It’s a day until Christmas, and Mark and I are barely freaking ready. We just got our tree a couple days ago – they literally had to call someone at Home Depot to unlock the tree area, because they didn’t expect anyone to still be buying one at such a late date.

Then we survived a mini Christmas disaster – the Christmas lights went out the day after we put ALL the ornaments on, and the tree went dark. We think there was a short somewhere in the line. I managed to avert the crisis with two new strings of lights, carefully placed under the ornaments.

We all have our holiday traditions: the tree is up, the hot chocolate is made, the presents are wrapped, and the sweet strains of RuPaul’s Ho Ho Ho album fill the air.

It finally feels like Christmas.

For the last few years, I’ve had my own Christmas tradition – writing a holiday tale. My first one, “Ten,” was for the WROTE podcast, for a Twelve Days of Christmas collection, and was a fun romp through Sacramento’s gay dating world.

The next year, I branched out and wrote a post zombie apocalypse mm love story set in the wilds of Montana called “Wonderland,” which appeared in the “This Wish Tonight” anthology from Mischief Corner Books.

Last year, it was a sweet contemporary tale set in San Diego called “I Only Want to Be With You.” It was loosely based on the Vanessa Williams song “Save the Best for Last,” and was part of the MCB collection “A Holiday to Remember.”

Fast forward to 2018. Mischief Corner put out a call for their new collection – “Escape From the Holidays.” Things feel more and more out of control in the world, with political chaos and climate change both on my mind.

I’m a big advocate of the idea that we have a responsibility as writers to illuminate the world around us and the changes and dangers we will face in the future. We are uniquely positioned to sound the alarm, to wake people up when they read our work.

So I decided to take the leap and wrote a climate change romance.

It’s set at Christmas time in Antarctica. Sure, it tells a few inconvenient truths, but it wraps them all inside an easy to enjoy love story.

Mark and I have many Christmas traditions. Over the last few years, writing a Christmas tale has become one of them for me. But now I’m adding another – telling the truth and opening eyes. It’s my Christmas gift to the planet.

I hope you enjoy it – it’s a pretty decent story. And I hope it makes a difference.

And while you are sipping your cocoa and opening your presents tomorrow, spare a thought for the future. Maybe we can all start doing something about it together in the new year.