Heads up. This is my last #rainbowsnippet from Keeping House. I’m saddened by this, but it’s time to move along to other things.

Welcome to my 110th  #Rainbowsnippets. This one, as always, 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.

Keeping House is the second novel in the Appalachian Elementals series, which was released less than three weeks ago,  If you like folklore, magic, ghosts, history, and a tiny touch of romance wrapped in a lovely rainbow wrapper, this series is definitely for you.

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Keeping House blurb:

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, serving their king, Dane Gow.

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.

Another rich Contemporary Appalachian tale about fantastic people and the magic they possess, including LGBTQIA+ characters Human and otherwise.

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The setup: So Kenzie has a gun barrel burn on his temple; that’s minor considering. Let’s see what happens next. Remember that the part in orange comes from last week’s snippet. And, yes, this snippet is longer than it is supposed to be, but it’s my final one so I’m taking liberties. Lastly, remember Cent? She’s been watching this entire situation unfold. Imagine her horror since she’s to live with Dane and the other Hunters for the next three months.

     “Yes, Mama. I’ll use my smarts just like you taught me.” The skin of Kenzie’s forehead had turned dark red.

     “Good boy.” Dane reset her safety and snapped her fingers, dropping him to the ground at her feet. “Get yourself over to Ceardach so he can fix your wings and fish that bullet outta your foot.” She returned to her throne and set the gun at her feet, smiling until she saw Cent’s stricken expression. “What?”

     “You… shot… him. You shot him like six times.” Cent took a long swig from the bottle of Strawberry Hill Boones Farm she’d been given since the mulled wine was gone. She’d checked it for spells and poisons before she’d unscrewed the top, but it’d been damp and dirty from storage, so she’d wiped the neck on her pants before she drank.

     “Five. One of them went through both his wings.” Dane retrieved her jar from Cent’s lap. “I didn’t kill him, so why’re you lookin’ at me like I tore out his liver and ate it in front of you?”

     “I don’t, can’t…” Cent jumped when Exan touched her arm.

     “The man is Hunter blood, remember? He will heal faster from those wounds than you would from a deep scratch.” Exan pursed their death-pale lips. “Or than you would have. You are Hunter now.”

     “She’d heal fast enough.” Dane turned to partially face Cent. “And Kenzie ain’t young in Human terms. He’s past seventy. I made him nigh fifty years ago, and that’s old enough to know better.” A grin spread across her face. “I got a magazine of Hunter rounds in my shirt pocket, but the ones in my gun won’t kill no one here.”

Yes, sure, Dane had regular bullets in her gun, but how was Cent supposed to know this? Poor Cent. And to think, the fun has only just begun.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the snippets I’ve shared from Keeping House. Next week, I’m moving on to snippets from my stories in the Haints and Hollers: New Ghost Tales from Appalachia anthology. These are real accounts, my accounts, so these are first-person and very much my POV.

 

 

They’re titled as follows:

“A Visit from a Peculiar Entity”

“The Neighbors are Fantastic”

“Great Uncle’s Rocker”

 

Pull up a chair… if you ain’t too scared.

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*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.