I took a week off from #RainbowSnippets, my first in over a year, and it felt good. This isn’t the only thing I took time away from and, while a little of me feels guilty because I have a great posting track record, something had to give with all the holiday stress I was dealing with.

That said, I’m back. You’re warned. And today I begin sharing snippets from my upcoming release Keeping House. It won’t be out until August, but it’s a long work, so I have lots and lots to share.  Keeping House is Appalachian Contemporary Paranormal Fantasy set in modern-day Northeast Tennessee, in the Southern Appalachian mountains.  (It’s App-a-latch-un, BTW. Say it any other way and we know you’re an outsider, a jasper.)

Here’s the working blurb for Keeping House to get you started.

Centenary Rhodes is caught in a deal she didn’t make. Thanks to her eternal lover, Stowne’s, quick thinking, she’ll live forever, but there’s a hitch. Cent’s now fey, and three months out of the year she’ll live on the other side of Embreeville Mountain among the Hunter Fey. She’ll work for their ruler, King Dane, and merge the Hunter’s illegal income into their ironworking business so the profits look legitimate.

As Cent begins wading through the anachronisms that come with being a Hunter, she learns that nothing is what it initially seems. Cent shares several past lives with Dane, who wants her back, and Stowne’s lied to Cent so many times that she’s having doubts about their marriage. To make matters worse,  the past Hunter Kings are influencing Dane’s behavior, and the youngest Hunter, Brinn, might well be the most dangerous of them all.

It’s going to be a cold, dark spring, and Cent needs to unite both sides of Embreeville mountain before her eternal life, her relationship with Dane, and her marriage to Stowne come permanently undone.

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.

Cent, from Cleaning House and Mama etc. is the protagonist in Keeping House, but today I’m going to introduce you to a character who was a minor, but important, player in both stories. She’s a major player now, so say hello to Dane Gow, she-king of the Hunter Fey.  She’s come to collect Cent and is impatient to get going.

This comes from the beginning of Chapter Three.

    “It’s about damn time you showed.” Dane Gow, she-king of the Hunter Fey, was waiting when Cent and Stowne arrived at the celebration circle hidden in the National Forest above the homestead. “I already started the ritual fire, so let’s go, girlie. I got things to get done tonight.” Dane paced the circle sands as her three guards, all dressed in gray-and-black night camouflage coveralls, landed behind her. One of them, a man with his long beard tucked under his shirt, raised his goggles to stare at Cent. “Mind yourself, Conall.” Dane removed a fringed, deer-hide glove to snap her fingers at him. “Remember what I told y’all afore we left. This ain’t no regular Hunter gal you’re dealin’ with. Cent Rhodes is a witch that’ll tear you a new one if’n she takes a mind.”

Dane’s as addictive as the moonshine she drinks, and I’ve had a blast writing her.  You’re going to be seeing a lot of her in the coming months.

*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!