Category: A Dance Of Water And Air

Rainbow Snippets January 28-29

1/29/2023

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 month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. This is a sweet little moment between Edmund and Arden, a little break from the worrying and strategizing happening after their escape from the palace.

Edmund asked to see more of the house. It was probably just to distract them both, but Arden was happy to show him, both for the distraction and because he was proud of the house, even if it wasn’t quite completed. The structural work was long finished, the floors laid and polished, the walls painted and plastered.

“You have hardly any furniture,” Edmund said as they left an empty room Arden envisioned as a study.

“But I have books.” Arden gestured to the volumes lining the shelves as they stepped into the library.

“That you do.” Edmund stopped just inside and looked around. “I know where your priorities are.”

“Of course.”

“I like that you filled the library first, and made sure there are chairs to read in.” Edmund walked to the closest set of shelves, but he looked over his shoulder at Arden, eyes soft with affection. It warmed Arden through in a way he was utterly unused to—but he wanted to bask in that affection.

“Well.” He struggled for his wits and words. “You have to know what’s important.”

Edmund’s laughed tumbled out, threatening to drown him in warm sweetness.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Next week, I'm going to switch over to the second book in the Elemental Magicae series, A Harmony of Fire and Earth. Thanks for reading and I hope you're staying safe and well.

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Rainbow Snippets January 21-22

1/22/2023

1 Comment

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 month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. After walking through the night, they arrive at a house where they can spend some time safely and get their bearings. But the lack of enough beds means sharing...

He could feel Edmund standing just inside the door, looming somehow larger behind Arden. They’d been alone before, but in the darkened bedchamber, it felt different, more intimate. He steadied his hands, which wanted to tremble, and got the fire going. Standing, he turned to face Edmund, who drooped with exhaustion but seemed frozen where he was. Suddenly, the odd awareness didn’t seem so important, or not as important as taking care of Edmund.

“The bathing room is through there.” Arden gestured at a door. “It’s probably warmer to change in here, though, for now. Are you sure this is all right?”

Edmund seemed to come out of whatever thoughts had held him, or perhaps he’d been asleep on his feet. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Did Edmund not feel what was between them? Arden warmed just thinking about their kiss, and not entirely from embarrassment that he had been so brazen. So inappropriate. But Edmund had kissed him back; he had to feel the same pull that Arden did.

Didn’t he?

You can find out more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well.

1 Comment

Rainbow Snippets January 14-15

1/15/2023

3 Comments

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 month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. I've skipped ahead just slightly for this snippet from last week's. They've gotten out of the dungeon and the castle and are on foot, trying to get away before they're discovered missing.

Their breath puffed in clouds, visible in the sharp cold air. Even with the steady pace they kept to, Edmund was still cold, and he was glad for the foresight of whoever had stuffed a pair of warm gloves in the pocket of his coat. The others had similarly drawn on gloves as they walked, and Arden pulled one of his scarves from a pocket and wound it around his neck. Unlike some of the delicate, beautiful creations he wore, this scarf seemed to be made for warmth before fashion.

After a while, the trees thinned again, depriving them of some of the cover they’d been using, but Ciaran and Arden kept them all walking just inside the edge of the forest. Loud barking suddenly split the silence of the night, and they froze. Edmund wanted to turn and run, but he had no idea which way to go. Arden wrapped a hand around his arm, holding him in place. He shook his head and held up his hand to them all, a signal to wait. Then he closed his eyes. A slight breeze stirred the air around Arden and ruffled Edmund’s hair. Edmund had to be crazy, because it felt as if the breeze twined and slid around them, tugging at hair and clothes and something more. Or maybe he wasn’t. Arden had to be pulling on some magic.

Edmund waited, frozen in place and barely daring to breathe. Had they been discovered missing already? Had Arden and Ciaran been wrong about the tunnel being forgotten? Were hunters’ dogs about to burst out of the trees and run them down? Peregrine’s eyes were wide and frightened; Edmund held his friend’s gaze as interminable minutes passed.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.

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Rainbow Snippets January 7-8

1/8/2023

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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 month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. I'm jumping in after Edmund has already been accused. He and his secretary Peregrine and guard Seren have been thrown in the dungeon. But Arden has been scheming to get them out (the kiss is unplanned!).

