Elin Gregory

Saturday!! Hang on, it is Saturday, isn’t it? YES! Saturday so that means another snippet. But first an explanation.

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook GRoup set up so authors of LGBT fiction can post six [approx] sentences of a WIP or a published work on their own blog then post links to the group to make them easier to find. Then we all read each others snips, comment if we have time, and get an idea of what books to look forward to. Click the image above if you would like to join in.

I have been posting bits of my Great War historical Calon Lan. The title is a reference to the classic Welsh hymn, often sung at rugby matches, the title of which means “A Pure Heart”. It tells of a romance between Alwyn and Joseph, two injured soldiers trying to recover from the war as seen through the eyes of Bethan, Alwyn’s married sister, who is completely ignorant that such a thing as love between two men could exist.

In this excerpt the day of Joe’s arrival is here and Bethan and Alwyn are preparing.

On the day, Alwyn helped her to change his sheets. They pulled them taut, tucked the blankets in then covered all in his freshly laundered quilt.

“You should sleep snug enough,” Bethan smoothed the quilt over the pillows, smiling at the bright little squares and diamonds of cloth cut from once cherished garments. When Alwyn didn’t reply she asked, “Will you walk to meet him?”

“Nye said I could take Polly and the trap.” Alwyn, who had overseen the birth, growth and training of Polly years before either of them had set eyes on Nye, didn’t seem to mind Nye’s unnecessary permissions. It was probably why they got on. “He’ll have bags. It’s not as though he’s coming for just a few days.”

This is a trap. They were the Smart Cars of the horsedrawn age.

Read Full Post »

Happy Saturday, folk. As ever it’s snippet day. click on the picture and it will take you to the Rainbow Snippets facebook group where a variety of authors post links to bits of published works and WIPs with LGBT protagonists.

Mine is a bit unusual in that my POV character is straight – the married sister of a soldier returned from the Great War with considerable emotional and physical scars. Bethan and her husband, who are hard-pressed to run the farm even with Alwyn’s assistance, have agreed that his friend Joe can come to help out.

They had a week to prepare. If the weather had been better Bethan might have suggested that they make a start on clearing out the little house on the other side of the yard. When she had been small the cowman had lived there with his wife and two nearly grown boys. But the boys had gone to Hereford and the railway, and the cowman had passed away quite suddenly so his wife had gone back to her mam’s. Bethan remembered how proud Alwyn had been to take over the milking, but she regretted now that they had allowed the little house to get so damp and drafty. With hard frosts most nights and the wind whistling through the broken shutters it just would not do.
“It’s no matter,” Alwyn assured her they pushed the damp swollen door closed. “We’ll scour it out when the weather improves but until then Joe can share with me. We slept close often enough in the trenches.”

I’m going through this story pretty much as it comes so if you go back to the first Rainbow Snippets post you can follow it from the beginning.

Read Full Post »

Click the image to go to the Facebook Group

Rainbow Snippets is where a group of authors post links to their work featuring LGBT protagonists. Each snippet has around 6 sentences and will be drawn from either a published work or something that’s still under construction.

I had a bit of a consult last week and some of the commenters liked the idea of carrying on with my Great War story, Calon Lan, which is set in Wales and describes a male/male romance from the point of view of the sister of one of the protagonists. Last week Bethan was contemplating the war and the effect it had on her menfolk.

Bethan took Alwyn’s reply to the postbox herself. Bonneted and scarfed against the cold with Georgie swaddled tight against her side in a patterned flannel shawl, she strode out across the mucky cobbles of the yard and into the still frosty lane. Just half an hour to blow the cobwebs away before she made a start on supper. It wasn’t until she had walked the half mile to the post box that she admitted to herself that curiosity was another motive. As she checked to make sure that stamp was fixed firmly she read the short message and smiled at the simple confidence of it.
“Come.
We will be glad of you.
A”
She popped the postcard into the box and turned for home with a spring in her step.

Read Full Post »

Better late than never, I guess?

Here’s my snippet for this week, carrying on directly from the last one I posted here. Bethan is observing Alwyn crossing the yard towards the house.

Her adored big brother, dark and quick, had turned heads, but now he could barely catch anyone’s eye, even those who loved him. She studied him, his mouth drawn awry by the scars that seamed the right side of his face, his once smooth skin like old oak bark, the stub of an ear. He was too far away for her to see the drooping lid that covered the clouded remains of the eye that had once been so bright. She suppressed a shiver and got up to fetch his plate.

Alwyn ate quickly, just nodding as Nye complained about the new man at the chapel and how he was playing ducks and drakes with the Sunday services, and again when Nye commented on the high prices for fodder.

“They say it’s all going to France to feed the draft beasts – better prices from the War Office than from honest farmers – and how are we supposed to work our acreage when they’ve taken the best horses and called up most of the men?”

More next week. xx

Read Full Post »