Tag Archive: Rainbow Snippet


Rainbow Food

Hello, Snippetteers! — this week’s snippet (seven sentences again, can we maybe see about adding another stripe to the flag?) is from STONE COLD. It’s the morning after Terry and Maelduin’s first, erm, encounter, and Maelduin has just gone off into the kitchen to make the two of them something to eat. For once, I don’t think any more background than that is needed. *winks*

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“How are you going to eat with that on your face?”

For a second, even lying flat on his back, Terry felt dizzy, as if the bed had opened up and dropped him into a bottomless pit. Maelduin’s words were ordinary, but there was nothing ordinary about the way he said them — the other man’s voice was suddenly smoking hot baritone sex.

Terry’s hand was shaking as he took the pillow off his head. He hoped Maelduin didn’t notice. I really, really need to get hold of myself. The tall, lean blond was just another one-night stand.

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And here are my links for the day —

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, your home for all kinds of LGBTQIA+ goodness: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

UNDERTOW (SoulShares #7), the latest installment in the SoulShares series: http://ow.ly/twlY303RWFY

A SUMMER’S DAY, a Shakespearean m/m anthology benefiting the It Gets Better Project, which includes my short story, “Deeper Than Did Ever Plummet Sound”: http://ow.ly/Y9N7303RWJZ bow Snippets

bandaids

Hello again, Snippetteers — it’ been a wonderful couple of weeks, immersing myself in the Irish music scene, but it’s great to be back! I’m afraid I have another seven-sentence snippet for you this week (but maybe since I’ve been gone for two whole weeks, I might be forgiven for an extra sentence? *winks*)

This snippet is from STONE COLD, my WIP. Terry has just brought Maelduin home with him, and they’ve just had sex for the first time. And Maelduin, in a show of thoughtfulness unusual for a Fae (though Terry has no idea that’s what he is) has offered to clean Terry up afterward. Terry’s just told him where the washcloths are (a cupboard above the bathroom sink) and Maelduin’s rolled out of bed to go get one. Oh, and another thing Terry doesn’t know is that Maelduin is apparently under some kind of curse of clumsiness — all he knows is that Maelduin is both the most gorgeous guy and the biggest klutz he’s ever seen in his life.

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Another silence, then water running, then silence again. And then a loud thunk. “Fola’magairl!”

Terry took one look at Maelduin, emerging from the bathroom clutching a wet washcloth in one hand and rubbing his head with the other, and immediately rolled over, presenting his ass for Maelduin’s ministrations and conveniently burying his face in the pillow to smother another gale of giggles. He felt weight on the backs of his knees and his thighs — Maelduin straddling him — and then the warm caress of a washcloth.

Wouldn’t mind getting used to this.

As if.

********

And my usual end-of-Snippet links —

Rainbow Snippets, your home on Facebook for all kinds of LGBTQIA+ goodies: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

Riverdale Avenue Books is offering SoulShares #1, HARD AS STONE, for 50 percent off through the end of August, with coupon code 8HAS2016: http://ow.ly/jll6303E0pL

And please check out A SUMMER’S DAY, an anthology of Shakespearean m/m romance stories in which I’m honored to have the lead-off story, with all proceeds benefitting the It Gets Better Project: http://ow.ly/KM1Q303E0xR

IrishBird

Good morning, Snippetteers! — I may be away for the next couple of weeks (I’m a stage manager at the Irish Fair of Minnesota next weekend, and the weekend after that I’m going to be in Milwaukee happily NOT working at their Irish Fest) so I thought I’d leave you with something especially memorable this weekend. Background you need to know for this snippet: Terry and Maelduin have just arrived at Terry’s apartment, where Maelduin, obsessed in a very Fae manner with his own personal needs (namely, his need to find a place to stay and hide until he can figure out why he has been apparently cursed with a level of clumsiness not ordinarily seen anywhere other than the vaudeville stage), is in the process of seducing Terry. Things have reached ‘that point’, and Terry has just announced that matters won’t be progressing any further without a condom. Which, naturally enough for a Fae, Maelduin doesn’t have any of, so Terry’s just gone into his bedroom to fetch one. (Again, seven sentences, but “Bleeding balls!” is only one word as’Faein, so I’m not counting it as a full sentence….)

