acceptance

#QueerLit #LGBTQbooks #WritingTip Ten Things to Know Before Adding a Non-Binary Character to Your Story

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Note: This post has grown significantly in the past few days, so there are more than ten. If you want the short and sweet version, read the orange and bold-italic sections. That’ll give you the gist. However, if you’ve never written a non-binary character I strongly suggest you read the entire post. 

So I’ve been reading, a dangerous thing these days, I know, especially for an author. But really, I have been reading, and beta-reading too, and I’ve come across several problems that I believe need to be addressed concerning non-binary characters.

Authors, if you add a non-binary character into your story, please take the following into consideration:

  1. Non-binary characters shouldn’t have their assigned at birth gender revealed early in a story, if at all, and only if it’s totally necessary. If the character still goes by their assigned-at-birth pronouns, fine, but if the character goes by they/them or any other non-binary pronoun choice then an author should respect this. Negating the non-binary by revealing the birth gender is unacceptable unless it is a situation like a courtroom (most states in the U.S. don’t recognize the non-binary) or the bedroom (where there should be frank discussion IMO before anything happens) and then the author should tread lightly, more so if the author isn’t non-binary (#ownvoices).

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#HolidayTreeNovella #RainbowSnippets Seventy-Five 12/8: Counting Points

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Welcome to this week’s installment of Rainbowsnippets*! This one 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.

 

Here comes the snow, or at least that’s what local and national meteorologists are saying: winter storm watch that’ll probably be a warning by the time this post goes live. We’re as ready as we can be, I suppose. We’ve secondary heat, water, and a good supply of ready-to-eat foods for emergencies.

The problem with living in NE TN is that we’re either on the side of or in the foothills of several mountains; we’re part of the Smokies, so the weather either 1) passes around us because of the mountains to our north and south or 2) settles in to stay a while. If it does the latter and brings heavy moisture with it, we’re done for. It’ll snow until it peters out or finds the oomph to pass over the mountains, usually the former.  They’re saying up to eight inches with ice. I know that sounds like nothing to some of you, but this is the Southern U.S., not deep south, mind you, but still south and people here have no idea how to drive in deep snow, so it’s best to stay in if at all possible.

This one’s supposed to bring the moisture, so it’s all a matter of timing and oomph.

On to this week’s writing. I’m sharing from my new holiday novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, which is set within the Appalachian Elementals Series. At 22K words in length, it’s a shorter novella, but it packs a lot of great things within its 74 pages.

The setup:  Poor Cent’s trying hard but…

“No, the Star of David has six points.” I’m trying. Gods help me, I’m trying, but Mama… Continue reading →

#HolidayTreeNovella #RainbowSnippets Seventy-Two 11/10: Tattletale Birdie

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Welcome to this week’s installment of Rainbowsnippets*! This one 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.

This week I’m sharing from my just-released novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, which is set within the Appalachian Elementals Series. At 22K words in length, it’s a shorter novella, but it packs a lot of great things within its 74 pages.

The setup:  It’s late evening on the homestead, and Cent’s talking with Aubrey and Betty about the family’s Mama problem.

The first sentence, in orange, comes from last week’s snippet.

 Not happening, baby doll.” Betty sets her mug of chamomile and lavender tea beside mine. We went through hell up in Chicago, and the experiences helped us become the best of friends, but she’s always been able to see through me. Continue reading →

#1LineWed #amwriting #WIP Trust

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Here’s another short-‘n-sweet  #1lineWed post. The theme is trust. This excerpt comes from Keeping House, novel two in the Appalachian Elementals series and one of my current WIPs.

 

 

 

Betty folded her hands in her lap. “Sissy’s almost cloyingly sweet if she isn’t passed-out drunk, Bonnie still hasn’t, as Dane puts it, ‘landed,’ and the rest of them, spirit or fey, breathing or not, can’t be trusted.”

#WIP #amwriting #KeepingHouseNovel

 

#IndieTuesday #HolidayTreeNovella The Release Day Afterparty

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Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, my eighth print/ ebook and my first novella was released yesterday and to celebrate I made a quick tour of a slew of authors and websites that I’d like to thank for their hospitality.

I’m also hosting a giveaway for the release of Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, so make certain you read to the bottom of the post so you can enter.

The giveaway closes on 11/7, so enter now!

