#RainbowSnippets: Wind Me Up, One More Time

Welcome to Rainbow Snippets!

Every Saturday or Sunday, those participating post and share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be your own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.

To read a wide variety of samples from LGBTQIA+ stories, go to…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?ref=group_header

This will be my last sample from Wind Me Up, One More Time for a while, so enjoy!

“I’m not sure if I want to go in.” The wooden door leading inside the factory seemed like a mask for an open mouth, ready to swallow careless girls, crunch them up, make them one with the machine.

“Don’t be afraid.” Nathalie smiled, a sudden crinkling of merry lines around her full lips which banished all danger and promised fun. “There are good things in this place, too. I’ll show you one of them.”

Curious about what you’ve read? Here’s the blurb…

When their home becomes too dangerous for them, Nathalie and Grace’s mothers decide that Mama Morisot will move with the girls to the city of Verity while Mama Bibi stays behind. There, they find safety and friends—Nathalie in the dashing Maia and Grace in Theodora Bear—but all is not right in Verity.

The gears of industry grind on relentlessly in the city, threatening to stifle creativity and magic, seeking to end childhood. One tragic blow at a time, Grace watches as the magic and love around her dies until she also begins to give into despair. It will be up to a stuffed bear and the magic of the holidays to remind Grace how vital imagination is in keeping her family whole.

Intrigued enough to read more? Here are the buy links…

Mischief Corner Books/Shenanigans Press: https://www.mischiefcornerbooks.com/wind-me-up-one-more-time.html#/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081LPX2WH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wind+Me+Up%2C+One+More+Time&qid=1573974211&s=books&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wind-me-up-one-more-time

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-me-up-one-more-time-ks-trenten/1134959345

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1488235515?fbclid=IwAR1_ox2T5jIHibPFBHUqTck0SNaP3pcZIgNM4DS3VAjU47mn3o5iu260bMA

 

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Conversations with Christopher: Garnet

(Picking up from last Monday with Christopher and the twitchy young dwarf with dissheveled whiskers.)

Christopher: So you think your move to the cottage, maybe even your occupation of the mine you work in is part of a design? Not only Nimmie Not’s, but Prunella the Dragon’s?

Garnet: (twirls a whisker around a finger) Design is such a grand word. I would think most kobolds would get impatient with a design. Oh, they love their mischief, schemes, plots, tricks, and games, but a design? Not even Nimmie Not could concentrate on a design long enough to see it through.

Christopher: While a dragon would?

Garnet: A grand plan for a grand beast. Designs are just the sort of thing a dragon could occupy themselves with for centuries, piece by piece, strand by strand.

Christopher: You speak as one familar with dragons.

Garnet: Heh, no, I’m not. Cheeky of me to talk that way when I’ve been luckier than some dwarves unfortunate enough to cross a dragon’s path.

Christopher: You’ve crossed Prunella’s path or Prunella crossed yours.

Garnet: True. We met Prunella and it was no accident. They have a purpose for us, my brothers and I. At least they have one for Quartz. May boulder and stone help him if he disappoints.

Christopher: Is Prunella that terrifying?

Garnet: Terrifying and enormous. Not to mention their breath is terrible. Don’t let their name fool you.

Christopher: What do you think Prunella’s purpose is?

Garnet: I’m not sure. Right now they’re having Quartz gather stones which can be used to channel healing energy. This doesn’t sound so bad, only…

Christopher: Only?

Garnet: Wouldn’t it be easier to have all of us gather the stones? Only Quartz is doing it, though, Just Quartz. I’m not sure if that’s Prunella’s design or that Quartz took their request completely on himself. He hasn’t asked any of us for help. He’s just digging them up and taking them to the riddle coordinates that Prunella gave him. And…

Christopher: And?

Garnet: I’ve seen the stones he’s picking out. They’re all used to channel healing energy, like I said. Gathering that many of them in one place suggests they’re needed for a huge healing endeavor. Which means someone is going to get hurt. Bad.