He had no idea how much time had passed when he heard the scrape of a key in the lock. Seren scrambled to her feet with less than her usual grace, but far more quickly than Edmund expected. Edmund was slower to move on legs gone stiff and cold. He squinted into the light as the door swung open. Seren tensed, as if ready to jump at whoever might come through, never mind how well that had worked before. Two figures crowded into the doorway; Edmund had just realized who they were when one of the men spoke.

“Edmund,” Arden gasped. “Are you all right?”

“Arden—”

Arden rushed forward and pulled Edmund into a kiss, a kiss that tasted of fear and desperation and a brilliant sweetness underneath the rest. The suddenness of it, the impulsivity of Arden’s kissing him in front of others—in a dungeon of all places—froze Edmund for half a second, but then he was kissing Arden back, and he never wanted to stop. Edmund brought his hands up and held on to Arden’s arms with chilled fingers, anchoring Arden’s slim, strong body to his. The feel of it went a long way toward warming Edmund through.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.

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Rainbow Snippets October 8-9

10/9/2022

1 Comment

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 thought I'd share a few snippets this month to celebrate the fourth publishing anniversary of A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. I wrote this series as a challenge to myself to write a series that would be complete within those two books. (It is, but I'm probably going to write more in this world. Because of course.) In this book, Edmund is a demisexual prince whose father arranges a marriage for him with the queen of a neighboring country to create an alliance. However, Edmund soon finds himself falling for the queen's brother, Arden (who is bisexual and transgender). When Edmund is framed for an attempted assassination of the queen, he and Arden realize there is a lot more going on than they thought, and they go on the run, hoping to figure out a way to save Edmund and their countries and for them to be together. In this snippet, Edmund and Arden demonstrate their magic for each other—Edmund has Water magic and Arden Air, and by this point, they've spent a lot of time in their growing friendship talking about magic.

Arden’s attention was pulled slowly to the river as waves rose—but only in the area in front of them, and only in gentle, even swells. Then the water surged up from the river and swirled in the air, too perfectly to be anything except magic. Watching the even motion was soothing, peaceful. And then everything went back to normal between one blink of the eye and the next.

“I wasn’t sure what to do,” Edmund said.

“It was lovely.”

Edmund smiled, open and honest and almost enough to break Arden’s heart.

“Now, you. Show me something.” Arden bit back a teasing, and wholly inappropriate, reply. “All right.”

It was hardly work at all to feel the currents of Air around him, to seek out the threads of magic within them. It took barely more than a thought to move the Air, to create the playful little breeze that picked up the colorful leaves and to make it swirl around Edmund, to ruffle his hair and tug at his clothes.

Arden wished the sight of Edmund’s sparkling eyes, the sound of his delighted laugh, didn’t give him so much pleasure.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're all staying safe and well.

1 Comment

Rainbow Snippets October 1-2

10/2/2022

3 Comments

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.

Happy October, all! And with October 1st comes the publishing anniversary of A Dance of Water and Air (out in the world for four years!). I thought I'd share a few snippets this month to celebrate. A Dance of Water and Air is the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, which I wrote challenging myself to write a series that would be complete within those two books. (It is, but I'm probably going to write more in this world. Because of course.) In this book, Edmund is a demisexual prince whose father arranges a marriage for him with the queen of a neighboring country to create an alliance. However, Edmund soon finds himself falling for the queen's brother, Arden (who is bisexual and transgender). When Edmund is framed for an attempted assassination of the queen, he and Arden realize there is a lot more going on than they thought, and they go on the run, hoping to figure out a way to save Edmund and their countries and for them to be together. In this snippet, Edmund and his secretary are traveling to meet Edmund's intended bride.

They climbed upward—rolling hills becoming higher and steeper, air that had been pleasantly warm on the coast taking on the chill of autumn, leaves that had still been green at home changing to red and rust and gold. Edmund’s first sight of the mountains pulled a gasp from him; he might have been embarrassed if Peregrine hadn’t done the same.

It looked like a painting, and so different from home he almost ached looking at it. The castle towered above the capital city, shooting up from the rock of the mountains, white towers gleaming in the moonlight as they reached toward the sky. As the carriage rattled through the empty nighttime streets, stone buildings silent and dark around them, Edmund kept his eyes on the bright white of the castle, seized by a sudden burst of fear as reality came crashing down upon him. This was to be his home?

