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!
This week I’m snipping from The Best-Laid Plans. For context, princes Marcelo and Efren have begun their long journey to Efren’s kingdom of Zioneven, their caravan has camped for the night, and something has disturbed Efren’s sleep.
The story alternates POVs, but this thread is from Efren’s 3rd-person POV (refresher under the spoiler tag):
This week’s snippet:
A breeze swirled through the branches of the trees in the distance, rippling the leaves. Crickets chirped, apparently unconcerned about whatever either was or wasn’t going on in the meadow.
And footsteps. Quiet, approaching footsteps. It must be time for the shift change. That’s what had awoken him. Efren relaxed and nestled Marcelo tighter against him. One at a time, the guards would come in and wake their replacements.
Except—Efren tensed, then maneuvered his arm out from under Marcelo’s head and eased himself from under the blankets—the footsteps, furtively stopping and restarting, were approaching from multiple directions.
Blurb & Links
A death that wasn’t what it seemed…
A kidnapping that isn’t what it seems…
Time is running out.
The morning after his wedding night, Prince Marcelo thought he’d be embarking on a journey to his own personal fairytale happily ever after with his husband, Efren, the crown prince of Zioneven. But when news arrives indicating his sister’s death wasn’t as accidental as previously thought, that journey becomes fraught with danger.
Enmeshed in political intrigue, death, and a kidnapping that might not be what it seems, will Efren untangle the web of misleading clues in time to save the naïve young man he’s already come to admire, or will Marcelo dig deep to discover a previously untapped inner strength and determination to facilitate his own survival?
Out now at JMS Books!
Publisher | Books2Read | Kindle | BAM! | Hoopla
Have you missed out on book 1, The Contingency Plan? You can get it as a single novelette, or as part of JMS Books’ 2018 Top Ten Gay Romance anthology:
Blurb/Excerpt/Etc. | Bonus (Alt. POV) Scenes
Novelette: Publisher | Kindle (in KU) | Books2Read | Bookstrand | Blio | BAM! | Hoopla | Overdrive
Anthology: Publisher | Kindle | Books2Read | BookStrand | BAM! | Hoopla | Overdrive
#RainbowSnippets
Lovely description, I could imagine the sounds of the leaves and the crickets. It’s early morning here and the birds are chirping 🙂
Thank you! 💞 I love the sound of birds chirping in the morning!
I remember thinking at the time how I loved your attention to detail as you set this scene💞 I could scent the breeze, hear the rustle of the leaves and unconcerned crickets… Feel Efren relax and cuddle close…and then, his tension when he registers the furtiveness of the multiple footsteps.😮 I was ready to spring up and grab my sword round about then.😳💞
Thank you so much! 🌺🥰 I try to keep things tight, so I’m always thrilled to hear that my intentions made it through to the reader without using a sledgehammer (I probably cross that line on occasion to really make a point, though). 💞
You’re welcome🌺 🥰
😁 If you have, it’s never felt that way. Or…its pitch was so perfect it felt fitting & worked a treat. 💞
💞
Ooh, that’s tense! I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Thank you! ❤️
Exquisite description!
Thank you! ❤️
When you just “know” something’s about to go wrong. I so wanted to bop Efren on the head when I read that…
LOL, poor guys don’t know what they’re in for yet. 😁
Uh-oh…..
Exactly. 😳😬
Oh, no! Can’t wait to read next week’s.
Trouble’s brewing!
Love the sensory details in this
Thank you! 💞
Very bad feeling about this!
And rightly so. 😉