Episode 280 – Winter Wonderland Story Giveaway

Jan 4, 2021

Support Big Gay Fiction Podcast on PatreonJeff & Will kick off 2021 with two announcements. The Big Gay Fiction Book Club selection for January is An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles. Also, the next edition of Big Gay Fiction Live is Thursday, January 14 at 7pm ET and features authors from the upcoming shared universe, The Magic Emporium.

Lucy Lennox joins Jeff to talk about the Winder Wonderland Story Giveaway, which runs through January 10. Lucy tells readers what they can expect in the giveaway and also talks about the two stories she has for readers. We also hear from authors Colbie Dunbar, Shannon West, Slade James, Marina Vivancos, Spencer Spears, Giovanna Reaves, Neil S. Plakcy, and Kai Butler as they share details on the stories they’re offering in the giveaway. Jeff also talks about his story, The Hockey Player’s Snow Day.

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Show Notes

Here are the things we talk about in this episode. Please note, these links include affiliate links for which we may make a small commission at no extra cost to you should you make a purchase.

Interview Transcript – Lucy Lennox

This transcript was made possible by our community on Patreon. You can get information on how to join them at patreon.com/biggayfictionpodcast.

Jeff: Lucy, welcome back to the show. It’s so wonderful to have you here as we start off 2021.

Lucy: It’s good to be here. Thank you for having me back.

Jeff: We have something so exciting to talk about because the Winter Wonderland Giveaway is underway. It started back on the 1st. For folks who may not know what this is, tell everybody about this terrific opportunity they’ve got.

Lucy: We are a group of authors in the gay romance space who have gotten together to bring the readers three brand-new, never-seen-before short stories. And some are even full-length novels. They’re at least 3,000 words but some of them go up to 60,000-word novels. And so, it’s an incredible, incredible opportunity to find new authors, new-to-you authors. There are a few debut authors in this promo who have their debut books coming out after this. It’s like Candyland for us. Especially during a month right now where budgets are tight after the holidays, and it’s hard to justify splurging on ourselves with lots of books, this is gonna fill your Kindle and your e-readers up for a while. And I’m so excited to have this group of authors because it is an amazing group.

Jeff: How did you decide to put this together? I mean, this is a huge undertaking wrangling a couple of hundred authors.

Lucy: It is a huge undertaking. A couple of years ago, I did a similar giveaway. It was a back-to-school giveaway with sort of autumnal-themed stories. And it was the first big group giveaway that I was organizing. So, I was a little nervous about biting off more than I could chew. So, I limited it, I think, to 35 authors. And at the time, there were a lot of author friends who were like, “Hey, why didn’t I get a spot in this,” or, “I really wanted a spot in this. Oh, this sounds so fun. I would love to join if you do it again.” And it got to the point where I thought, “You know, what if we tried this with just whoever wants to join can join as long as they meet the criteria for what we want to do for the theme and the stories and whatnot?” And, like, what would that be like, you know? What would that be like for the readers? What would that be like for the authors?

And, you know, Prolific Works, which is where this giveaway is hosted, has done large giveaways like this before. But I was still nervous about their capacity to handle this kind of traffic. So I reached out to them and said, “I don’t know how many people are going to sign up to participate in this. But can you handle it?” And they said, “Yes. Just, you know, let us know closer to the time.” It’s been just, like, really exciting. It’s a little bit intimidating wrangling that many cats. But luckily, my assistant, Leslie Copeland, who owns Gay Romance Reviews has been helping and I couldn’t do this without her. She and I are a good team for that. But, basically, what we did is we formed a Facebook group for all of the participating authors, which has been an unexpected side effect of this that I really enjoyed because all of the authors have been, like, for the last couple of months, you guys are seeing these stories now and you’re able to get these stories now, but you haven’t been able to see them before now. They’re all brand new, all exclusive to this giveaway, nobody has seen them before, but us, the participating authors, we got to see authors’ excited cover reveals. Before we were allowed to reveal it to you guys, we were revealing it to each other. We were asking for help with ideas and length and characters and what do you think about this? We were asking each other for help writing blurbs and how to make this fun for readers. And that part of it, that sort of like unexpected bonding and comradery between the authors has been just an amazing experience, I think. I mean, it’s unexpected.

