I am now 35% through the revisions for Striking Balance, and so far so good. I know I’ve yet to hit the rough stretch. It’s coming, and I have a growing set of notes of changes to make but none of those changes are major.

Welcome to my 125th #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.

Striking Balance: The Peculiar Making of Beatrice Benjamin Sophia Scott Schnell Gow is a queer Historical Paranormal Fantasy set in, you guessed it, Appalachia. This Appalachia, however, is the frontier, and the story takes place during the Revolutionary War era and the time after, meaning the late 18th century. This explains the narrator’s voice. If you’ve read the letters and journals of the period, you’ll recognize it as reflective of those.

This week I’m picking up where I left off in Chapter One. The part in orange comes from last week’s post, Naysayer, and it’s Conall, Ben’s direct supervisor, friend, and housemate speaking.

Note: There seems to have been a bit of confusion concerning who was saying what last week. It was Conall being bossy, not Ben (Nub) though Ben can certainly be bossy if he takes a mind to. This sort of confusion sometimes happens in short sections taken out of a story’s main context.

“Wipe your shoes and brush your coat too.” (Conall speaking)

“If I must.” I climb up to my loft. I know how fortunate I am to have my own space in the cabin we share, but Conall is a private man, as distrustful as myself in many ways, so he has his own apartment, with a snug door, just off the hearth. I saw the scar on his shoulder the night a wildcat gained entrance to the hen house. ‘Tis an ugly mark and the very reason he cannot use his left arm well, but he will not speak on it so I refrain from asking. Keeping quiet has benefits; I have long learnt this. “Why are we going to the Alcott’s on a Wednesday?” I ask as I don my cleaner shirt. “’Twill be dark when we return.”

Tiny History Lesson: Apartment during this novel’s time period refers to a private room or set of private rooms,  not a separate residence. Your bedroom would be called your apartment. Conall has his apartment. Ben has his loft. They share a cabin. The fact they don’t share a single 10’x10’ or 12’x12’ space is, in itself, rather unusual given that they’re on the frontier.

Tiny History Lesson complete, and semantics are awesome, aren’t they?

Oh, and while you’re here, Cleaning House, novel one in the Appalachian Elementals series, and a tie in novel to Striking Balance won a Rainbow Award last weekend. Woot! You can find out more about Cleaning House by clicking the cover in the righthand column, but here’s what the winning review had to say:  “Jeanne G’Fellers writing is a refreshing bit of storytelling, able to weave magic into the storyline and give life to wonderfully robust queer characters. I can’t wait to read the next in the series. Thank you for allowing me to read this piece.”

*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.