 

 

Thanks to Jessie G at Jessie G Books Thanks for letting me share an original post on your site!

Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree at Jessie G’s

Thanks to Queer Romance Ink for hosting a slot on my release day tour!

Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree at Queer Romance Ink

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#HolidayTreeNovella Release Day Celebration: Quick Descriptions and Best Lines

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It’s finally release day for Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree! To kick this celebration off right, I’m sharing a little about every character in the novella and giving you what I think might well be their best line within the story. Like most of my stories, there’s an ensemble cast, and I’ve fourteen characters, two of whom are so minor in their presence that they really don’t have lines. That said, pay attention to them because you’ll see them in the second novel in the Appalachian Elementals series, Keeping House, which will be released next year.

 

Here’s some info about Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree to get you started.

A dozen handmade holiday ornaments, that’s all, but it might be an impossible task.

Centenary Rhodes and her mother are at constant odds. It’s one of the many reasons Cent left home when she was eighteen. Mama’s difficult for anyone to manage, but now that Cent’s back home, she has to try. Mama, however, won’t acknowledge who Cent’s become, even though she’s repeatedly been shown the truth.

It’ll take more than popcorn strings and paper snowflakes to heal the rift that’s formed between Cent and Mama. It’s going to take bushels of patience, heaps of magic, and assistance from everyone on both sides of Embreeville Mountain to reset the Balance between them.

But with Yule and Christmas just around the corner, it might already be too late.

Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree is available for preorder in both print and ebook formats. And the ebook format is only $.99 for a limited time!

Amazon | Amazon UK | Kobo | Barnes & Noble

And now, what I promised, quick descriptions of and the best lines (IMO) from each character in Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree.

Centenary Rhodes (Cent) [protagonist]  in an obvious moment of distress or doubt

Nonbinary, she/her/they/their, happily married, multi-lived witch, possessor of important secrets

“I’ll try since y’all think it’s so important.”

 

 

 

Stowne [Earth Elemental]  (some of their many forms)

Cent’s spouse, they/them, a true mountain soul

“Patience. You said you find grace in it, so find that grace in yourself.”

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2: #HolidayTreeNovella #RainbowSnippets Seventy-One 11/3: Chamomile and Lavender Tea

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10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2… This marks the ninth day of my ten-day countdown until the release of my novella Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree. You can read more about #HolidayTreeNovella at the bottom of this post

 

 

 

Welcome to this week’s installment of Rainbowsnippets*! This one 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.

This week I’m sharing from my soon-to-be-released novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, which is set within the Appalachian Elementals Series. At 22K words in length, it’s a shorter novella, but it packs a lot of great things within its 74 pages.

The setup:  It’s late evening on the homestead, and Cent’s talking with Aubrey and someone y’all have been worrying over.

Continue reading →

6: #ownvoices #HolidayTreeNovella Using the Singular They in Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree

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10, 9, 8, 7, 6... This marks the fifth day of my ten-day countdown until the release of my novella Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree. You can read more about #HolidayTreeNovella at the bottom of this post, but today I’m again talking about my use singular they/them.

 

 

When some readers expressed concern, confusion, or were otherwise irked by my usage of singular they in Cleaning House, I addressed the issue in my blog post They Came, They Saw, They Conquered – Concerning the Singular They/Them in Cleaning House. Now, since I’m about to release another work in the Appalachian Elementals series, a novella titled Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, I’ve attempted to head off any problems by adding an author’s note to the front of the work that directly addresses my usage choice.

Consider this note an unapologetic explanation as to the topics explored in the novella including beliefs, mental illness, magic, and, yes, gender identity, though my protagonist, Centenary Rhodes, doesn’t need to explore the last. She’s firmly planted in her identity and sexuality, but the rest…

Author’s Note

   Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree is set in Appalachia, in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee, in the year 2017. That said, the characters, faiths, and spiritual paths presented in this novella are diverse on multiple levels. This includes my usage of the pronouns they and them. I’ve chosen to use they and them to identify the elemental spirits because they are genderless shape-shifters, meaning they cannot be defined in binary male/female terms. Such magical creations cannot be limited by Human constructs, though my Human characters often try for their own understanding. The elementals in Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree can also be seen as non-binary if readers so choose because I include non-binary, sometimes referred to as genderqueer, Human characters within my writing. The main character in the novella, Centenary Rhodes, identifies as genderqueer. Continue reading →