Boughs of Evergreen is a two-volume collection of short stories celebrating the holiday season in all its diversity. Penned by authors from the UK, the USA, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, these are tales of the young and the not-so-young from many different walks of life.
Themes of family, friendship and romance take readers on a journey through some of the major holidays, both past and present, including Thanksgiving, Advent, St. Lucia Day, Hanukkah, Eid, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice, Yule, Christmas and New Year. In each we find at the very least hope, and often love, peace and happiness.
***Each story will also be published individually as ebooks on 1st December, 2014.***
Proceeds from sales of this anthology will be donated to The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization [USA] providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people ages 13-24.
For more information, visit: www.thetrevorproject.org.
THE STORIES:
“A Friend for Christmas” - J P Walker
“A Midnight Clear” - Debbie McGowan
“From All of Us to All of You” - Ofelia Gränd
“Homme for the Holidays” - Jonathan Penn
“Kiss Me At Kwanzaa” - L.L. Bucknor
“Lion’s Hero” - Alexis Woods
“One Nightstand” - Rick Bettencourt
“Shiny Things” - Amy Spector
“The Bard and his Boyfriend” - Kathleen Hayes
“The Christmas Present” - Larry Benjamin
“The Invasion of Tork” - Claire Davis and Al Stewart
“X-Mas Cake: A Modern Fairytale” - Raine O’Tierney
“A Christmas Tale” - Hans M Hirschi
“A Family Christmas” - Terry Kerr
“A Good Word” - L.M. Steel
“A Little Christmas Magic” - K.C. Faelan
“Always Have, Always Will” - Amelia Mann
“An Angel in Eyeliner” - Hunter Frost
“Boyfriend Goes Home” - Laura Susan Johnson
“Christmas Commitment” - Shayla Mist
“Coming in from the Cold” - Ava Penn
“Holidays with Drum and Bell!” - Matthias Williamson
“Te Amo, You Mushrooms” - S.H. Allan
Author Bios:
Debbie McGowan
Author, publisher, social scientist. My academic specialism is gender and sexual politics and identity, so you can expect this to crop up now and then in my writing too! Not in an "in your face" kind of way - subtlety wins hearts and minds.
I live in Lancashire, UK, with family and rescued dogs. It's green and pleasant, and we get long, long, lovely perfumed days in late spring / early summer. My favourite place in the world is Watergate Bay, Cornwall, but I haven't travelled much. The most amazing thing I've ever experienced is the call to prayer at 11 p.m. on a terrace in Istanbul. Goosebumps+ and I'm an atheist!
I write character-based/driven fiction - mostly general/contemporary, some (M/M & F/M) romance and a bit of sci-fi fantasy (light). Basically, I write about life. I've written a few stand alone novels and short stories, but my main work is the Hiding Behind The Couch series, which these days I'm referring to as a literary soap opera. Each novel/novella concludes, but there are always a few loose ends to be picked up and threaded on to the next instalment. There are longer threads and shorter threads.
Ofelia Grand
Ofelia Gränd lives on the southern west coast of Sweden with her husband and their three children. At the moment she's on parental leave. She could give up her glamorous life as a stay-at-home mom, and go back to her job as a teacher if she wanted to. But why not take advantage of the situation when she's living in a parental leave utopia? Enough about her being a parent, you think, and you're quite right. Ofelia is a No Poo practiser, a pescatarian who bakes her own bread and makes her own soap. Now you wished that we'd stuck to the children, don't you?
Jonathan Penn
Jonathan grew up in The South. While new to the world of writing, he has been inventing tales for at least fifty years. He was probably also making stuff up during the two years prior to that but, as this was his pre-verbal period, there’s no evidence one way or the other. An armchair linguist, he has taught himself to ask, “Where is the bathroom?” in seven languages.
He enjoys gardening, He gardens, and enjoys red wines, cooking, theatre, and, of course, writing. Jonathan reminds himself every day how fortunate he is to have shared the best and worst of the last thirty-three years with the man of his dreams.
LL Bucknor
Born and raised on planet Earth, LL Bucknor is a reader first, writer second. She's a work in progress.
Not a huge fan of talking about herself, let's leave it at she likes short walks to the nearest comfortable surface, watching television, drinking coffee and figuring out how to work chocolate into some part of her day.
And she likes reading and writing about men loving men.
Alexis Woods
Alexis Woods is the pen name of Alexis of Woods End, mundanely known as Alicia Mattson. You can find my reviews and book lists here.
I'm an: Author/Anachronist, Beta, Coffee Lover, Daughter/Dancer, Friend/Fighter, Jewish, Khazar, Lover/Leader, Mother/Medieval, Novice, Opinionated, Pharmacist, Romantic/Reenactor, Sister/Scout, Traveler, Visionary, Wife
Always an avid reader and colorful dreamer, it was only a matter of time before taking pen to paper, oftentimes literally. A firm believer in every song tells a story and every story has a song, I sing under my breath, tap my toes and swing my hips, much to the delight of my co-workers and friends. I freely admit that becoming a romance author is the best mid-life crisis a girl could ever have.
