#writeLGBTQ #StrikingBalanceNovel This week’s theme is stroke. Have a stroke. Swim stroke. There’s lots of ways to use this word, but here’s mine, an affectionate stroke on the arm.

We linger together until well past actual lights out, discussing our new place in the world, our new hopes and, while Conall’s as affectionate as ever, there’s an urgency, a seeking to his touch. He fingers my cuff and strokes my arm, waiting for permission I am terrified to give.

Striking Balance is a side tale in the #AppalachianElementals series, the backstory of two characters you meet in Keeping House. This is their story, how they came to be together, and, yes, it’s most certainly a queer tale no matter how it looks on the surface. Striking Balance is set in the late 18th century in Northeast Tennessee along the Nolichucky River.

The entire Appalachian Elementals series, both the main series and side tales, focus on Appalachian traditions and culture, family of making, family of choice, fey, and contain a healthy dose of elemental folk magic, witchcraft, and magic realism. It’s an interweaving series that takes place over the course of 3000 years, though I’ve only seriously explored just over 400 years thus far.

I have a heap of story fodder to pick from, so you can expect new stories for the foreseeable future.