Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

Here’s some more snippets from a Christmas story I wrote. This one from 2016 when I had just started posting a weekly flash fiction story on the blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/2016/12/11/christmas-story-christmas-at-demeters-bar/ and about a year after I started writing (and selling!!!) sci-fi tall tales set in a Gay bar inspired by Clarke’s “White Hart” and de Camp and Pratt’s “Gavagan’s Bar.” For the record, I wrote this one so I’d have some of the characters I wanted to use in print but I haven’t gone back to a lot of them. I actually re-posted this whole story on my blog about a week ago, so this may be overkill.

Demeter’s Bar closed up early the Wednesday before Christmas for their annual Christmas party. The lights were hanging over the side of the bar and around the big, round mirror behind it that Mrs. DeLeon said had come with the place, somehow making it look bigger.

Zack, the young-looking bartender with the shoulder-length red hair, grinned as he hoisted a crate onto the bar.

“Found these in the back, Mrs. Deleon. Under the box of napkins.”

“Good,” she said.

Here’s a little more:

The little Christmas tree had been set up at the corner of the small dance floor right next to the DJ’s booth.

“Hey, here’s mine,” Samuel said, handing her a small ornament. “You did this last year, didn’t you?”

“I do it every year, inviting all my friends and having them bring a decoration,” she said. “This is my family, so I have them come and decorate the party tree.”

The tree was festooned with a couple of plastic oranges, a little nutcracker, a model of the Golden Gate Bridge, a tiny spaceship whose lights twinkled and a stuffed bear in a Santa Claus suit.

Okay, one more snippet:

There was a sudden whistling whine which rose over the music. The twinkling lights of the little gray spaceship shone brightly as it rose from the tree, circled it once and then darted across the room. Zack ducked as it flew over him and crashed through the small upper window to the side of the bar.

“That fits in with some of the stories I’ve heard around here,” Scotty said.

“Yeah,” Zack said. “I’ll get that window.”

Merry Christmas!