Rick Bettencourt
I'm an openly gay author owned by his dog, named Bandit. (Hold on Bandit...I'll be right there. I'm busy!)
My husband and I recently moved from the Witch City of Salem, Massachusetts to sunny Florida where I'm now able to focus on my writing. (When Bandit isn't making me take him for walks or requesting a biscuit for the treat jar.)
In 2013, I released a book of short stories called NOT SURE BOYS which received great reviews of which I am forever grateful. I followed up in the fall with a novella—a brooding, dark thriller—called PAINTING WITH WINE. The “sexy time” in the wine cellar has been quite the topic for discussion around the dinner table.
(Yes, Bandit...one more minute!)
Oh, before I forget. I’d love for you to sign up for my mailing list.
Why?
So I can send you personal tidbits and other content not shared elsewhere—not even on my blog. But you have to sign up on my blog to get it. You can do that by clicking here. Oh, and I promise no spam!
(Alright, Bandit. Enough already!)
Well, that’s it for now. Keep reading and sharing with me the books you love.
Amy Spector
Amy Spector grew up in the Midwest of the United States. She spent far too much of her time in clubs—gay and straight alike—and far too little time at her studies. That is, until she met a boy with cute hair and great taste in footwear. Now they live together with a number of small, rather noisy children and a dachshund named after her favorite horror actor of all time. She runs a number of sadly neglected blogs, and even though she has a lovely job that requires her to pick up a camera every now and again, she would still rather be writing.
Kathleen Hayes
Kathleen Hayes is a bit of an all around geek. She has mastered the art of procrastination, is owned by two crazy cats and is excited to have just added a fellow super geek to her clan. Kathleen loves to explore worlds – whether in her head or on page. She welcomes you into her worlds and hopes you have as much fun there as she does!
Larry Benjamin
Words, You See, are the Thing
Bronx-born wordsmith Larry Benjamin is the author of Unbroken, a gay coming-of-age/romance, novel, which won a 2014 IPPY Gold Medal, is also a 2014 Lambda Literary finalist in the Gay Romance category. His second book, Damaged Angels, a collection of short stories was a 2013 Rainbow Award Runner-Up in the Best Gay Contemporary General Fiction category. His debut novel, What Binds Us, a gay romance, was published by Carina Press in March 2012.
Larry considers himself less a writer than a wordsmith—an artist whose chosen medium is the written word rather than clay or paint or bronze.
He is a writer of stories whose characters are determined to find their place in the world; if they cannot find a place, they make a place. Even when their lives aren’t perfect, it's never because they’re gay but because they're human. And like all humans they often suffer the consequences of ego and bad judgment.
He lives in Philadelphia with his partner of 17 years and their Silky Terrier.
Claire Davis
Claire Davis and Al Stewart are best friends and writing partners.
They like to challenge themselves by exploring the darker side of humans, and by finding compassion and beauty even in the most desolate of places.
Al sometimes describes himself as a mixture of Darth Vadar and the tooth fairy, while Claire is less grounded.
Al has led an unconventional life, and experienced all of the events he writes about.
Above all, they believe in the power of magic and good manners.
Raine O'Tierney
Raine O’Tierney is an always-writing, boundlessly enthusiastic, exclamation point addict! (!!!) She is known for declaring every day “the best day EVER!” and every thing her “all-time FAVORITE!” Raine spends her days working as a library lady, fighting the good fight for intellectual freedom. Raine frequently changes genres, but she always tries to imbue her stories with what she calls “The Sweetness” of which there are five Fs (first loves, first times, fidelity, forever-type endings, and... friskiness?). After twenty plus years of writing and dreaming, a decade spent working on M/M, and a year of being a lionheart, Raine is so pleased to finally be a published author!
Hans M Hirschi
Born and raised in Switzerland, Hans graduated from High School in Arizona, worked for several years in the Swiss financial industry before pursuing his university studies in Zurich and Gothenburg.
His majors include literature, linguistics & social sciences.
Hans self-published his first book with poetry and a short story in 1991.
Nine years later, he followed up with a professional book on e-learning pedagogy and in 2010 his book "Common Sense" was published.
He's published three novels so far, centered around strong gay men and their families, friends and contemporary life and its challenges; socially aware romance if you will, with real flesh & blood characters that won't leave you untouched.
In early 2014 his book "Dads" came out, and is available free of charge, right here on Goodreads. It's the story of Hans and his husband and how they became parents.
Hans is currently working on his fourth novel, due 9/15, "The Fallen Angels of Karnataka", a book where your desires to travel the world meet romance and a good look at the dark side of humanity.
