It’s #Rainbowsnippets Saturday, and I’m back! But first, a bit of good news: Keeping House will be released July 8th. Yes, that’s a full month ahead of schedule, but my publisher and I want it in readers’ hands ASAP. Yay!

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks, from making plans for upcoming knee surgery, to losing a beloved four-legged family member of over fifteen years, it’s simply been tough.  So difficult that I skipped last week’s Rainbowsnippet, something I seldom do.

But that’s okay, or it will be. My spouse and I are former military so we, as the saying goes, we soldier on.

This #Rainbowsnippets* 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 my current #WIP, Keeping House,  and she’s butting head with another character, Dane Gow,  she-king of the Hunter Fey,  so you’d best pay attention to the king or you might get hurt. The Wee Fey have flown into the circle now, and they’re not one bit happy that Dane’s there.

This picks up right where things left off two weeks ago, and the first line, in orange, is Dane being her wonderful self. She’s referring to the Wee Fey and, yes, this is more than six sentences, but I’m running behind so bear with me, please.

     “Lemme drink this, and we’ll bag ’em up for the trip home.”

     “You are being purposefully contemptuous this night.” Stowne’s frustration rolled across the circle as pea gravel that mixed with the sand. “I will remind you once again Wee Fey are not to be hunted in this realm.”

     “They don’t live just in this realm.” Dane gnashed her teeth at the Wee Fey so they’d huddle closer together. “And deer are thin right now.”

     What an ass. Cent chirped at the Wee Fey in their own language, telling them to stand strong, reminding them that they were safe inside the circle despite the Hunters being there. But they widely ignored her anymore despite her gifts of butterscotch candies and honey. Stowne kept telling her to be patient, that Hunters were the Wee Fey natural enemy so it would take time for them to understand Cent meant no harm, part Hunter or not.

     “They ain’t gonna listen to a thing you say, girlie. You’re one of us now.” Dane opened her jar to take a deep draw then held it out. “You wanna pull?”

     “No, thank you.”

Yes, Cent’s Hunter Fey. You’ll have to read Cleaning House to know how that happened, but now she has to put up with Dane. Sigh. So how do you put up with people like Dane? I don’t mean fey or kings, more like frustrating people who are deliberately trying to push your buttons? Do you call them on it? Do you avoid them? I’m an avoider to a point. I generally don’t want to waste my limited energy on such people so I prefer to stay away, but if I absolutely must deal with them, I tend to make the use of my energy worth it.

*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!