Cleaning House

#WriteLGBTQ #WIP #KeepingHouseNovel: Cover

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#writeLGBTQ #KeepingHouseNovel
The theme is cover. Coveralls. Cover up. Under the covers. Undercover. Here we’re briefly talking cloud cover then moving to a spell Cent’s proving she’s mastered.

 

 

 

   Dane glanced at the sky. “Damn hard to tell the exact time with this cloud cover, but it’s somewhere around noon. Before we go, I want to see you both practice agin’ yourselves for future days. Show me your mid-fifties.”

  “Done.” Cent pulled off her gloves to look at her nails, noting how the polish had become chipped along the edges. She covered that with a spell too, choosing a blush pink that matched the modest feminine look she’d chosen. “Next?”

And here’s a little something else for you. I’ve got a new cover of my own. Keeping House is available for pre-order from Amazon. It’ll be available on other sites soon and in both print and ebook formats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

#writeLGBTQ #AppalachianElementals #KeepingHouseNovel

#TBT #CleaningHouseNovel #AppalachianElementals No. 5

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Yes, I’m well aware that it’s only been a few months since the release of Cleaning House – An Appalachian Contemporary Fantasy, but I’m spending the month of November featuring it in my #TBT (Throwback Thursday) series because of the recent release of the second title in the series, the novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree. It’s generally good to relive the past, even the recent past, so I’ll be sharing Chapter One from Cleaning House throughout the month.

The section in orange comes from last week’s #TBT post.

  Maybe I should take up gardening.

     Being close and sweaty, their hands touching as they worked side-by-side. Cent shivered as she scrutinized the envelope. “It’s too thin to be a summons.” She went to the kitchen for the scissors but couldn’t find them, so she opted for a paring knife, sliding it beneath the taped flap to open the envelope, pulling out a single, handwritten page.

 Dear Centenary,

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#TBT #CleaningHouseNovel #AppalachianElementals No. 4

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Yes, I’m well aware that it’s only been a few months since the release of Cleaning House – An Appalachian Contemporary Fantasy, but I’m spending the month of November featuring it in my #TBT (Throwback Thursday) series because of the recent release of the second title in the series, the novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree. It’s generally good to relive the past, even the recent past, so I’ll be sharing Chapter One from Cleaning House throughout the month.

The section in yellow comes from last week’s #TBT post.

     “Can I do anything else for you?”

     Are they flirting with me? Cent looked down then back up, startling when she saw the messenger’s eyes were still on her. Taller than she was, which was unusual, a bit thick at the waist, but it was clearly muscle. A puzzle, and an attractive one at that. There was something calming about this person’s eyes. Something familiar Cent couldn’t quite place. They’re damn-near twice my size. The realization that such strength stood so close made her skin prickle in a way she’d come to miss. No wonder they’re on this route. “No, um, thanks.”

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#TBT #CleaningHouseNovel #AppalachianElementals No. 3

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Yes, I’m well aware that it’s only been a few months since the release of Cleaning House – An Appalachian Contemporary Fantasy, but I’m spending the month of November featuring it in my #TBT series because of the impending release of the second title in the series, the novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree. It’s always good to relive the past, even the recent past, so I’ll be sharing Chapter One from Cleaning House throughout the month.

 

The section in yellow comes from last week’s post.

“Who is it?” She peered through the peephole.

   “Delivery for Centenary Rhodes.” The messenger held up the envelope that’d been tucked under their arm. Ruddy-brown, almost earth-toned skin, hair that went everywhere but was short enough to go nowhere— this messenger was, well, different on so many levels. And, their, yes, their. She’d learned long ago not to make assumptions about anyone, especially those she found herself attracted to.

