Antonia Aquilante
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Rainbow Snippets September 24-25

9/24/2022

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​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This week, I have another snippet from The Sorcerer's Guardian, which had a publishing anniversary this month. In The Sorcerer's Guardian, an arrogant (but really very powerful and talented) sorcerer and a loyal guard captain are sent on a dangerous mission by the Crown Prince. Neither of them feels it is necessary that they make this long journey together, but the guard captain is too loyal to argue and the sorcerer's arguments are ignored. Along the way, they bicker and snark at each other, and learn to work together...and that they're quite attracted to each other. In this snippet, Loriot decides Savarin has been working too long and needs a break...
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“I’m aware of the importance of your work,” Loriot said and came toward Savarin in what could only be described as a prowl. “But you can’t work all night.”

Savarin pushed aside the stirrings of heat in favor of annoyance at the amusement he could hear in Loriot’s words and stepped backward. “This is serious, Loriot. Treat it as such.”

“Oh, I am. You need to relax sometimes, or you won’t accomplish anything.” With a wicked smile, Loriot kept advancing, crowding Savarin back until he came up against the door. “You’ll be far more clearheaded if you allow yourself a little enjoyable distraction.”

You can find more about The Sorcerer's Guardian here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're staying safe and well!
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Rainbow Space Magic

9/23/2022

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I'm so excited for Rainbow Space Magic tomorrow! RSM is a free one-day virtual conference with lots of panels and discussion about writing queer science fiction and fantasy. I've really enjoyed this conference the last couple of years, and I'm sure it's going to be wonderful again. I will be on a panel about writing series SFF this year, and I hope you'll join us. Find out more and register here.
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Rainbow Snippets September 17-18

9/18/2022

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​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This week, I have another snippet from The Sorcerer's Guardian, which had a publishing anniversary this month. In The Sorcerer's Guardian, an arrogant (but really very powerful and talented) sorcerer and a loyal guard captain are sent on a dangerous mission by the Crown Prince. Neither of them feels it is necessary that they make this long journey together, but the guard captain is too loyal to argue and the sorcerer's arguments are ignored. Along the way, they bicker and snark at each other, and learn to work together...and that they're quite attracted to each other. This week's snippet is Loriot and Savarin's first kiss.
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​“Your friend warned you about how dangerous they would be. It’s why we’ve been planning so carefully. To 
make sure we were safely here before the storms and not trying to ride around or camp out in them.”

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“I’m quite aware of what Gemella said.”

He stalked closer to Savarin. “Then why are you being so arrogant and ridiculous about this?”

“Ridiculous?” Savarin’s voice went quiet, and he stood in the tub, long legs unfolding beneath him.

“Did you just call me ridiculous?”


“I see you have no objection to my calling you arrogant.”

“I’m arrogant? You need to listen to yourself. You arrogant, smug—”

Loriot had no idea which of them moved first. Maybe they moved 
together; he didn’t know. What he did know was one second Savarin was hurling a litany of insults at him and the next they were kissing. Only kissing was too tame a word for what they were doing.



You can find more about The Sorcerer's Guardian here. Thanks for reading and I hope you're staying safe and well!
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Rainbow Snippets September 10-11

9/11/2022

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​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This week, I'm switching over to snippets from The Sorcerer's Guardian, which also has a publishing anniversary coming up this month. In The Sorcerer's Guardian, an arrogant (but really very powerful and talented) sorcerer and a loyal guard captain are sent on a dangerous mission by the Crown Prince. Neither of them feels it is necessary that they make this long journey together, but the guard captain is too loyal to argue and the sorcerer's arguments are ignored. Along the way, they learn to work together...and that they're quite attracted to each other. And at one point, there's a storm and only one room left at the inn with only one bed. But we haven't gotten that far in this snippet... (I'm sorry that it's a bit long!)
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​The one small window let in enough moonlight for him to see but left the room in shadow. He moved to grab the candles from the chest and light them from the ones in the corridor, but Savarin was faster. He 
took hold of Loriot’s arm, keeping him back from the candles, and an instant after, the wicks ignited into steady, glowing flames.

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Loriot sucked in a quick breath. At the surprise of having the candles light on their own? Or at the surprise of having Savarin touching him? Both were unexpected, and both kicked his heartbeat up. The realization Savarin had used his Talent to light the candles settled into his mind, becoming far less jarring. But Savarin was still touching him, his grip firm on Loriot’s forearm. Loriot was suddenly much more aware of Savarin’s presence close by his side, of Savarin so much taller than he was. But Savarin’s hand holding his arm...it was almost devastating in the awareness it produced. 