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As he slid the drawer open, there was a crash from the living room. “Fola’magairl!

Whatever that word meant, it was definitely a curse. Terry snatched up a condom and a half-full pump bottle of Slipnslide and stuck his head back out into the living room.

Maelduin was bent over next to the coffee table, stark naked and nursing his shin, still cursing under his breath. Terry bit his lip hard to keep from laughing. The most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in my life, but I swear to God he could break his leg tripping over a stain on the carpet.

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And, as usual, a few links for you:

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook — your home for more LGBTQIA+ goodies: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/
UNDERTOW (SoulShares #7) on Amazon: http://ow.ly/q8BE302Ztn1
And the pre-order link for A SUMMER’S DAY, a fabulous anthology of m/m romance short stories, all based on the plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare, put together in honor of the 400th anniversary of his death, and with all proceeds going to benefit the It Gets Better Project: http://ow.ly/Qg0P302Ztpp

(I mentioned in this space last week that the publisher of the SoulShares was running a promotion during the month of August, with the first book in every series priced at 50 percent off. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened yet, due to circumstances out of everyone’s control. But here’s the link to HARD AS STONE (SoulShares #1), and hopefully the sale price will be up sometime soon! http://ow.ly/Men4302ZttU)

RainbowShoes

Hello, Snippeteers! This week’s Snippet is from the WIP, STONE COLD. Terry, Josh’s business partner (and former lover, until the then-nefarious Bryce intervened) has met the apparently homeless Maelduin, and under the influence of a certain amount of Fae wiles and charm, has invited Maelduin up to his apartment. Terry is also an accomplished ballet dancer, who until fairly recently ran his own trockadero (all-male) ballet company in New York City. And this is what Maelduin sees when Terry turns on the lights. (Again, seven sentences…. no regrets, it was necessary. 😉 ) (And bragging rights go to anyone who can correctly identify both referenced ballets!)

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Terry’s walls were covered with images of human males, and Maelduin felt an actual physical ache in his chest at their beauty. Males in clothing as tight as a second skin, captured at the height of prodigious leaps, or in balances so exquisite as to be impossible without magickal aid, or so he would have thought. Poetry, given human form.

And several of the images were Terry. A younger version of Terry in chalk-white makeup and some sort of military-looking uniform with a red blazon on its breast, caught at the top of the arc of an amazing leap. And today’s Terry, in an elegant doublet that would have allowed him to blend in anywhere in the Realm, wearing tights leaving almost nothing to the imagination, cradling a rose in one hand and looking up at what appeared to be a balcony.

I want to be on that balcony, looking down.

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And a couple of links —

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, for all your LGBTQIA+ reading needs — https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

And for the whole month of August (starting Monday, that is), HARD AS STONE (SoulShares #1) will be on half price sale at Riverdale Avenue Books. Yes, it’s a gateway drug, and you won’t be sorry! http://ow.ly/2z4a302Lugj

Good morning-almost-afternoon, Snippetteers! I have a hot-off-the-presses snippet for you this week, just added last night to my WIP, STONE COLD (SoulShares #8). This one had to be seven sentences rather than six — I’m sure you can see why — and just by way of background, a “wellspring” doesn’t have anything to do with actual water, it’s a place where magickal energy wells “up” from the Fae Realm into the human world. They’ve been busting out all over lately, and they’re kind of a pain in the arse for our human and Fae protagonists. “Kevin” is Kevin Almstead, the human MC from book one, HARD AS STONE; the three “figures” are Mac, Lucien, and Rhoann, the triad from UNDERTOW (SoulShares #7).