Jeff: It’s always good to see the community of authors come together, and they really did here. There’s been a palpable excitement, which rolling through the end of 2020 has been great to see, given how 2020 was not the best year in the world for anybody.

Lucy: Yeah and, you know, we’ve had several authors too who said, you know, “This got me going again. You know, I’ve been having trouble getting my writing mojo going and knowing that I just needed to do something fun and different and short. It wasn’t as big,” and, you know, it’s a three stories so it wasn’t something they had to stress quite as much about or fit into their, you know, marketing plan or, you know, that business side of our job. And so, they just got to have fun with it. And there have been a lot of people have said it’s helped them get their writing mojo back.

Jeff: Yeah. I was certainly one of those. It helped a lot. And now, it’s time for it to be super fun for the readers.

Lucy: Yep.

Jeff: We’ve got the link to the Prolifie Works page in our show notes. What can readers expect once they get there?

Lucy: Okay. So, I will warn you that it is very overwhelming because there’s so many stories there but it’s a great thing. And let me tell you how to make the most of it and how to make it not quite so overwhelming. We have put together a checklist for readers that has all of the stories listed on it, both by author name and by subgenre. So, if you just want to go in and make sure you get all of them, that you claim all of them, there’s a little tickbox where you can check, “Okay, I’ve downloaded that one to my Prolific Works account. I’ve downloaded that one. I’ve downloaded that one,” so that you’ll know because one of the things that happens is every time you visit the link, it changes the order that the books are displayed in. So, it’s a little difficult to keep track of what you’ve claimed already, but you’ll have this checklist.

What that’s also gonna allow you to do is pay special attention to those subgenres that you really love. So, if you are a gay romance fantasy reader and there’s a gay romance fantasy subgenre list, you’ll be able to see what stories the authors have put in that subgenre. Maybe you like to read MPreg. If you like to read, you know, like whatever your subgenre is that’s listed there in that checklist it will help sort of make this a little bit easier to manage. You can look out for just those titles to start with. And, hopefully, that will make it a little bit easier to navigate with the checklist. And, hopefully, the checklist is there as one of the books to download as a PDF file, but we will also have it available through… In fact, maybe can put that in the show notes as well.

Jeff: Absolutely.

Lucy: The link to the checklist so you can just get it there. But that’s what we’re doing to try to make it more manageable. The great thing about Prolific Works is that if you download the app onto your phone, you can claim all these stories and that doesn’t mean you have to read them anytime soon. You don’t have to feel like you have to read 200 stories this month. So, claim them all. And then, for the rest of ever, when you’re standing in line at the grocery store or waiting in the carpool lines for a kid or anywhere, you’re at a doctor’s office in the waiting room, you can just pull up the app on your phone and you have a short story to read. That’s what I love about the Prolific Works app is that there’s always a short story to read. And so, you know, you can imagine like an entire year’s worth of new authors and new stories to get to as you start chipping away at some of these great stories.

Jeff: I think it’s really awesome that there are so many authors, so many new genres, new authors. It’s such a tremendous opportunity for people to be able to sample either new authors or even sample other genres, they’ve never quite been quite sure about and to maybe find something new to go off and explore a backlist or, you know, add things to their TBR that they would, you know pick up afterwards.

Lucy: Definitely, it’s kinda like going to Costco and getting little samples from all the little departments, you know. It’s just like a taste test, especially because some of them are short and quick and fun. And, you know, if you’ve finished reading a long, heavy book and it’s been super angsty and it leaves you with sorta like heart-broken, then you just want a short break, you know, like a little sorbet before you tackle your next full-length novel, that’s another great opportunity, or, like, for me, if I’m reading at night before bed and I’ve finished my book at 10:00, and I know I can stay up until midnight but if I start in on a full-length novel, I’m probably gonna stay up until 2:00. So, there again, a short story’s perfect for that.

