Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).   Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Still posting from that “Steampunk Thing.” The first draft isn’t done yet and I’m hoping that this will keep me motivated to keep at it.

(Apologies for any language usage that’s anachronistic. I’ll deal with that once the first draft is done.)

This picks up from last week.

She chuckled. “You’ll be up close and personal with them soon enough, and may well wish you’d never heard of them by the time we’re through.”

She slid the paper across the desk to me. “Employment contract. Take some time to look over it and if there’s anything you’d like to discuss or change, feel free to ask me about it.”

I glanced at the paper, not quite sure what to do or say. I’d never had a job that was much more than day work, certainly not anything long term enough to require a contract, and all I could do was hope to not make myself look a fool. The pay rate was spelled out at the top of the paper, and I relaxed a bit; at least I knew what that was. But below it was a confidentiality notice and I paused to read it; never having seen one before I had no way of knowing if it was something normal or not, but it seemed pretty straightforward. Basically I was not to talk about any of the things I saw or worked on with the airship. That made sense, I supposed; I’d done enough reading about them to know that inventors could be quite secretive about their creations. At the bottom were two lines. She’d already signed on one of them.

“Might I borrow your pen, Mrs. Madison?”

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).   Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Still posting from that “Steampunk Thing.” The first draft isn’t done yet and I’m hoping that this will keep me motivated to keep at it.

(Apologies for any language usage that’s anachronistic. I’ll deal with that once the first draft is done.)

This picks up from last week.

“Have a seat,” she said, indicating the chair I’d left my gear next to as she took the one behind the desk. “We’ll get the particulars squared away.”

I nodded and sat down, slightly nervous and ill at ease, not sure what she was going on about.

She pulled a paper, fountain pen, and bottle of ink out of a desk drawer.

“I believe the ad said the pay is ten shillings per week. Is that agreeable?”

“Yes, ma’am.” It was more than agreeable to be honest; it was about four shillings more than the average and for a job I’d’ve taken for half that – and still been ahead on how much I was making doing odd jobs here and there as I could find them.

She started to write on the paper, then paused and looked up at me. “Mrs. Cooper says that you have a great interest in flying ships. Do you know much about how they work?”

“I’ve read everything what I could find about them ever since I was a lad,” I said. “I’ve never had the fortune to be up close to one, though,” I added, my gaze drifting toward the room we had just left. So close and yet so far…

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).   Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Still posting from that “Steampunk Thing.” The first draft isn’t done yet and I’m hoping that this will keep me motivated to keep at it.

(Apologies for any language usage that’s anachronistic. I’ll deal with that once the first draft is done.)

This picks up from last week.

“So, do you have any questions about the position?”

I hesitated for a moment, then shook my head. The only questions I had seemed a bit presumptuous, even to me.

She chuckled. “You’re wondering how a woman came to be building a flying ship.”

I shrugged. That wasn’t really my main concern, but if it made her happy to think that it was, well, then, so be it.

She straightened and motioned for me to follow her as she started toward the front office. “That’s a long story and perhaps I’ll tell you one day.”

As I started following her I faltered for a moment as her words sank in: perhaps I’ll tell you one day. “Does that mean I have the job?”

“If you truly want it and aren’t just here because Mrs. Cooper sent you with a letter of reference.”

“I do,” I said quickly – maybe a touch too quickly but I wanted this job with all that I was. I held the door as she stepped through it, hoping she couldn’t hear my heart hammering as I nearly shook with excitement, thinking that this was too good to be true.