In that breathless moment, heat rushed through him from the one point of contact between them, and he wondered--in what was obviously lunacy--what it would be like to turn and push Savarin up against the closed door, trapping him there with his body and kissing him.

You can find out more about The Sorcerer's Guardian here. Thanks for reading and I hope you're staying safe and well!
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My August Reading

9/9/2022

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Time continues to fly by this year, and I continue to have weird and frustrating reading slumps, which have me starting books and putting them aside for later and started others and repeating the whole cycle again. *Sigh.* But despite that, I did read a few books I enjoyed in August:

From Bad the Cursed by Lana Harper: This second book in the Witches of Thistle Grove series was just as delightful as the first. I loved Isadora and Rowan and their enemies to lovers romance. This book is a great witchy read with some supernatural mystery/suspense and a wonderful romance. And I love the world too—I think I'd like to be a Thistle Grove witch. You could probably read this without reading the first in the series (though events in that book are mentioned and characters from it find their way into this one), but Payback's a Witch is delightful too, so you might as well start there anyway. I'm very excited for the next book in the series and not at all happy to have to wait for it!

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson: In this YA fantasy, Artemesia is training to be a sister in an order that cleanses the bodies of the dead and helps their souls pass on—so they don't rise again as evil spirits to come after the living. When her convent is attacked by an army of possessed soldiers, a dying sister passes a saint's relic to Artemesia for her to use to save the convent. Which she does, but is almost possessed by the powerful revenant it contains in the process. I'm going to say here that I kind of adore the revenant and the bond that grows between the revenant and Artemesia as they come to work together. Their banter is just fantastic. I also love the world building and the twisty evil plot and Artemesia discovering that all she's been taught about saints and revenants and spirits and old magic isn't necessarily true. I feel like there are some Joan of Arc parallels that I hope I'm imagining because they have me a bit nervous—this book ended well, but there's supposed to be another in the series.

Fluke and the Fantastic Finale by Sam Burns: The Fantastic Fluke series has been such fun from the very beginning. I've loved getting to know Sage and his familiar, the delightful fox Fluke, and Gideon and the whole family built throughout the series. The paranormal world building and mystery/suspense aspects were great too and wrapped up well in this last installment, but it's the characters I've become attached to. And while I'm so happy with the way the series ended, I'm so sad there won't be more stories about them. Definitely start from the beginning with this series, as the books don't stand alone. And you'll want to read Sage's story from being alone and believing he had no power to speak of to becoming a powerful arcane mage with a close found family all around him—and lots of danger along the way.

What have you read and loved lately? (Or are you stuck in a strange reading slump like me?)
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Rainbow Snippets September 3-4

9/3/2022

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​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I decided to share a few snippets from The Dragon's Devotion leading up to its fifth anniversary this weekend. In The Dragon's Devotion, Corentin is a scholar with a secret (he's a dragon shifter) and Bastien is an earl with far too much on his shoulders—including learning that his parents' death several years ago might not have been the accident they all believed. As they become closer, Bastien looks into the death of his parents and is drawn into danger, leaving Corentin in the position of revealing his secret—which could put his people at risk—or losing the man he's come to love. In this week's snippet, Bastien sees Corentin as a dragon for the first time.
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​Where Corentin had stood only a moment ago was a large dragon.

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Bastien stared, his gaze traveling over the astonishing creature sitting in front of him. The dragon—Corentin, the dragon was Corentin, and he had to remember that or he might be as terrified as he was awed--Corentin was a magnificent sight. He was enormous and sinuous, with a powerful body and a long neck and wings folded over his back. His body, except for his wings, seemed to be entirely covered in scales that glistened in the light from the lantern. In the near dark, Bastien couldn’t tell what color the scales were, and he very much wanted to know. Because Corentin was beautiful, and Bastien wanted to see all of him, to remember this sight forever. This first time he saw Corentin as a dragon.

He looked up, meeting Corentin’s eyes, and opened his mouth to ask about the color of his scales, which was probably a ridiculous question both for its subject and for the fact that Bastien didn’t know if Corentin could talk as a dragon. Could dragons talk? In the stories, they mostly roared and breathed fire, but the stories obviously weren’t correct. Except that dragons did exist.
And he was rambling even in his thoughts.

You can find out more about The Dragon's Devotion here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're staying safe and well.
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GRL Book Preorders

9/2/2022

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Just a quick reminder that if you're going to GRL next month (how is it so soon?!), you can preorder signed books from me and pick them up at the book signing using this form through September 5th. I'll have some books with me at the signing, but if you want to make sure you get a particular one, preordering might be best. See you at GRL!
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    Antonia is a writer and a reader and a copy editor/proofreader. She loves books, travel, art, photography, baking, pasta, and shoes.

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