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#AppalachianElementals #FictionFri The Rhodes Family Tree

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One of the major themes in the Appalachian Elementals series is family. It was central to  Cleaning House, to Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree, and is central to Keeping House, my current work in progress. Family is also, like in many cultures, central to Appalachia. We’re traditionally close-knit, though that has somewhat changed over the last few generations. That said, I might, at a later date, take a closer look at Tess and Roslyn Rhodes’ generation (meaning write a story where they’re the MCs, but that’s for another day since I’m currently neck deep in #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

When Cleaning House was a rough draft, I scrawled out the Rhodes’ family tree as it relates to Cent and her cousin, Aubrey, adding details like birth/death dates, where the magic derives from in each family member, if there’s any magic at all, and ended up with four-five generations (depending on your take), going back to Cent and Aubrey’s great-great-grandmother Amadahy, a fictional member of the North Carolina Cherokee tribal rolls (one of my own ancestors, six generations back, is listed on those same rolls, I’ve been told).

Anyway, that initial scrawl to set down a lineage has become the graphic below, an actual family tree.

Creating the family tree helped bring the characters to life, to give them roots. It helped me determine how they might have thought, their experiences,  how things developed between generations and, more specifically, where things have gone wrong. Continue reading →

#TBT #CleaningHouseNovel #AppalachianElementals No. 2

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Yes, I’m well aware that it’s only been a few months since the release of Cleaning House – An Appalachian Contemporary Fantasy, but I’m spending the month of November featuring it in my #TBT series because of the impending release of the second title in the series, the novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree (info below). It’s generally good to relive the past, even the recent past, so I’ll be sharing Chapter One from Cleaning House throughout the month.

 

The brief portion in yellow comes from last week’s post.

The old bank had once been grand, but now…

     “What a dump.” Still, it was all she could afford on two part-time jobs. Cent threw her coat over the single dinette chair and flung herself, face-down, over the sheet-draped, worn plaid couch that served as both her living space and bed. Not even a fold-out. She’d finagle one eventually, but until then she’d sleep solo. Always solo. “Who’d want to come back here, anyway?” Her romantic and job prospects had been abysmal since she’d lost her full-time accountant job in a corporate down-size. For the past year, she’d divided her time between a local bodega and a small computer repair shop. Both bosses were pricks, and the bodega owner’s wife kept telling her that she’d find herself a good man if she’d try.

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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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4: #HolidayTreeNovella #TBT #CleaningHouseNovel #AppalachianElementals No. 1

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10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4… This marks day seven of my ten-day countdown to 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 taking you back to the first novel in the Appalachian Elemental’s series, Cleaning House.

 

Yes, I’m well aware that it’s only been a few months since the release of Cleaning House – An Appalachian Contemporary Fantasy, but I’m spending the month of November featuring it in my #TBT series because of the impending release of the second title in the series, the novella Mama, Me, & the Holiday Tree. It’s almost always good to relive the past, even the recent past, so I’ll be sharing Chapter One from Cleaning House throughout the month.

 

 

So without further ado…

     “Fourteen. Fifteen.” Centenary Rhodes counted the bills in her hand a second time and shoved them back into the front pocket of her cargo pants. She had fifteen dollars left after she paid her rent. Fifteen dollars for food and the bus. She sighed and turned away from the hamburger joint whose door she’d darkened. “Beans and rice it is… again.”

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#CleaningHouseNovel #RainbowSnippets Sixty-Nine 10/20: Face in the Mirror

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Okay, so I changed my mind about sharing more snippets from Cleaning House. I’ll be sharing two more. These are darker, creepier, much more paranormal than you’ve read thus far, and both are in honor of the season.

Today and tomorrow I’ll be appearing at Art in the Park, a fall celebration of local and regional artists in Jonesborough, TN. My publisher, Mountain Gap Books, was asked to attend, so we are… all weekend.  The event is happening less than two miles from where I live, so I’m happy to be able to contribute my presence.

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.

The setup: Cent’s finally back home and on her way, with Aubrey, to see Aunt Tess. They’ve stopped at a local McDonald’s because Cent’s feeling sick. This snippet shows her in the restroom after she’s become nauseous. She thinks it’s nerves, but things are suddenly coming off the rails.

     Cent rinsed her face and checked herself in the mirror, startling when she saw an old woman with long, frizzy, white hair standing behind her.

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