Christopher: Do you have any idea whom that someone might be?

Garnet: No, but I’ll wager Quartz does. (He scowls.) I wish he’d tell us, his brothers, more of what’s going on. I wish he’d let us help.

Christopher: Maybe you can ask if you can?

Garnet: Right and I’ll wager all the porridge in my next bowl he’ll tell me no, to go do something else, something useful. If I’m serious about helping him, I’ll have to find a sneaky way to do it.

Christopher: Be careful. Sneaking with the best of intentions can go wrong in unexpected ways.

Garnet: Right. What else can I do? I can’t let Quartz do this alone, whatever this is. I have to sneak.

Christopher: Good luck.

Garnet: Thank’ee.

#RainbowSnippets: Wind Me Up, One More Time

Welcome to Rainbow Snippets!

Every Saturday or Sunday those participating post and share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to LGBTQIA+.

To read a wide variety of samples from LGBTQIA+ stories, go to…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?ref=group_header

For my own, Nathalie and Grace will continue where they left off last weekend in Wind Me Up, One More Time…

“Is that what happened to Verity?” Grace trembled, imagining a girl with a pale face, like Mama’s being drained of what little color it had. “Is that what happens to everyone who works in the factory?”

“Well, not everyone.” Nathalie glanced down at her sister and patted her shoulder. “Industry in itself isn’t a bad thing. Just don’t get caught in the cogs and gears.”

Like what you’ve read? Want to read more? Here are buy links…

Mischief Corner Books/Shenanigans Press: https://www.mischiefcornerbooks.com/wind-me-up-one-more-time.html#/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081LPX2WH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wind+Me+Up%2C+One+More+Time&qid=1573974211&s=books&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wind-me-up-one-more-time

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-me-up-one-more-time-ks-trenten/1134959345

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1488235515?fbclid=IwAR1_ox2T5jIHibPFBHUqTck0SNaP3pcZIgNM4DS3VAjU47mn3o5iu260bMA

Conversations with Christopher: Garnet

Christopher sits facing a younger dwarf than Quartz with dissheveled ginger whiskers.

Christopher: You still have most of your beard. Unlike what it was like in Fairest.

Garnet: The me you face is the one our scribbler left at her stopping point in Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins. (He smooths his whiskers self-consciously.) I haven’t started my serious beard-pulling yet. Quartz always caught me before I could go too far. (He looks down.) I didn’t have him to do that for me in Fairest, even though Opal tried. Opal just wasn’t fast enough to catch me.

Christopher: (gazes at his own fingers) You must miss your brother a lot.

Garnet: Aye. Sometimes it seems everything bad happened was we moved into the cottage in the Forest of Tears. Quartz. Oriana. Those creatures lurking in the trees and grass.

Christopher: By creatures do you mean the garden gnomes?

Garnet: They’re only one type of creature in the trees, even if they are unsettling. The Forest of Tears has a way of bringing our tears and our fears to life. Ours and who knows how many others’.

Christopher: The Forest of Tears sounds a lot like the Shadow Forest.

Garnet: Same scribbler, right?

Christopher: I can’t help wonder if your Forest has other things in common with our Forest. Like being able to bring your hopes to life as well as your fears.

Garnet: Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. (He perks up a bit.)

Christopher: Maybe you’ll think of that in Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins?

Garnet: Maybe. Right now I’m too rattled by the move. This is the second time we’re picked up and left a place, my brothers and I. Not that the mine was a home and we’re going back there to work. Still moving into the cottage in the Forest of Tears was a big change. Quartz doesn’t usually do change.

Christopher: What does Quartz usually do?

Garnet: What feels right and comfortable. Which wasn’t our original home or the mine shaft.

Christopher: Where did you live before the mine?

Garnet: A great mountain hall. We shared it, my brothers and I, with lots of other dwarves. There was constant infighting over what we dug up, plus we were on a constant look-out for goblins. Quartz led us out of there to our current work place, the mine where we’re at the beginning in Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins. None of us had any idea it was Prunella’s lair. (He shudders.)