Jeff: So many great opportunities with the giveaway. And we would be remiss to not have you tell everybody what your entry into this giveaway is to tell them what they can grab from Lucy Lennox.

Lucy: Okay. I am very excited about my story. It’s called “Winter Waites.” And that’s, actually, the name of one of the main characters, Winter Waites. And one of the reasons I’m so excited about this is this is a prequel short for a brand-new series that I have coming out. The first full-length novel comes out February 2nd. So, this is my introduction. The series takes place in a little ski town in Colorado. And this story, because I didn’t mention before, but this giveaway is called Winter Wonderland, this Prolific Works giveaway and so all these stories are winter-themed. Whatever that means to every author is different. And it could be, you know, sunny, you know, warm winter in a tropical location. It doesn’t necessarily have to be cold and freezing. But for me, it is a snowy cabin type story. It’s a rock star who’s hurt his hand and he has an occupational therapist come to give him therapy. So, Winter Waites is the therapist. And so, it has a snowy cabin feel but his name is also Winter. So, I kinda thought that was fun. They both reappear in the first full novel in my new series. So, I’m really excited.

Jeff: Oh, that’s terrific, being able to get a little sneak peek into your new series right as the year starts and a month or so before the new book comes out.

Lucy: Yep. And it will have a pre-order link in the back so you can go ahead and pre-order. And also, I have a second entry in the giveaway as well. I have another prequel but it’s for a series that’s already out. May Archer and I write the “Licking Thicket” series, which is just a crazy, fun romp. It’s set in a small fictional town in Tennesee called Licking Thicket. And we have written two full-length novels in that series already that have been released, “Fakers” and “Liars,” and we have a third full-length novel called “Fools” coming out February 28th. We wanted to write a short story in this world because we love it so much. We love the characters in the town. So we went back and wrote a prequel short. And you can totally read both of these stories I’m talking about you can read as total standalones. You don’t have to ever read anything else. But this story is called “Flakes” and it’s a sort of opposites attract. And, again, it’s sort of back in a snowy cabin. I think that’s gonna be a very popular theme you’ll see when you visit…

Jeff: Of course, proximity is so perfect for you.

Lucy: The idea is lovely, lovely. Yeah, I could read 200 of those stories. So, yeah, check that one out, as well.

Jeff: Fantastic. Well, great things for people to look forward to there. And on behalf of all the readers, I’ll just speak for everybody. Thank you for organizing this.

Lucy: You’re welcome.

Jeff: To give everybody so many wonderful things to kick off the year with.

Lucy: It has been a labor of love but, you know, seeing it come to fruition is really exciting. It’s worth it.

Jeff: Yeah, absolutely. As we’ve said, we’ll have the link to the giveaway and the checklist in the show notes for everybody to go pick it up. You have until January 10th to grab these books and then they’re gone.

Lucy: They’re gone from the group giveaway. And then, what happens to them after that is up to each individual author. So, the only guarantee to get these stories right now is in this giveaway that, like you said, it’s only available until January 10th. And then, some of them are gonna be for sale later maybe. So, if you wanna get it free, grab it now also.

Colbie Dunbar

Hello, everyone. I’m Colbie Dunbar. I write M/M MPreg romance. And in the past, I’ve written historical books. I’ve written about vampires. I’ve taken part in the “Vale Valley” series with multiple MPreg authors, as well as season two of “Bake Sale Bachelors.” I’ve written one book set in a real-world location, which was Hong Kong. And the reason I did that was it’s a place I know well. Approximately two years ago, I started co-writing with other MPreg authors. And those include the fabulous Lorelei M. Hart, Harper B. Cole, Trisha Linde, and from the new year, the also fabulous Leyla Hunt. We’ve written both shifter and non-shifter MPreg books. And beginning at the end of January, Lorelei M. Hart, Trisha Linde, and myself have a new Dragon Shifter series beginning. Not only are they dragons but they’re princes.

