I have reached the crawling point of my edits on Striking Balance. Yes, the crawling point. I’m at 83%. The material is rich, dense, and I don’t want to miss a single tidbit. I think things will smooth out here soon, but right now… (mops brow) Whew!

Welcome to my 129th #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, “Bury the Knowledge.”

As always, the portion in orange comes from last week’s snippet. Also, remember what Ben said some weeks back about boiled eggs and beans? Well, he’s referring to it again this week.

This is the ninth year Conall and I have toiled this land, our ninth year of tobacco and corn, so I know I can trust Conall about most matters, but others I whisper only to Peg and Winkle as we plow so we might turn them into the dirt, burying the knowledge for another year.

     We possess a sufficient garden so Conall knows I lied about beans and eggs. Greens and eggs are more to my liking, perhaps with new potatoes and enough salt pork for taste. Or better yet with a goodly pot of stewed deer on the side. Now that would indeed be divine. He would appreciate these fixings as well; I am quite certain of this. “We’ve roosters aplenty, so I can cook a roaster this Sunday if you want.” I trot to keep up with Conall’s strides. “Unless…”

     “Johnnycakes too?” he asks. “We still got meal, don’t we?”

Tiny History Lesson: Johnnycakes, journey cakes, or hoecakes were common food during this era and well into the twentieth century here in Appalachia. Today, we commonly call them corn pancakes or corn cakes. Were they ever actually prepared on hoes out in the fields? Probably not. Imagine the filth that would have come with preparing your food on the back of a garden hoe! That said, the iron cooking surface often used for cooking johnnycakes did resemble a hoe, which is where the name hoecake probably derives.

Commentary: Some say that a way to man’s heart is through his stomach, Ben, so do you know what you’re doing here? Yes, I think you do, especially since you’re up against Mary’s chicken.

*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.