LM Steel
Lee was born in 1982 in Rochford, Essex and lived on the outskirts of the village of Canewdon.
At the age of six she moved to West Yorkshire with her parents, elder sister and younger brother, where they owned and ran a dairy farm. Due to the egg crisis of 1991 the farm and business was lost and Lee, with her family, was housed in Sowerby Village, with other ex-farmers, redundant miners and former military families.
It was at Newland Junior School, that Hazel Hellowell first spotted Lee had a talent for creative writing and encourage her poetry, resulting in the local paper publishing her first poem: Weeping Willow at the age of 10.
Moving onto Ryburn Valley High School Lee continued to write, but it wasn't until Year 10, where she took up Expressive Arts, that her teachers, Amanda Glover and Jackie Newman also noted Lee had a talent and desire to write and encouraged her to do so. At 14 her second poem was published in 1996 Heartbreaker.
At 17 Lee began a legal apprenticeship course and earned an NVQ Level III in Business Administration
In 2002 Lee went to Washington DC after being nominated by the International Society of Poetry for the Poet of the Year Award 2002. Although Lee didn't win, she did win a Poet of Merit Award.
Lee graduated from the University of Huddersfield in 2011 with a 1st Class Msci Degree with honours in Forensic and Analytical Science.
Lee now lives in Southampton with her partner Alexandra who serves in the Royal Navy, with Lee's Patterdale terrier Cracker
The couple have plans to have a Civil Union in August 2013
Amelia Mann
Since author Amelia Mann lives in the cold, dark North, her characters must be warm and bright. The men in her stories live their own lives in her head, sometimes letting her in on their secrets. Amelia believes that all stories are worth telling― even the sad ones― but things must come to a happy end, or it is just not finished yet.
Hunter Frost
Hunter lost a bet at a blackjack table and begrudgingly traded temperate Southern California for the sweltering heat of Las Vegas. There she resides with an extremely tolerant boyfriend and two cats, Latte and Java. When she’s not dreaming of returning to coastal living, Hunter works on her MA thesis in British history and at her government day job. In order to appease her muse, she writes the kind of fiction that keeps her sane. She adores romance in all forms, but prefers her stories with two heroes that find their happily-ever-after with each other.
Laura Susan Johnson
Laura Susan Johnson has been writing since age eleven, cutting her teeth on tales of the family pets. Aside from writing, Laura Susan enjoys quilting, playing around with colorful makeup, clothing and hair colors, web design, and vegan cooking. She resides in California, Idaho, Arkansas, and the northern coast of Oregon.
Shayla Mist
Shayla made her debut in the writing world during elementary school with a heart-breaking story about how her grandma's chicks died from an unknown disease. It was published in the school newspaper, spurring a significant amount of pitiful looks directed her way. Being a stubborn Aquarius, she kept on striving, publishing cheesy love poetry, an endeavor that thankfully proved to be far more successful. Her writing life changed dramatically when she read her first yaoi manga and discovered her real calling. Imagining guys together has become her favorite pastime. Aside from writing, daydreaming about men and devouring any M/M book she can get her hands on and, she also loves manga, kpop, jrock, classical music, crafts and art. An earnest romantic, she's always been convinced there's a soulmate out there, searching for her. It appears he's been lost. Maybe word hasn't gotten to him that cars are faster than white horses. In case you've seen a prince on a white horse (though a sports car would be preferable).
Ava Penn
I write, I read, I cook. I work. I live and love. A wisher, a hope-er, a dreamer. A human. I've no illusions of grandeur, nor fame, nor fortune. I write simply for the joy of writing; and if others find joy in my writing, then all's the better.
Currently I'm working on my second novel - Snowboards & Tuxes and another short in the Graffiti Grind series. The short will be published by Beaten Track Publishing in a holiday anthology. Keep an eye on my blog for updates.
SH Allen
S. H. Allan has been a therapeutic foster parent for close to a decade and a half, focusing on teenagers—which is a lot like herding cats, but a lot more rewarding. Dogs make her happy, and the senior dogs for which she provides hospice have to tolerate a giddy younger pup or three. Whenever possible, she ignores them all in favor of reading smutty gay love stories. S. H. knew writing was her destiny when her classic, Mr. Cuke and Mrs. Tomato, was put in the school library in third grade (coincidentally, along with the stories written by all her classmates). Politically active and socially conscious, with a useless M.A. and over twenty-five years working in high tech, S. H. fits in well in her beloved Pacific Northwest, except for that health conscious stuff. Tofurkey is one thing, but she says, “Seriously, no donuts?”
JP Walker: Goodreads
LL Bucknor: Goodreads
Alexis Woods: Goodreads
Claire Davis: Goodreads
Al Stewart: Goodreads
Terry Kerr: Goodreads