My story for the Winter Wonderland Giveaway is titled “The Omega Prince’s Awakening” and it is loosely based on “Sleeping Beauty.” It starts out with one of the main characters, Mason, arriving at a castle, which has been refurbished as a luxurious hotel. He’s there for a post-Christmas break and his friends will be joining him in a day or so. On the first night, he has dinner in what used to be the great hall. And afterwards, he sits at the bar, and he’s chatting to the barman. And that guy tells Mason that the original owners of the castle disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Ooh. Mason is both intrigued and a little bit freaked out.

But anyway, he goes back to his room, and being a sort of architecture buff, he admires the wooden paneling on the wall. He gets up, and he runs his hands over it. And lo and behold, it clicks and opens and there’s a passageway. Now, what do you think he does? Does he, A, close it up, jump into bed, pull the bedcovers over his head, and go, “Oh, no. That’s not for me,” or, B, does he traipse down that tunnel and find something at the other end? If you said B, you were right. Ding, ding, ding. What he doesn’t realize at the time is that he’s leaving the present where his room is and venturing into the past. At the end of the tunnel, he finds a room. And inside is a huge bed. And fast asleep in the bed is a prince. If you want to find out what happens, you’ll have to read the book.

Now, this story is what you would call a companion book. Trisha Linde and I have a series out called “Once Upon an M/M Romance.” And these are modern MPreg. My story in the Winter Wonderland Giveaway is a companion story to that series. The books that Trisha and I have out, “Bad Apple,” which is adapted from “Snow White,” and we’re writing a second one called, “Sweet & Sour,” which is loosely based on “Beauty and the Beast.” And I should point out that Trisha also has a story in the Winter Wonderland Giveaway, which is called “Chasing Ever After.” So, please check that out too. Once the giveaway’s finished, I plan on extending my story. At present, it’s about 14,000 words. And I hope to get it up to about 25,000. I don’t have a timeline for when that’s going to happen. All I can say is sooner rather than later. Once it’s done, I’ll put it into Kindle Unlimited, and it will be at Amazon.

I started writing romance because whether it’s set in the past, the present, on an alien planet, or a world where shifters exist, love is universal. Romance is an escape, both for an author and a reader. I fall in love with the characters as I write them. And I really hope my readers can do the same. And why do I write MPreg romance in particular? The idea of fated mates drew me to it initially. But, ultimately, it’s about love for one another, for the ability to create a family. And as we know, there are many ways to make a family. They come in all different shapes and sizes. And hey, what’s not to love about that?

Now, when I write individually as opposed to with other authors, I rarely, if ever, have an outline. Usually, I have the first sentence of the book in my head. That’s it. Sometimes I’ll have that first sentence in my head for a month or so. I’ll, often, get halfway through the book and think, “Oh, this would have been so much easy with an outline. I must write an outline next time.” But when I start a new book, I do the same thing, one sentence, and go from there. For example, in the book I had out in December, “Beary Merry Christmas,” I knew the first line would be, “The detective, jumping out behind bushes, with his assistant yelling, ‘Who goes there?'” That’s all I knew before the story took off. Of course, when I write with other authors, we have to have an outline. I like, if possible, to inject humor into my stories but it has to come naturally. I can’t say to myself, “Oh, in this paragraph, I must have something funny.” No, I can’t do it. It has to happen as I’m writing.

And one of the easiest ways for me to add that humor is to use pets. And three of the most memorable pets that I’ve included in my books have been Trixie, the naughty pink piglet, Nanny, the goat that liked to eat anything and everything, and Floyd, the talking parrot who loved soap operas and managed to get himself on one in the book, not in real life.