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A brittle, musical chime filled the air, an instant before three dripping-wet figures appeared, sitting in the middle of a spreading puddle in the heart of the wellspring.

“That wasn’t so — oh, hell, Kevin!”

As deep a funk as he’d been in moments before, Kevin still had a hard time keeping himself from bursting out laughing at the look on Mac’s face. Rhoann had something of an aversion to clothes, and was getting his human partners accustomed to going without in private. And they’d all apparently come from their home away from home at the bottom of the Pool in Central Park, where clothing was less than optional — it was pointless.

“I’m not looking.” Not strictly true, but close enough for jazz.

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And, finally, a couple of links:

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, your home for LGBTQIA+ goodies — http://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

And if you’d like to read Mac, Lucien, and Rhoann’s whole story, here’s UNDERTOW (just out this week!!!):

Amazon: http://ow.ly/lndN302xps2
ARe: http://ow.ly/duNl302xpxb

PrideSilk

Hello, Snippetteers! — I’m having SO MUCH FUN typing this, because Her Majesty Grace O’Malley the Pirate Queen of Ireland has decided my hands are the only place in this apartment fit for her to sit… this week’s Snippet is from STONE COLD, my WIP and the eighth book in the SoulShares series. This snippet stars Kevin Almstead, the human MC from HARD AS STONE (SoulShares #1), arriving at the Purgatory construction site just after sunset.

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Kevin eased his Mercedes into the gap between buildings that was eventually going to be the new Purgatory’s valet parking area. Letting the steering wheel glide back to center under his palms, he was happy to see that his hands had finally stopped shaking.

Fuck premonitions.

Switching off the headlights, he eased out of the car, quietly closing the door and locking it behind himself. Conall’s ward masked sound at least as well as it did sight, but it was a bare-bones, low-wattage affair, and Kevin didn’t trust it entirely. And some of the subcontractors occasionally had people on the construction site at night, to whom it would be awkward to explain the invisible back door into Purgatory.

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My usual couple of links is being expanded to four today, to cover a Very Special Occasion *grins*

First, Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, for more LGBTQIA+ goodies: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

Order links for UNDERTOW (SoulShares #7), coming out July 19 (this Tuesday!!):

Amazon e-book: http://ow.ly/zJum302jq5T
Amazon paperback: http://ow.ly/xTJz302jq7R

And, finally, I’m throwing a party on Facebook, on release day, July 19, from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon, Central US time, and I would LOVE to have y’all come! https://www.facebook.com/events/252662915117937/

TiernanMikeGrell3

Hello, Snippetteers! — I’ve just come up for air after plowing through edits for the latest SoulShares, so I thought I’d do a bit of a look back today. My six lines for this weekend are from DEEP PLUNGE (SoulShares #3). Tiernan (pictured above, as rendered by the incomparable Mike Grell) and Lochlann are in Tiernan’s office at Purgatory — and one of these six lines is my original editor’s favorite line from the first four books. Points if you can guess which one. *winks*

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“Sit down.” Tiernan motioned toward the chair in front of the desk as he dropped into his own.

“Thanks, I prefer to stand.” Lochlann arched a brow, looking pointedly down at the other Fae.

“I am sprung from the loins of an entire race of assholes.” Tiernan rolled his eyes, turning in his chair to check out the monitors before swinging back to look narrowly up at Lochlann. “Although without the attitude, I have to admit, I’d have a hard time believing you’re Fae.”

