Rainbow Snippets*--Still Pause

Over the last two weeks, I've been working on a rewrite, filling the plot-holes that my beta readers pointed out. We all hate criticism, but the nice thing was, they all seemed to hit on the same snags. And yes, I consider that a win, because it means the rest of the story worked. First and foremost, it was suggested that I'd started in the wrong place, and after some debate, I decided to write a prologue instead of a full chapter. Hopefully, it reads better now.

Why does January always feel like I'm living life on still-pause? I think Peppercorn feels it, too.

The prologue from Smoke and Sparks, book two of the Campfire Stories series. This snippet is told from Daryl's POV (part one of ?):

July 2016

“Don’t worry, Daryl, it’ll be fine,” my cousin Mike said to me. “Ben won’t care.”
            What was fine, according to Mike, was crashing Ben’s weekend camping-rendezvous with a woman he’d been dating for a few weeks.
            “We’ll do some fishing, drink a few beers, and meet Cherry Honey,” Mike glibly continued.
             What did I know? I was barely 21-years-old. If my older cousin and his friends invited me to tag along, I tagged along. I wasn’t about to question it.  

*Rainbow Snippets is a (Facebook) group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers who gather once a week to share snippets from a work of fiction–-a WIP or a finished work or even a book recommendation. If you're interested in following a diverse group of authors, check it out here.