As far as getting in touch with me, I’m on social media as Colbie Dunbar. I have a website, colbiedunbar.com. Some of you may have visited that during December from the 1st to the 24th when I had an MPreg advent calendar. I’m at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even Pinterest. My Facebook group is The Woods Are Never Solitary. That might sound like a weird name for a Facebook group but it comes from a quote by L.M. Montgomery who wrote “Anne of Green Gables.” And that book is very close to my heart. I hope that you will not only enjoy “The Omega Princess Awakening” but you’ll take advantage of all the amazing stories from the wonderful writers in the giveaway. And I hope to hear from some of you in the new year.

Shannon West

Hi. I’m Shannon West, and I write M/M romance, mostly paranormal or sci-fi with a little fantasy thrown in. I have been known to dabble a little in BDSM too. I love reading all of it though, and I love trying to write new genres. I have a friend who once said with her books, every time she writes one, the characters seem to grow a tail. I seem to have the same problem. My latest series includes one about witches and demons called “Raising Hell.” Another series is about vampires and witches and all manner of paranormal creatures and called “Witches of the Big Easy.” Currently, my best-selling series is called “Mate of the Tyger Prince,” which is sci-fi. There are already nine books in that one. And I’m working on the 10th now. It’s called “Half Blood.”

Now, of course, my sci-fi is not what anyone would call serious science fiction. It’s more along the lines of “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” kind of science fiction or written just for fun. But I do love to write it because it lends itself to so many plot lines, and it’s just a blast to write. For Winter Wonderland, I wrote a BDSM story but it’s Christmas, so it was very light on the S&M. It’s called ” A Dom for Christmas.” In my story, Jordy has been having a really bad year. He is laid off from his teaching job and then injured in a car accident. To add insult to injury, literally, his insurance had just run out. He suffers a concussion that has kept him out of work or even trying to look for work for a long time. And he finally reaches the end of his rope when the power company turns off the lights and the heat on Christmas, even in the middle of a winter storm. With no choice but to rely on the kindness of his friends, he goes to his best friend Torrie’s house, to throw himself on her mercy and sleep on her couch. But he finds her all dressed up to go out in her best leather outfit.

She’s about to attend a big BDSM Christmas party, and she invites Jordy along. He’s not in much of a partying mood but as luck would have it, he almost immediately runs into the last person in the world that he wants to see, his ex-boyfriend and his lover, Finn. Jordy had dabbled in BDSM a little when he was with Finn, who was also his dom, but they had a really bad breakup. And though Jordy still carries a torch for Finn, he hasn’t seen him in almost two years. Jordy decides he just wants to go home. But then, Torrie talks him into watching a scene at the party and the next thing he knows, he’s volunteering to be flogged by not one but two doms, and one of them is Finn. Jordy just wants to impress him but he’s caught up in the moment and forgets that he doesn’t really like pain at all. He remembers that though right after he’s been cuffed to the St. Andrew’s cross.

Here’s the beginning paragraphs of that story. “I knew my evening was gonna be bad when my Netflix shut off in the middle of my movie and the lights flickered and went out. Shit. Would the power company really have turned off my electricity the night before Christmas? The answer, apparently, was yes, they most certainly would. A merry fucking Christmas to me. I ferreted around for some candles, finally locating one stubby one and a pack of matches, but the candle gave off almost no light. So I used my phone to find my way to bed and get under the covers, pull the quilt up over my head, and contemplated how likely it was I could just stay there for a while, like the rest of my life, which promised to be short if I didn’t get some heat on pretty soon. It had begun to spit snow and ice pellets earlier that afternoon, a rare occurrence for this part of the South, the one that turned the roads into Demolition Derbies. The weatherman said we’d have temperatures in the low teens by morning. It seemed to me I had two choices, stay here, freeze to death in my own house, or brave the roads to go to my friend Torrie’s house and beg her to give me shelter until morning. I sighed, decided I had little choice but to throw myself on my friend’s mercy.”

