Rainbow Snippets

Happy weekend! I may be a bit late-ish reading the entries. I’m a violinist, and I play with a non-professional community orchestra. It’s our last concert of the season, so I’ll be off playing Ravel’s Bolero tonight, along with several other pieces. We’re also playing Russian Easter Overture (Rimsky-Korsakov), which has to be among my favorite things we’ve ever played. It’s a stunning composition.

Now for the snippet. I’ve been posting from my recently released novella, What Once Was Lost:

When their son goes missing on a camping trip, Brook and Casey are given a chance to make amends for their past mistakes with each other.

Following a volatile break-up with his partner, Casey has been raising his son, Ryan, mostly on his own. While Ryan is on a camping trip in the Adirondacks, Casey and Brook make another attempt to work through their differences, with disastrous results. But when Ryan and his friend disappear in the mountains, Casey and Brook travel together to find him. The tension leads to an opportunity to listen to each other, reconcile their history, and recover the love they once shared.

This snippet doesn’t directly follow last week’s. These guys are trying to work through what happened between them while Casey’s son is away on a trip. I may revisit this in the future, but this is it for now. I have a book launch coming up, so I’ll be posting from that one for the next while starting next week.

He hauled his fist back, ready to strike.

“I needed you to feel something for me again!” Brook yelled. “Not that empty place where I didn’t know if you even wanted me anymore.”

Brook was breathing hard as he looked directly into Casey’s eyes, silently pleading with him in a way that brought a new feeling to Casey’s gut. Something snapped, and instead of bringing his fist forward to punch Brook, Casey grabbed his shirt and leaned in to crush their mouths together. The kiss wasn’t tender; it was bruising and desperate, and Casey poured all his rage and grief and longing into it.

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!

It’s Saturday, time for another snippet! I can’t believe it’s already April. This will be my last snippet from Anthem, since I have a new novella out and a novel releasing in May, and I’d like to offer bits of those, too.

This is slightly longer than 6 sentences—it’s 6 lines of dialog instead. For context, the reason Nate was telling Trevor that story is because he doesn’t quite understand what it means that Trevor is bi (a fact which he hasn’t revealed to his fiancée). Nate’s imagining something more like his former boyfriend, who stayed closeted, got married, and had a string of affairs. Trevor’s setting him straight (er…so to speak).

They sat quietly for another minute before Trevor said, “Marlie was my first, you know. I mean, other than what you and I did. Summer before college.”

Nate glanced at him. “No, I didn’t know. Guess I should have assumed, though.”

“I’m not going to be like Rocco. This is different. I won’t cheat on her.” He tilted his head. “Huh.”

“What?” Nate asked.

“That’s it. I said it out loud—I won’t cheat on her because I love her.” Saying it gave him a rush. He laughed and ducked his head, knowing his cheeks were turning red. In all the years he’d been doing this dance, he’d never said the words to Nate’s face. “I love her,” he repeated.

Nate relaxed, though his smile was sad. “You’ll be happy with Marlie. Think how much happier you’ll be if you tell her the truth.”

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!

Happy Saturday! Since so many people have asked how Nate’s story worked out, I thought you all might like a bit of closure for this week’s snippet. It’s a bit longer than 6 sentences, but I’m sure you’ll all forgive me. In case you’ve forgotten, Nate is telling Trevor his slightly embellished version of his first time. You can read the other parts of it here, here, and here.

“Rocco’s mom just yells something else, and he looks down at me, gives me this shit-eating grin, and leans in for a kiss just as he comes. It was fucking fantastic.” Nate shook his head. “Later on, Rocco’s dad comes back home after watching the game with his friends. We’re standing in the kitchen, eating the lasagna his mom made, when he shows up. She doesn’t know any more about baseball than we do, so she says, ‘Sorry about the Sox game’ and repeats what Rocco told her. His dad gives her a real weird look and says, ‘The Sox played a great game. I think Rocco was messing with you.’ Then he walks off. She looks at us, and she pretty much catches on—she’d suspected for a while—goes beet red, and says she has things to do so we need to get out of her kitchen. You know, she never, ever offered us food again when we hung out.”

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!

Happy Saturday! Finally getting around to posting this. I spent all day catching up on reading and household chores. I was excited to see my new novella, What Once Was Lost, hit the bestseller list this week on All Romance. I’m particularly amused because I’m not actually a romance author—that was my first genuine attempt at one.

In case anyone has forgotten, I’ve been posting Nate’s “first time” story (using the term loosely here, as I’m inclusive on what qualifies as sex and don’t think Tab A—>Slot B is the only definition). Last week, nearly everyone wanted to know if Rocco’s idea to pretend they’re watching the Sox game worked. I’m stringing you along a bit more, but I promise you’ll find out whether Rocco’s mom catches on. As for how “true” this story is…well, think boys and their big mouths. (Notes for the nitpicky: Nate is now in his 20s; this is a high school story; yes, I know Ramirez doesn’t play for the Sox anymore.)

“Anyway, so he puts on the game, and we just kind of take our clothes off and start doing it. Then, while he’s pounding me and I’m just about to blow, his mom calls down, ‘You boys want something to eat?’ I was too close, Rocco kept moving, and I let go, groaning real loud. A second later, his mom says, ‘You all right?’ And Rocco, still without stopping, goes, ‘Yeah, Ramirez just struck out. Looks like they’re gonna lose.’”

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!