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My usual couple of links:

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, the home of more LGBTQIA goodies — https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

And the pre-order link (at last!) for UNDERTOW (SoulShares #7) — it’s here, it’s here, it’s finally (gonna be) real! — http://ow.ly/HOeR3026Cil

RainbowFireworks

Hello, Snippetteers! — sorry I’m late, I just got back this afternoon from CONvergence, a science fiction/fantasy/specfic/media convention I attend with my son every Fourth of July weekend. But here’s a bit from STONE COLD, the eighth SoulShares book. The book opens with Maelduin fighting for his life — I strongly believe in starting things in medias res

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His opponent blurred into motion, leaping to the high ground, his sword raised despite his own evident exhaustion. Not to parry or defend, but to attack. And even at the limit of exhaustion, after a day and a night and a dawn of fighting for his life, Maelduin was breathless, in awe of the beauty of the other male’s lethal purpose.

His own purpose. His own face, his own form.

His opponent was a mage’s creation, a comhrac-scátha — a magickal ghost, a living mirror, with all Maelduin’s skill with a blade, all his grace, both natural and learned, as well as the wiles and unpredictability of living magick.

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And a couple of links for y’all —

Rainbow Snippets, on Facebook — home of more LGBTQIA delights: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

And to get you ready for UNDERTOW (SoulShares #7), currently scheduled to debut on July 19, here’s a buy link for SoulShares #6, MANTLED IN MIST (in which you’ll meet Mac and Lucien, two-thirds of UNDERTOW’s main characters): http://ow.ly/5G3M301TgZd

Studio

Good afternoon, Snippetteers! I’m moving ahead with SoulShares #8, STONE COLD, and this snippet is from a scene in which Terry Miller, a chacter we first met in GALE FORCE (SoulShares #2) is standing in the middle of what will soon become a state-of-the-art dance and fitness studio he’s going to be sharing with Garrett Templar, Lochlann Doran’s SoulShare and Purgatory’s hottest pole dancer. (Though, of course, Terry doesn’t know anything about SoulShares, or Fae. Yet.) He’s excited about having his own studio, and maybe rebuilding the trockadero (all-male) ballet company he had when he lived in New York City. Which, of course, gets him thinking, just a little bit, about the Good Old Days, when he and Josh LaFontaine were living and working together…

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The best old days had been the days with Josh, before Bryce had entered the picture. Terry knew that, now that it was years too late to do anything about it. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with Josh in their hole-in-the-wall tattoo parlor, running out for midday classes and rehearsals. Performances, a season of three performances here, four there, and the chaotic Nutcracker season when the company earned most of its working budget for the rest of the year.

And coming home to Josh every night, or in the chill clear hour before dawn, when even New York City held its breath. Giddy with the joy of another performance, and Josh grinning with delight at Terry’s happiness.

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And a couple of links, as per usual —

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, for more LGBTQIA+ goodies: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/

And… in the wake of Orlando, for one more day, through the end of today (Saturday), Dreamspinner is donating 20 percent of its profits to the LGBT support organizations of central Florida. I don’t have much at Dreamspinner — only WOLF, BECOMING — but I’m donating all my royalties from this week’s sales as well. http://ow.ly/wWo2301oJfF

Maelduin1

Good afternoon, Snippetteers! — my publisher likes to include the first chapter of the next SoulShares book at the end of the book just coming out. So I’ve just finished the first chapter of STONE COLD, and you’re the first to get a look at a piece of it!

This lovely gentleFae, incidentally, is Maelduin, a Fae obsessed with avenging his father’s murder. But there are a few things he doesn’t know about the male he’s sworn to kill…

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By my own hand and will, I do resign to you all rights and titles and magicks falling to me as Head of House...

The ancient words were pretty, but carried little true meaning, at least the part about the magicks of a Head of House. Some of the Great Houses, the lap-dogs of the Royals, invested their Lords and Ladies with unique magicks. His own House had been poor even before its fall, and now possessed little more than its pride. Which had been destroyed, utterly, before Maelduin had been born.

And which he was now going to reclaim.

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My usual couple of links for you —

Rainbow Snippets on Facebook, your home for all snippets LGBTQIA+ —

And WOLF, BECOMING, my Russian shapeshifter novella, at the brand-spanking-new (ahem) Dreamspinner site — http://ow.ly/9bhj301a5xX