I hope you will want to read more of “A Dom for Christmas.” It’s a story about second chances with a very happy ending. It was a really fun story to write. I wrote on a similar theme a few years ago called “The Christmas Slave,” which is still available on Amazon. That story was picked up by Japanese yaoi magazine and published a few years ago. And that was kinda exciting. So, when I thought about doing this story, I wanted to do the same kinda theme, although, of course, a totally different story with all new characters. It’s kind of a rags-to-riches theme and I think it makes a great Christmas story, with love, redemption, a little kink, and some Christmas morning surprises. I can’t wait for everyone to read it and see what you think. And I can’t wait for you to read all the other great stories on “Winter Wonderland.” And I hope everyone will check it out. After the giveaway, my story will be available for free to all my newsletter subscribers, and it will also be available on Amazon.

If you’re looking for me, I have a Facebook page called Wicked West, and I’d love to see you there. My website is shannonwestbooks.com. You can find the sign-up for my newsletter there too. And my Twitter is @shannonwest8. So, please find me and say hello. I hope you enjoy my short story on Winter Wonderland.

Slade James

I’m Slade James, and I am a new author in this genre. I write contemporary M/M romance about sexy Southern men who work in a gay clothing-optional campground in the mountains of North Georgia. I’ve been going to men’s campgrounds for the past 25 years but due to the pandemic, this was the first year I couldn’t go. So, in 2020, I decided to attend as a mental traveler and bring you all with me. My Winter Wonderland story is called “The Uncut Wood.” My partner, Stevie, actually came up with the title and challenged me to write a story to go along with it. “The Uncut Wood” is a 12,000-word short story featuring friends to lovers, a cabin in the snowy woods, and a kilt-wearing lumberjack. If you’re wondering what lumberjacks could possibly get into at a naked campground during the off-season in winter, well, they play with wood. In January, the guys who do lumberjack duty at the campground hold an annual competition event called the Jackolympics. Now, since they met, blonde, preppie, country boy Hank has been in love with his mohawked, guy-linered, kilt-wearing coworker, Gunner.

Gunner is extremely hot and different. He’s a tall, red-haired, Viking Highlander fantasy-come-to-life with a bit of an eccentric fashion sense. Hank’s been deep in the friend-zone for two-and-a-half years, but he’s determined not to go another season without telling Gunner how he feels about him. So, Hank finally gets up the nerve to make a little private wager. If he wins the log-splitting competition, Gunner has to go out on a date with him. And with snow coming down in the mountains and roads slick with black ice, there’s nowhere to go to be alone other than a remote cabin in the woods, a very cozy little cabin with one bed, of course. “The Uncut Wood” is a prequel to my new “Bear Camp” series. Book one is titled “Grumpy Bear.” It’s a full-length, grumpy/sunshine, boss/employee novel that comes out later this month. So, this story is a little introductory taste to my gay campground full of bears, non-shifters for the record, the other kind of bears. After the Winter Wonderland story giveaway, you can find “The Uncut Wood” on Amazon, or you can get a copy as a gift when you sign up for my mailing list. You can find the details at sladejames.com and you can also find me on Facebook. Thank you to Lucy Lennox and Leslie Copeland for organizing and to all the fantastic authors who contributed to this massive giveaway. It’s really cool to be part of it. Happy new year. Happy reading.

Marina Vivancos

Hello. My name is Marina Vivancos. To talk a little bit about what I normally write, I love writing anti-stories that center around the main character instead of outside thought and really delve into kind of the personal issues that they have and how they work through it and how, you know, relationships and love and community can be part of the healing process. Everybody needs a support system around them. But it’s not all of the healing process, you know, the characters have to do the work themselves to go through their obstacles. As far as the Winter Wonderland story, mine is called “A Wild Thing Grows.” And it takes place in some vague, old-timey scene. And we follow Jarek who is an outcast from his village, very lonely. And he’s come to believe that he doesn’t deserve any more than he has, which is not much in terms of, you know, affection or relationships.

