Memorable Characters

#KeepingHouseNovel #RainbowSnippets #PromoLGBTQ Eighty-Five Go For It

/ jlgfellers / 16 Comments

It’s been a quiet week here, I suppose, at least quiet for how things have been lately. Son the younger and his new bride are in for spring break, and I’m still waiting clearance for my first knee replacement.

Welcome to #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 release date for Keeping House has been moved to July 8th. I’m excited, but I’m also a bit nervous. No more than I’ve ever been before a new release, I suppose, but something about this novel has me tense. Content-wise, Keeping House isn’t the darkest novel I’ve ever released. No Sister’s Keeper (Taelach Sister’s series #4, 2013) takes that prize by far. Perhaps my nervousness derives from the personal nature of Keeping House. There’re more bits of myself inside the story than most of my novels. Cent has my thought processes and shares both my gender identity and sexual orientation. Dane, I’ve been told, shares my rather sharp sense of humor and tendency for one-liners (you don’t see this side of Dane until later in the novel). Stowne shares some of my insecurities. Every character in this series contains a bit of me, more than in my other series. Perhaps this is why I enjoy writing it so much, and it’s probably why the release already stresses me.

Keeping House is with the proofreader and will be available for preorder by mid-April.  (squeals in late-night, caffeinated glee) 

The Setup: I’m moving a bit forward in the chapter. Others are arriving at Stowne’s Brigid celebration circle, and Dane has spotted Betty, who’s just arrived on Pyre’s arm. And do you remember Cent’s cousin Aubrey? Well, he’s there too and Dane’s noticed him, much to Rayne’s chagrin. If you remember, Rayne and Aubrey found each other in Cleaning House. Again, if you want to know the hows and whys… Well, the cover image to your right will take you to the novel’s Amazon page. The ebook is priced at only $3.99.

Remember, Keeping House is written in third-person limited POV but a very close version, so we’re seeing everything through Cent’s eyes.

Betty Holub

     “Who the…well, what’ve we got here?” Dane raised her hand to stop one of her guards, a lean, ashen-skinned man with his dreadlocks pulled back and tucked into his coveralls, from approaching Betty. “That tall one’s a medium. She’ll see right through whatever you try, but the short, curly-haired, tan healer boy…” Dane indicated Aubrey. “Go for it if’n you want.”

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#writeLGBTQ #LGBTWIP #ValentinesDay2019 #Paranormal Tidbits of Love

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A just for fun, in honor of Valentine’s Day, bonus snippet from Keeping House, which is set for an August 2019 release. tidbits of love

 Cent slowed for a skunk meandering across the road ahead. “Mating season. Wrong time of year to be searching for love if you ask me.”

     “It’s their time.” Dane’s hand remained on her shoulder. “All things have their happy season.”

     And you’re remembering one of ours just like I am. “I’m not certain where I’m at on the road anymore.”

     “Well, it’s February. Valentine’s Day was last week and—”

     “Get your head back on the drive.

Do something nice for a loved one, for yourself, or for the universe because love, as they say, is love.  ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

#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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Cleaning House: Meet the Characters – The Master Collage and its Purpose

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If you follow this blog, you know I shared character collages for my new novel, Cleaning House, for an entire month before the release. Why have I gone to all this work? Several reasons, actually, and here they are in no particular order.

  • Artistic expression – drawing is difficult for me these days because of my hand tremors, so collages are a simple and effective means of expressing myself.
  • Character collages give me think time.
  • They help me get to know characters better.
  • Collages help me visualize, therefore helping me with description.
  • They’re fun.
  • Collages give me another method of sharing my character creations with my readers.

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Author How-To: Setting as Character… or Not?

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Someone recently told me they believe the setting in my upcoming novel, Cleaning House, serves as a character, and I agree…probably more than I should. A setting, especially a detailed one like the Appalachian Mountains, can seem like a character in its own right. I agree with this, but is it really? If you Google this topic, you’ll find lots of conflicting advice.

K.M. Weiland over at Helping Writers Become Authors firmly states that, “(u)timately, setting is not character. Characters are personalities, which means they are persons.” Sure, that works if your setting is static. Weiland goes on to say that we should consider how cultured and educated the setting is. In other words, the grounds of Oxford University would be a cultured, educated setting, but it’d lack personality so it can’t be considered a character.

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