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 my upcoming (March 7) time travel novel, When Are You?
This is a random snippet unrelated to the thread I previously posted back in December (which has been revised quite a bit since then, starting with the fact it’s no longer the prologue, but is now part of chapter 2). If you do remember that old thread, this scene comes before that one but after their meet-cute. For context, Leo has just told his parents that he and Vinnie will be getting married.
Also, sorry, but I’m playing fast and loose with the 6-sentence rule because damn…the first three sentences are 1 word, 1 word, and 3 words, then several of the rest are 2, 3, and 4 words long. The overall length of the snippet seems in line with what’s typical.
From Leo’s 3rd-person POV:
This week’s snippet:
“Married! Married? To a man?” The look of abject horror on Leo’s mother’s face stopped Leo short. She’d known he was gay for years. Since before he’d joined the military.
He spread his arms, palms up. “What the heck, Mom. Why wouldn’t you want me to get married?”
“Not to a man!”
“I’m gay! You knew that! Who else would I marry?” Leo’s dad sat in his brown leather recliner, eyes turned back to the football game from which Leo’s announcement had momentarily distracted him, seemingly unconcerned by his wife’s alarm.
“That’s just—” she lowered her voice and hissed “—sex!”
Blurb & Links
They have to find him…but how?
A former member of an elite military special forces unit, Leo Bailey can handle anything life throws at him. Except maybe approaching a certain gorgeous, purple mohawk-wearing, heavily pierced artist. Not without his three eye-rolling wingmen along to push him in the right direction.
One look at the mouthwateringly muscled, military buzzcut-sporting man with the endearing blush, and Vincent Noland is in love. Or at least in lust. Love comes later. Then marriage…and sweet, adorable Oscar.
Life is perfect—the stuff of fairy tale happily ever afters—except for Arthur Fletcher, whose unsettling reactions to them threaten to upset the happy balance of their lives. But it isn’t Arthur who throws their lives into turmoil.
A freak event causes Oscar to go missing and leaves both men frantic to rescue their son. As they piece together the clues, they discover that Oscar isn’t somewhere. He’s somewhen. And Arthur Fletcher holds the key—or rather the glass beads—to their one chance of finding Oscar.
Will Leo’s training, Vinnie’s determination, and Arthur’s knowledge help them rescue Oscar, or is the little boy doomed to spend the rest of his life at the mercy of a primitive civilization? Could there be a third possibility?
Links
Preorder at JMS Books at 20% off.
Read the first two chapters on my website, here.
Read a shorter, pivotal scene from later in the book on the publisher’s website.
#RainbowSnippets
Oh, man…I’m really feeling his pain!
Thank you! 💖
Unfortunately, I imagine there are parents that respond that way.
Sadly, true. 💖
Somehow his mother comes across as hilariously clueless.
Oh good, I’m glad you took it that way. She’s speaking more from ignorance than from malice. She’s a fairly minor character, but she does evolve a bit in the story.
I’m laughing and wincing at the same time! 😉
Thank you. I like that reaction! 😁💖
Oh, Mother, it’s time to educate yourself.
True enough! She’s not unwilling to, so points for that, anyway.
OMG. She is so very clueless. Poor guy.
She is. Both capable and willing to learn, though. ❤️
Mom seems to be a tad clueless here.
That she is! ❤️