I’ve joined the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook. From their description: “Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).” Pretty cool, eh? Don’t forget to “Like” my Facebook page and/or my Facebook profile while you’re over there checking out this fantastic group!
I’m starting a new thread from Closets Are for Clothes featuring Mike & Wes. For general context, Mike is on an airplane heading “home” to Kansas to come out to his parents.
Told from Mike’s 1st-person POV.
This Week’s Snippet:
The plane taxied down the runway and took off, and I turned my gaze to my book. I’d brought Andy Weir’s The Martian because I’d read it before and loved it, and I’d figured I might be distracted, so it’d be best not to try to follow a new story.
I opened the book, read the first three lines with the character thinking he was “pretty much fucked,” and closed it again. I didn’t believe in omens, but that summed up how I felt. It was just a question of degree.
Dream On – Book 1 – Closets Are for Clothes
42,719 words / 136 Pages (PDF)
Coming on February 24, 2018 to JMS Books, LLC
You can get it here at 20% OFF through the first week after release: JMS Books, LLC
Also available for preorder here:
Amazon Kindle (Universal Link) | iBookStore | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Mike’s life is carefully compartmentalized. He’s deep in the closet to his family back in Kansas, but lives life honestly and openly in Austin. He’s unnerved when Wes, his old university crush, turns up at his door in answer to a roommate advertisement, but quickly sees the potential…benefits of the arrangement. Wes has never doubted nor denied his sexuality. With the support of his family he’s an out and proud LGBT activist.
On the scale balancing his self-esteem on one side, and the love of his family on the other, Mike has to decide which weighs more. Is Mike being fair to his parents by not giving them the chance to know his real self? When the delicate balance of his life is disrupted, he decides he’s tired of living a lie. Will Wes understand his concerns, or will their fledgling relationship crumble under the strain of Mike’s uncertainty?
NOTE: Closets Are for Clothes is a from-the-ground-up comprehensively rewritten and reedited version of A Dream Come True (published by Addison at Torquere Press in February, 2009). While the theme of the original story is the same, and many important scenes will be recognizable, the way the characters deal with important events is handled differently than in the original story and much of the story’s backdrop and side characters have changed. Beyond converting the story from an alternating 3rd-person POV to being told entirely from Mike’s 1st-person POV, this is a significantly changed retelling of the story.
#RainbowSnippets
Darnit! I’ve totally forgotten all about The Martian. I started it after I bought it, but something distracted me and I forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder! 🙂
The book is fantastic! <3 Although unless scientific details excite you, it might make your eyes glaze over in parts. 🙂
Love it. Poor thing. What he’s putting himself through now is probably worse than whatever faces him when he gets there.
Ha! Knowing me, that might be the case. 😉 But it’s a fun journey to follow. 😄
I’m looking forward to reading this one. It’s going on my list of “books to add to Kindle on payday” 🙂
Thank you so much! Ha…I have lists like that, too—books sitting in my shopping carts at various publishers/distributors waiting for payday (and/or sales). Yours is sitting in my Smashwords cart. I love short stories, and each one in that collection appeals to me! 😄
I hope all this anxiety will prove unnecessary when he sees his family.
We’ll see! 😉
I hope he’s wrong about what’s waiting for him!
Fingers crossed! 🙂
Sometimes the anticipation is a lot worse than the actual event.
Especially when it’s an event that sadly goes awry for so many.
Ooo, I’m emphasizing so much with him here. Sometimes what you read almost resonates with a certain time and place.
😁 Thanks! Although it might not be the same thing Mike’s facing, I’m sure most of us have dreaded something we had to do.
Oh, poor love! Not a great choice, then! ;D
Mike doesn’t think so, anyway. 🙂
Love the foreshadowing…impatiently waiting for the next snippet… 😀
Thank you! <3
Love the tie-in to another author’s work. And the foreshadowing that comes with it.
Thank you! ♡
Omens indeed, I’m looking forward to seeing if he’s right about that.
We’ll see! <3
Poor guy. Perhaps not the best choice of reading material.
I would argue that book is always a good choice (I love it!), but yes, perhaps the timing is off a bit for Mike to read those opening lines. 😀