Hey! Have You Ever Heard of Alphonse Mucha?

 

I bet you’ve heard of Mucha even if you don’t know that you have. Look at one Mucha picture and you’ll say, “Oh! I used to have one of his posters hanging in my dorm room!” (or something like that).

 

I discovered Mucha when I was about eighteen or so. I was figuring out I was gay and had gone to Kalamazoo, MI for the weekend to meet this guy…and I got ditched! He never showed! Talk about angst. Talk about self-pity.

 

Luckily I was actually staying at a friend’s house so I wasn’t sitting around a hotel room all alone. I wound up making friends with my friend’s roommate, and she went on to become one of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life. And hanging on the wall over her bed in her room that day a few centuries ago was a Mucha poster. I loved it! Loved loved loved it.

 

Mucha “was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.” [Wikipedia] I found his style simply stunning. My friend had several Mucha art books and I was in love.

 

Except…there were no guys.

 

Mucha’s subject matter was lovely women, scantily dressed, and often a series of four paintings representing the four seasons. Gorgeous!

 

But…no guys. *pouts* I poured through my friend’s books (and when I got home, library books as well) and found like four or five male figures out of hundreds upon hundreds of paintings of women. Now please don’t misunderstand. Art is art and its beautiful and I was a Mucha fan—male or female subject!

 

But, well…I’m gay. I would rather have looked at a scantily clad man.

 

Flash forward years and years….

 

I get this idea. I want to write a set of books about the four seasons. Four stand-alone books that also interconnect. Books that don’t require the reader to read all four books if they aren’t interested in committing to a series. BUT! If a reader does like to read series, reading all four books would be a richer experience. A series about four best friends that interact in each other’s books, but each novel focuses not only a season, but one of the friends. And my hope is that as a reader, you would get more and more invested in the four friends as the books are released.

 

My publisher loved the idea and away I went. I wrote the first book and sent it in and was soon contacted by the wondrous Paul Richmond asking if I had a vision for the covers.

 

Usually the answer would have been a resounding “Yes!” But this time I wasn’t sure. I was hoping for his brilliance to solve the problem. Well, I don’t know if you know who Paul is (you should—look for him!), but he did exactly what I hoped he would do. He came up with something fab-ulous.

 

He said, “Hey, Ben—have you ever heard of Mucha?”

 

Had I ever heard of Mucha??? “Ah, yes, Paul—I have. Why?”

 

“Well, I have always loved his art but it made me sad that he never did men….”

 

OMG! Someone else felt that same way as me!

 

“And you know he used to do these series on the four seasons and your books are about the four seasons and I have always wanted an excuse to do some paintings in the Mucha style, and I don’t know if that interests you but—”

 

Squuueeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

 

“Yes, Paul! Yes yes yes yes!  Oh please. Please please please pleasepleaseplease!

 

Thus was born the first of the four covers. And I can’t wait to see what the next three look like.

 

And if I did my part right, the words will be their own painting. When you, as a reader, open the book—you will like it for far more than just the pretty cover. That my four best friends will grab you and you will desperately want to know what happens when it’s their turn to tell their stories and watch each of them find love.

 

Book one is about Sloan, a man grieving the death of his beloved mother. Next door is this gorgeous hot neighbor who—dammit—is married. Except, the guy’s wife goes out of town for a two-month business trip. And also the neighbor might not be as heterosexual as Sloan has assumed….

 

So I hope you will check it out! Sloan is waiting for you. So are Scott, Asher and Wyatt.

 

Love to all!

BG Thomas

 

Find My New Book, “Spring Affair,” Right Here!: Dreamspinner Press Amazon

And comment here and I will give one person a copy of my last novel, “Hound Dog & Bean.”

 

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About the Author:

B.G. loves romance, comedies, fantasy, science fiction and even horror—as far as he is concerned, as long as the stories are character driven and entertaining, it doesn’t matter the genre. He has gone to literature conventions his entire adult life where he’s been lucky enough to meet many of his favorite writers. He has made up stories since he was child; it is where he finds his joy.

 

In the nineties, he wrote for gay magazines but stopped because the editors wanted all sex without plot. “The sex is never as important as the characters,” he says. “Who cares what they are doing if we don’t care about them?” Excited about the growing male/male romance market, he began writing again. Gay men are what he knows best, after all—since he grew out of being a “practicing” homosexual long ago. He submitted a story and was thrilled when it was accepted in four days.

 

“Leap, and the net will appear” is his personal philosophy and his message to all. “It is never too late,” he states. “Pursue your dreams. They will come true!”

 

Visit his website and blog at http://bthomaswriter.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at bgthomaswriter@aol.com.