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.
A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, was published five years ago today, so I wanted to share some snippets with you to mark the anniversary. In A Dance of Water and Air, Prince Edmund has no choice but to make an alliance marriage with the queen of the neighboring country, but when he arrives there, everything seems just a little off. Edmund finds himself becoming closer to the queen's brother, Arden, eventually falling in love with him. When Edmund is framed for an attempt on the queen's life. Edmund and Arden flee together. They have to find a way to save Edmund and both of there kingdoms, and if they can, they just might manage to be together too. Here's a snippet of when Arden first sees Edmund as he's presented to the royal court.
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.
Edmund stopped at the right distance from the dais and bowed to exactly the correct degree and not one bit more, holding it for the correct amount of time as well. He’d studied their protocols. When Edmund straightened, he looked to Hollis first, of course. But Arden found himself wanting this man to take notice of him too.
Preposterous.
Edmund glanced at Arden a bare moment later, as if he’d heard Arden’s silly thought. Arden had to swallow back a gasp. Because Edmund’s eyes were as beautiful as the rest of him, and telling. Dark, rich brown, shot through with vibrant green. Arden hadn’t been aware that Edmund possessed such a strong Affinity for Water magic, or that he’d become strong in its practice.