Christmas is coming and I do love the holidays. (I’m sentimental that way.) But back when this started it was late summer and I was in the mood to write a sweet love story. You see, someone had written a comment on a blog lambasting m/m readers. Apparently we were being superficial wimps for not wanting to read anything that didn’t have fluffy bunnies in it. Well, maybe not in those words. But the gist was that real serious readers would enjoy a dark and gritty story, and the rest of us were airheads if we didn’t like that type of work.
Now, I actually like dark and less-than-pretty stories, some of the time. But the tone of this post made me want to go out and write something with fluffy bunnies in it, just because. Fortunately, I had just received a request from MLR Press to do a short story for their holiday collection. So I wrote what I was in the mood for, a HEA with kittens. And a foal. And some loving, hot and not gritty sex. All good. The title I gave it was Where the Heart Is.
MLR got enough stories to do 42 days of holiday treats. The lineup of authors had me thrilled just to be included in it:
William Neale ………. Victor J. Banis
Derek Adams ………… Z.A. Maxfield
Vivien Dean …………. Mia Watts
D.H. Starr …………….. Christopher Koehler
T.A. Chase …………… Laura Baumbach
J.P. Bowie ……………. AKM Miles
Brynn Paulin …………. Elizabeth Lister
Stevie Woods ………… William Maltese
Taylor Donovan ……… Rick R. Reed
Simone Anderson ……. Matthew Lang
Ethan Day ……………. Ally Blue
Cherie Noel ………….. Barry Brennessel
Riley Shane ………….. Lex Valentine
Theo Fenraven ……….. Diana DeRicci
Jardonn Smith ………… Tere Michaels
Charlie Cochrane ……… Maura Anderson
Clare London …………. Missy Welsh
Neil S. Plakcy …………. S.J. Frost
Karenna Colcroft ……… K-lee Klein
William Cooper ………. James Buchanan
Kaje Harper ……………. Kimberly Gardner
I’m delighted to be part of this group. The stories kick off today with William Neale’s Christmasing with You. Each story will be available individually, one a day through the holiday season, from MLR Press http://www.mlrbooks.com/books.php. The schedule of authors and titles is on the website. My own story releases December 30th. There should be something for everyone to enjoy all season long.
Later in the season for those who are patient (or want all of these treats) there will be two anthologies of these stories coming from MLR. But can you wait that long? Happy reading.