Christopher: Prunella being the dragon you and your brothers met.

Garnet: No, Quartz met them. The rest of us just fell on our faces and trembled.

Christopher: I’m surprised you didn’t notice Prunella was in that mountain before you started mining.

Garnet: You’re surprised? How could we have missed a dragon? Why didn’t Prunella chase us out when we arrived?

Christopher: Good questions.

Garnet: Unless…

Christopher: Unless?

Garnet: Unless Prunella wants us there. Unless they wanted us there before Nimmie Not introduced Prunella to Quartz, or himself for that matter.

Christopher: Why?

Garnet: I’m not sure. Maybe Prunella always wanted someone to gather those stones they told Quartz to collect. Or maybe they needed Quartz in particular to do it.

Christopher: So you’re thinking this dragon wants you to mine their mountain for treasure?

Garnet: Which is downright odd. Most dragons don’t want you going anywhere with their treasure. At least all the legends say they don’t.

Christopher: Curious.

Garnet: Aye, it is, isn’t it?

(To be continued)

#RainbowSnippets: Wind Me Up, One More Time

Welcome to Rainbow Snippets!

Every Saturday or Sunday, those participating post six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.

To read a wide variety of LGBTQIA+ fiction, go to…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?ref=group_header

For mine, Grace will continue where she left off last week in Wind Me Up, One More Time…

“Does a human become a monster?”

“Of the worst kind.” Nathalie reached out a finger to tap on the window. “Her very soul is sucked into the machine, ground into the wheels. All she once was is shredded and mixed into part of the product. All that’s left is the desire to work, to keep the cogs and gears going. She becomes the machine.”

Intrigued? Want to read the whole book? Here are buy links…

Mischief Corner Books/Shenanigans Press: https://www.mischiefcornerbooks.com/wind-me-up-one-more-time.html#/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081LPX2WH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wind+Me+Up%2C+One+More+Time&qid=1573974211&s=books&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wind-me-up-one-more-time

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-me-up-one-more-time-ks-trenten/1134959345

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1488235515?fbclid=IwAR1_ox2T5jIHibPFBHUqTck0SNaP3pcZIgNM4DS3VAjU47mn3o5iu260bMA

Conversations with Christopher: Quartz and the April Aftermath

Christopher sits facing a dwarf whose hair and beard are somewhat tousled around a nose that’s ruddier than usual.

Christopher: I’m guessing congratulations are in order for your progress?

Quartz: Shut up. What happens with crystals gets intense. It’s nothing to make a big deal of. Neither is holding hands with Nimmie Not.

Christopher: Huh? What are you talking about?

Quartz: Eh? What are you talking about?

Christopher: Your progress in your story? Of Cuckoo Clocks anc Crystal Coffins? Your story reached 20 thousand words, didn’t it?

Quartz: Right. That.

Christopher: What did you think I was talking about?

Quartz: Never you mind. (His nose turns redder.) Right. The story. Suppose I should be glad it’s going somewhere even though it’s a far cry from finished. We’ve only just encountered the ruddy cuckoo clock and that blasted bird is part of the title. Sloppy scribbler.

Christopher: Any surprises in what’s happened thus far?

Quartz: Must you bring that up? (He rubs his nose.)

Christopher: Bring what up?

Quartz: Surprises! I mean, um, you could spoil the story that way. Talking too much about surprises.

Christopher: Well, is there anything that surprised you that you can talk about?

Quartz: Not sure. I knew my bond with my namestone would be intense, but I didn’t know it would lead to certain, um, complications. (He looks away, still running his nose.)

Christopher: What do you mean?

Quartz: Uh uh. I’m not telling. Still trying to understand it all myself. Or let it be and move past it?

Christopher: Was it really that bad? What happened?

Quartz: No, it wasn’t bad at all. It was wonderful. He’s fascinating, I’ll give him that. Can’t trust him, though. Not a bit.