And, of course, everything changes when this strange man called Aviv crashes into his life completely naked. And we come to know a little more about Aviv, who is a very, you know, strange man. He claims to have known Jarek his whole life, even though, according to Jarek, they just met. But Aviv claims to know how Jared treats the forest, how beautiful and kind he is, how he runs on a philosophy of if you take something from nature, he gives something back. And I think that has allowed Jared to, you know, encounter a sort of magic in his life. The story takes place that winter as Jarek and Aviv get to know each other, and things heat up. And, you know, the mystery that I’ll leave you with is does the magic that has brought Aviv to Jarek dissipate once spring comes, or will they find their happily-ever-after? I mean, who knows? Truly, truly a mystery.

The story will be available as part of the Winter Wonderland project. Unfortunately, once that is over, I will pull it from the web because I just wanna revive it every winter or, you know, next winter at least. However, you can find me on Vivancos Voyeurs. That’s the Facebook group, and all my contact details are at the end of the book and I have another freebie. So, don’t fear. You know, if you want a little bit more from me, you can, you know, have another free story or one of my other books. Thank you so much for letting me be part of this project.

Spencer Spears

Hello, everyone. My name is Spencer Spears. And I write contemporary M/M romance. My Winter Wonderland story is called “A Very Naughty New Year.” And it’s about two college students who are dating in secret and who decide to use a certain vibrating toy at a family New Year’s Eve party. And one of them loses the remote. “A Very Naughty New Year” connects to my Christmas novel, “XOXO, Santa.” And it picks up about two weeks after that book ends. It can be read on its own, but it’s even more fun if you’ve read the other book too. In “XOXO, Santa,” we have a friends-to-lovers first-time gay-awakening storyline with some online dating, mistaken-identity shenanigans thrown in, as well.

In “XOXO, Santa,” Blake Salazar is looking to hook up with a guy for the first time. He is not out, and he doesn’t want to come out. He’s trying to keep everything quiet until he knows for sure that he really does like guys. So he downloads an app, meets a guy who seems great. But before he can meet this guy who he’s been talking to online, he has to get through a week’s vacation with his family and some family friends who just happen to include Henry Waterstone, his childhood best friend who is gay and out and proud and who also seems to be spending a lot of time on his phone talking to somebody on the internet. And if you’ve ever read a romance novel before, you can probably guess the direction this story goes in after that. Anyway, “A Very Naughty New Year” picks up a couple of weeks after that story ends. And in “A Very Naughty New Year,” Blake and Henry have gotten together, but they are still in that exciting, scary phase of a new relationship where you’re hoping the other person likes you as much as you like them, and they haven’t told their parents yet. So, this story has some very well-meaning, meddling parents and a ton of snark, a lot of steamy scenes, and some extremely awkward moments when that remote turns up again in the middle of the party. It also includes a cameo from a beloved side character from my “Murphy Brothers” series, as well.

After the giveaway, “A Very Naughty New Year” will be available via my newsletter, which you can sign up for by going to my website, spencerspears.com. You can also find me on Facebook at Spencer Spear’s Romance or in my Facebook-Google group, Spencer’s Space, or on Instagram @spencerspearswrites. Thank you for listening. Happy reading.

Giovanna Reaves

Hi. My name’s Giovanna Reaves. I go by Gia. I started writing MPreg romance about four years ago and really loved it. I really enjoy what I do. Thank you to all the readers who have supported me so far. My Winter Wonderland story is about Tristen, a single father. He decides to spend the holidays in Jamaica. It’s his first vacation without his 18-year-old daughter. And while he’s on vacation, he meets Ethan Blackwell, who is getting pressure from his father to find a date or risk losing his position as CEO of the Blackwell conglomerate. When Tristen and Ethan meet, it’s sparks, you know. They start flirting with each other. Sparks fly. And one thing leads to another, and they are, like, inseparable since then. The short story is not a part of a series. I would like to turn it into a series if I have the opportunity next year. My schedule is already packed with a lot of things that I need to accomplish and complete. And I’d like to add this one to the list. But as of now, it’s a stand-alone and it can be read as-is.

