So Jeanne, how did you spend your Solstice? Fighting off an allergic reaction to shrimp. That’s how. (grumbles) A local grocery store was cooking it, and I’m sensitive enough for the proteins in the air to bother me. Yes, I’m that reactive.

To think, I used to love shrimp and even worked at Red Lobster as a teen. (sighs) That said, I can still eat mollusks scallops (at least at this point), which takes away some of the love-seafood but can’t eat it sting.

Welcome to this week’s installment of Rainbowsnippets*! This one is uniquely mine, but there are lots of other great snippets to read, so after you finish here click the FB link at the bottom of the post to discover other great LGBTQIA authors and their works.

This week I’m sharing from my new holiday novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, which is set within the Appalachian Elementals Series. At 22K words in length, it’s a shorter novella, but it packs a lot of great things within its 74 pages.

The setup:  I’m skipping ahead some. Cent and Mama are still making ornaments, but Cent’s reached the height of frustration. Yes, this one is more than six sentences, but what the hey. It’s the holiday season!

     “Argh! Why can’t you… Don’t you see… You know what? I— I need a damn break. Stay here.” I use a pot holder to drag the percolator onto the trivet beside the woodstove then storm through the living room to the bedroom I share with Stowne, collapsing face-first onto the brown and red crazy quilt covering the bed so I can scream into it. The bed smells of the earth, of Stowne, and I find enough peace in their distant presence that I calm in a few minutes.

     I can do this. We’ve made four ornaments. We’re a third of the way there. “All right, Mama.” I return to the kitchen ready to work, but it’s empty, the backdoor wide to the winter air. “Oh, no.” I step outside and see Mama’s tracks trailing up the muddy hillside and into the forest.

     I’ve royally screwed up on two levels.

     First, I haven’t done what everyone wants.

     Second, I’ve lost Mama.

Happy Holidays to you and yours. Take care!

*RainbowSnippets 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!