Christopher: You mean Nimmie Not?

Quartz: Of course I mean Nimmie Not! Bloody kobold! What does he think he’s doing to me?

Christopher: Well-

Quartz: When did I start watching his mouth so much? Noticing how full his lips are?

Christopher: Well-

Quartz: This is what comes of living a shelted life. That’s it. That’s all it is. I’m not used to being around people other than my brothers. Why wouldn’t I get all strange about the first one I meet?

Christopher: Did you get strange about Princess Blanche, your Fairest in the similar way?

Quartz: Well, no. Not in the same way. Not that we’ve gotten to the part of the story where I meet her?

Christopher: Is your meeting part of the story?

Quartz: Aye. I’m already building the crystal coffin due to my bargain with Prunella the Dragon, but I don’t know who it’s for. Not until she becomes part of our family and her jealous ex decides to curse her.

Christopher: Some of the backstory in Fairest will be in Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins?

Quartz: Aye, from my point of view. We haven’t gotten there, though. We’ve only just reached the cottage. Want to know what surprised me? How long it took for us to get there.

Christopher: Can you tell us a little about the journey? Without spoiling anything?

Quartz: Enchantment, dragons, faerie rings, garden gnomes, and Nimmie Not. Lots and lots of Nimmie Not. (His nose turns red again.)

Christopher: You enjoyed the journey, didn’t you?

Quartz: Shut up.

#RainbowSnippets: Wind Me Up, One More Time

Welcome to Rainbow Snippets! Every Saturday or Sunday those participating post six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can be someone else’s. It just has to be LGBTQIA+.

To read a wide variety of samples from different LGBTQIA+ stories, go to…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?ref=group_header

For my own, Nathalie will continue where she left off last Saturday in Wind Me Up, One More Time…

“Cogs and gears move much faster than human fingers, so they can accomplish wonderful things. It’s impossible for humans to keep up with them, but sometimes they try.” She turned her head in one slow movement of tumbling coppery curls to regard the mannequin in the window. “The danger is when a human does catch up, only to be caught in the machinery.”

“How does she get caught?” Horrible images of being stretched into a thin being with legs and arms no longer capable of moving, pulled into a deformed thing danced in Grace’s head.

Like what you’ve read? Want to read more? Here are buy links…

Mischief Corner Books/Shenanigans Press: https://www.mischiefcornerbooks.com/wind-me-up-one-more-time.html#/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081LPX2WH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wind+Me+Up%2C+One+More+Time&qid=1573974211&s=books&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wind-me-up-one-more-time

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-me-up-one-more-time-ks-trenten/1134959345

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1488235515?fbclid=IwAR1_ox2T5jIHibPFBHUqTck0SNaP3pcZIgNM4DS3VAjU47mn3o5iu260bMA

Conversations with Christopher: Peter

Christopher sits in his chair, looking a little disoriented, eyes unfocused, swimming with colors. Opposite him sits a young man with curly auburn hair wearing a doublet, hose, pressing the tips of his fingers together and studying Christopher with solemn brown eyes.

Christopher: After Camp NaNoWriMo, I expected Quartz to stop by and gloat. Not you.

Peter: Aren’t you happy to see me, Christopher? Or perhaps I should say Happily Ever After? (He winks.) I’m sure Quartz will return to gloat, but our scribbler accidentally wrote P is for Peter twice. Thus you get a double helping of me. Enjoy it.

Christopher: Only you’re not here to talk about me. Or you and me. You’re here to talk about Paul. Aren’t you?

Peter: Should there be a Peter without a Paul? This was a part of my background in Tales of the Navel: The Shadow Forest which hasn’t been explored yet.

Christopher: There’s a lot about you which remains a mystery.

Peter: I’ve been avoiding the consequences of change, letting my hair grow out, picking colorful, anachronistic clothes, flirting with any and all to distract me with a little mirth, a little eccentricity.