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're all staying safe and well.

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Rainbow Snippets August 6-7

8/7/2022

1 Comment

Edmund snagged his hand as Arden walked by and gently tugged him in and close. He paused a hairsbreadth from kissing Arden, giving Arden an opportunity to step away. As if Arden would. He closed the slight distance and touched his lips to Edmund’s. He’d meant it to be a light kiss, playful and sweet and quick, but when he tasted Edmund, he sank into the kiss, burying his other hand in Edmund’s hair and holding on.

When they finally, reluctantly, pulled back from each other, Arden’s head was spinning. He’d always enjoyed kissing, but with Edmund, he never, ever wanted to stop. He blinked up at Edmund, waiting for his scattered thoughts to settle. Edmund was quiet too, watching Arden with wide, dark eyes. Finally, Arden leaned forward and nuzzled into Edmund’s neck for just a moment.

You can find out more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well!

1 Comment

Rainbow Snippets January 8-9

1/8/2022

5 Comments

Edmund turned back to the window. Snow was indeed falling lightly to the ground. An almost childlike delight filled him. He’d thought the view beautiful before, but with the softly falling snow and the hushed stillness it brought, it was perfect, like a painting.

“I love that smile.” Arden’s whisper startled Edmund, and perhaps Arden too if his widened eyes were anything to go by.

“What?”

Arden bit his lip. “The way you smiled when you saw the snow, as if you took such joy in the simple sight of it. I wish I could see you smile that way more.”

Find out more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're all staying safe and well.

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Rainbow Snippets October 9-10

10/9/2021

2 Comments

When they arrived at the border, they were met by a contingent of Aither guards who joined them for the rest of the journey. Edmund’s own guards would see him safely delivered to the castle and then return home, leaving him on his own but for Peregrine and one personal guard. The sense of vulnerability and exposure was odd and unfamiliar—he’d spent his whole life surrounded by guards loyal to his family and kingdom. The idea of not knowing whether he could trust anyone made him uneasy. Logically, he knew they had to protect him, if only to protect their own queen and the alliance she’d made. But it was little comfort, especially with a looming threat to Thalassa.

He found some distraction when the landscape began to change. They climbed upward—rolling hills becoming higher and steeper, air that had been pleasantly warm on the coast taking on the chill of autumn, leaves that had still been green at home changing to red and rust and gold. Edmund’s first sight of the mountains pulled a gasp from him; he might have been embarrassed if Peregrine hadn’t done the same.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all staying safe and well.

2 Comments

Rainbow Snippets September 18-19

9/18/2021

3 Comments

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 sharing a snippet from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in the Elemental Magicae series. In this book, Prince Edmund must make an alliance marriage with Hollis, queen of the neighboring kingdom. But he and Hollis's brother, Prince Arden, find themselves growing closer instead. Then, Edmund is accused of trying to kill the queen. Arden helps him escape, and they flee, hoping to clear Edmund's name and save both of their kingdom—and find a way to be together. This is Arden's first sight of Edmund when he arrives in the throne room to be presented to Hollis. (I went a little over the sentence count—sorry!—but I thought it was necessary.)

The tall doors, polished wood with silver and gold set in a fluid pattern over the entire surface, were pulled open, and Prince Edmund stepped through.

Arden hadn’t expected the punch of instant attraction and didn’t much care for it. He had certainly been attracted to people before and had a couple of discreet liaisons when he’d found a potential lover he could trust, but he’d seldom felt an attraction so sudden and visceral, one that had him wondering what it would be like if he dragged Edmund off to bed.

But this was his sister’s intended—for an alliance marriage that was meant to secure the safety of their kingdom.

Still, Arden understood his own reaction. Edmund was breathtaking. He had light brown skin and shining dark brown hair that waved around his face. He was tall, with broad, strong shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist and hips and long legs. The heavily embroidered silk jacket and slim pants he wore—obviously in the style of the Thalassan court—showed off his body to its best advantage. He carried himself as the prince he was. No uncertainty, no unnecessary deference in his posture, even as he walked into a foreign court very nearly alone, and Arden respected him for it.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well!

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