I will be keeping it up after the Winter Wonderland Giveaway is over. I will be keeping it up on Prolific Works for a little bit longer, maybe until the end of the month to give everyone time enough to download it, and read it, and so forth like that. If you want to get to know me or get to know what I write or what I have coming up next, I’m on every social media, even TikTok, but I haven’t posted anything, like, forever. I’m mostly on Facebook. You can find me in my reader’s group. It’s Giovanna’s Secret One-Nighters. And that’s where you can find most of what I am working on. And that’s about it. Before I go, I would like to say thank you to Lucy Lennox and Leslie Copeland for putting this giveaway together. It really was a pleasure to write this story and share it with everyone. I want to thank all the readers who’ve heard of me and have supported me in my first book. I hope that my writing gives you joy and help you through a tough day. Thank you very much for everything.

Neil S. Plakcy

Hi. My name is Neil Plakcy, and I write in a variety of different genres. I write the “Mahu Investigation” series about an openly-gay Honolulu homicide detective, the “Have Body, Will Guard” series of adventure romances about a pair of bodyguards who travel the world and save LGBT people from trouble. I also write about a young, gay FBI agent in Miami and a series of romances about young gay men on South Beach looking for love and career success. My story for Winter Wonderland is called “Winter Term,” and it’s a contemporary, small-town, second-chance-at-romance story. It’s set in Middlebury, Vermont, which is a college town that I particularly love. My protagonist, Will, is a professor there of Victorian literature. During the J term or winter intercession term in January, he’s teaching a course on contemporary romance. And he falls in love with a ski instructor named Jeremy who is a Scottsman who’s fleeing from the end of a romance.

So, both of them have their baggage. The story is a fun one with occasional references to Jane Austin and a dollop of “The Great British Bake Off.” It will be available through Amazon after the promo is finished. You can find me on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Pinterest all under my name, Neil Plakcy. It rhymes with taxi. And you can also find me at my website, www.mahubooks.com. Thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself to you and I am looking forward to reading a lot of great stories in this promo.

Kai Butler

Hi. My name is Kai Butler. I write urban fantasy with LGBTQ characters and gay regency romance novels set in space. For Winter Wonderland, I wrote a short urban fantasy story called “A Haunting at Mid-Winter.” It’s about a private investigator named Parker Ferro who works on paranormal cases. He took on a haunted house and is all set to exorcise a ghost with his powers when a police officer named Nicholas King comes knocking at the door looking for a prowler. The cop gets stuck in the haunted house with Parker, which wouldn’t be a big issue, except that King doesn’t believe in ghosts. So, Parker ends up having to protect King and get rid of a nasty poltergeist. As we get further into the story, we also learn that King has magic of his own that he can use to help Parker. So, they need to team up to defeat their common enemy.

“A Haunting at Mid-Winter” is actually a lead-in to a new series that I have coming out in January called “Santa Maro Investigation.” It’s an urban fantasy series about Parker Farrow and the cases he takes on. And yes, his hot cop returns in the series as his love interest. I’ll be keeping “A Haunting at Mid-Winter” as a newsletter-only download after Winter Wonderland. So, it will always be available with my other newsletter shorts. If you’re interested in finding out more about Parker, “Santa Maro Investigations,” or my “Regency in Space” series, you can find me at my website, kaibutler.com, and on Facebook at my reader group, the Kai Butler Brigade. I’m sure you’ll have lots of new authors to try in Winter Wonderland, and I hope you decide to give “A Haunting at Mid-Winter” a chance. Happy reading.

 

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