite know how to express it. He certainly takes that on into the other books.
Aw, thank you! Cat is delightful and really fun to write. He is definitely self-aware, and yet in a certain sense has a kind of innocence.
Great nails! I love the way you capture Cat’s uncertainty and emotion in this.
Thank you on both things! 🙂
Love the nails! <3
Cat is such a sweetheart, and with so much to work through sans resources. He's tugging at my heart strings.
Thank you! 🙂
Yes, here Cat’s got a lot on his mind. Fortunately, even his overprotective mom is actually his biggest supporter.
Love the nail colors! Cat is such a rich, well developed character. He develops a new layer in each snippet you offer about him.
Thank you!
Cat is definitely my most popular character, which is kind of interesting because I wrote him after a group of readers made a big fuss over only wanting “alpha male” men in their books. And yet somehow, Cat worked his magic! 🙂
Poor love. He needs to find his tribe!
He does. But he will eventually.
I haven’t had nails like that since high school, and can’t say I really like them on myself at all, but yours are beautiful.
And, Cat. Such a thought process, isn’t it? Trying to figure yourself out and where you don’t or do fit in… it takes time.
Great Snippet!
Thanks! It took me a while to be okay with doing my nails again. I felt like in order to prove my gender stuff isn’t “fake,” I had to act a lot less feminine. In some ways, that worked out–I still really freaking hate dresses and pantyhose and makeup. In other ways, it was stifling. Now I’m okay with wearing cargo pants and a hoodie, having my hair short, and painting my nails in rainbow glitter.
I suppose like Cat here, I’ve had to work on figuring it all out.
Well done! Oh, and the nails are awesome. 🙂
Thank you! 😀
I love Cat’s voice as he tries to reason through what he’s feeling.
Thank you. I tried to put a lot of my own experience of gender-musing into Cat’s thought process.
Awwww, fabulous snippet. I want to read more! 🙂
😀 Thanks!
Great snippet! Got me intrigued for more of Cat’s story 🙂
Cool! Cat is definitely a fun character.
You captured Cat’s uncertainty well here (love the nails)
Compassionate, lovely capture of Cat’s exploration.
Nails are awesome!
Thank you! 😀
Aww, Cat is so sweet in his uncertainty. Can’t wait to read more.
Thank you! 🙂
I like how, even with all he’s going through, Cat is mindful of what his mother might feel.