Christopher: Like ‘Brie and myself.

Peter: It’s funny how you call your mother ‘Brie, not I’m anyone to knock unconventional families. I suppose you and ‘Brie are mine, now. I found an entire new life with you and ‘Brie in Unwilling to Be Yours, one of the preludes to Stealing Myself From Shadows, which appeared in segments here.

Christopher: You could never replace Damian, but you filled the void in our lives left when Damian disappeared, something we’ll always love you for.

Peter: How easy it was to blame Damian Ashelocke for everything, to dwell on what a prick he was! Far easier than remembering what a prick Paul was…or what a prick I’d been.

Christopher: Was it easier losing yourself in the many arms of Duessa Ashelocke, just to make me jealous? Something you seemed to be doing in yet another serialized prelude, Be My Valentine…Snack?

Peter: Perhaps.

Christopher: I wondered if you weren’t trying to change things, to shake things up for us.

Peter: Perhaps I didn’t want to change, to abandon my feelings for Paul. To give up any hope of returning to Paul. Maybe this is why I sought unattainable objects of desire like you and Duessa.

Christopher: Thus keeping change at bay?

Peter: How’s that for a confession? My love isn’t any truer than Damian’s, if those words are true.

Christopher: You cared enough to follow me into the Shadow Forest, in spite of the change. There’s no avoiding change in the Shadow Forest. You may find yourself discarding parts of yourself you no longer want.

Peter: I wonder what I’ll become after that? Walking my path through whispering trees that transform into something else with a thought.

Christopher: Whatever you become may no longer be Peter. I may no longer recognize you. Paul may not either.

Peter: Ah, but do I want you to recognize me? Maybe I’ll transform into someone powerfully seductive, someone whom you could never let go or forget?

Christopher: Is that your wish? I know you have one, one strong enough to open a Door to the Shadow Forest.

Peter: I may have lied about my wish.

Christopher: Or you were trying so hard to please everyone else, especially me, that your own wish sank into a pool of desire.

Peter: How prettily you put it. I transform into a liquid pool of desire, eh? Sounds sexy.

Christopher: Not if you, Peter are lost in it. If you dissolve into everyone’s else’s wishes.

Peter: Well, maybe I, Peter, won’t be as lost as you think. Maybe I can be summoned by someone. The right someone. Someone who remembers and loves me.

Christopher: I hope so. I truly do.

#RainbowSnippets: Wind Me Up, One More Time

Welcome to Rainbow Snippets!

Every Saturday or Sunday, those participating post and share six sentences of LGBTQIA+ fiction on their blogs. It can be their own. It can someone else’s. It just needs to be LGBTQIA+.

To read a wide variety of samples from different LGBTQIA+ stories, go to…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?ref=group_header

I’m still adjusting to Camp NaNoWriMo being over, BloggingFromAZ being over (although I’m still posting reflections from those blogs on my Facebook Author Page), and the realization that yes, I can post Rainbow Snippets in my blog on Saturday again! 🙂 I’ll be picking up where I left off last Sunday in Wind Me Up, One More Time…

“Like in the clocktower?” Grace peeked at the gray tower, covered with old numbers and one slowly, one fast-moving hand. “It’s not bad, is it?”

“That depends.” Nathalie squatted down, fixed a solemn, hazel eye upon her little sister. Grace gazed into the dark center of that eye, lightning into warm brown while the green swam between, like something sleek and playful.

Like what you’ve read? Want to read more? Here are buy links…

Mischief Corner Books/Shenanigans Press: https://www.mischiefcornerbooks.com/wind-me-up-one-more-time.html#/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081LPX2WH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wind+Me+Up%2C+One+More+Time&qid=1573974211&s=books&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wind-me-up-one-more-time

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-me-up-one-more-time-ks-trenten/1134959345

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1488235515?fbclid=IwAR1_ox2T5jIHibPFBHUqTck0SNaP3pcZIgNM4DS3VAjU47mn3o5iu260bMA