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 with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

I don’t post as many snippets as I used to but these bits from my recent story “Here Comes the Sun” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/03/06/here-comes-the-sun-and-my-march-2025-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-jeff-baker-march-6th-2025/ fit the bill. Our snippets take my happily married Earthman Kenny and incognito extraterrestrial sorcerer Hank on a task to the Australian Outback,

Kenny Briscoe had been a few odd places since he’d fallen in love with an alien sorcerer. But the Australian Outback in the pre-dawn hours beat zipping to the convenience store at two A. M. for a sweet roll. He stared up at the brightening sky and the stars.

“Hey, look!” Kenny said. “I think that’s Alpha Centauri!”

“Been there, not impressed,” Hank said.

Okay, a bit more…

Hank Jones, Kenny’s husband was fiddling with a gadget that looked like a TV remote and pacing back and forth. And swearing in at least a couple of alien languages. The gadget would occasionally make a peeping noise and flash a light or two.

“C’mon! Deccha take you, you miserable…C’mon!” Hank muttered.

Kenny smiled. It reminded him for all the world of Dean Stockwell in a scene from the old “Quantum Leap” show. But his tanned, tall, slightly overweight husband looked a lot better to him than any actor.

Here’s a little bit more as Kenny asks Hank (who has been around for centuries) if he thinks we will get through the current troubles.

“If people sit around and do nothing, no. If they lose interest after a couple of weeks or get discouraged because of time or roadblocks in the way nothing will change. But one person can make a difference by speaking out or even posting online, writing a letter to the editor…one person’s effort could be seen by one other person who it changes. Then they go and affect someone else.” Hank looked over at Kenny.

“One person matters.” Hank said.

They kissed for a few moments standing there in the desert.

Sorry if I got a bit preachy, but my literary heroes Charles Dickens and Rod Serling used their work to explore society’s ills and current events so I must too.

Here’s a link to another of Kenny and Hank’s adventures. https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/08/17/nothing-up-my-sleeve-a-coin-trick-for-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-august-17-2023/

See you later! —-jeff