HOLIDAY MAGICK
I am going to let you in on a secret. I…BG Thomas…gasp…am a romantic.
Just ask my publisher who said I’m about the most romantic person she knows!
And to explain, that is only part of why I love to read and write romance books. It’s more than just the romance of falling in love. I love the romance of the world. Of new born puppies. Of flowers growing up through the snow in the spring.
I love the romance of finding that perfect something at a garage sale that I know my dear friend Linnea will just love. Of finding that rare thing—something that my husband R collects and doesn’t already have. Rare, because he’s impossible to shop for and I can’t wait to see his face when I give it to him. The romance of a sunset or dancing in the all-together in a field under the light of a full moon.
And of the holidays. Especially those that fall together and with different glowing starlit names like Yule, Winter Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas, Pancha Ganapati, Kwanzaa, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, HumanLight, and so many more. I love how they bring out the heart and love and joy in people.
Growing up in a Christian home, it was Christmas we celebrated. But it wasn’t an overly conservative home and so we were not only allowed to watch TV, but even shows and movies and specials that celebrated sometimes an only vaguely Christmas tradition. And these include some of my favorite stories of all my life. And most of them, to this day, can still make me cry.
Like….
“A Charlie Brown Christmas”: When the Peanuts gang realize Charlie Brown’s tree isn’t so bad after all and with love transform it into a gorgeous tree and all shout “Merry Christmas” and then begin to sing “Hark the Herald Angles Sing!” – tears every time.
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas”: When the Grinch puts a hand to his ear so he can hear all the Whos cry “Boo-hoo” but instead he hears singing and then the Grinch thinks “of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
Or “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and the little gay elf and the hot Daddy Prospector. I knew something was going on there. It just took me a little time to figure it out.
“The Little Drummer Boy,” whose heart finally softens and allows him to forgive a world that was so cruel to him.
Oh, oh, oh!
“Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol!” I cry through most of it, especially the scenes with the little boy Scrooge all alone at the boarding school and finally the Cratchits, along with Scrooge, singing….
“We’ll have the Lord’s bright blessing,
And knowing we’re together,
Knowing we’re together heart and hand.
We’ll have the whitest Christmas,
The very brightest Christmas!
A Christmas far more glorious than grand!”
I cry through them all because I am a softy and a romantic and I believe in the essential goodness of human beings and that most of us, even really hard cases, can be redeemed.
So it was with great excitement I found that Dreamspinner Press wanted Holiday stories and greater humility that I endeavored to write my own. Stories with love and transforming people and magick and the wonderous spirit of this time of year.
And nothing has meant more to me than the fact that readers have reached out to me and told me things like, “It just isn’t Christmas to me unless I’ve read, ‘Grumble Monkey and the Department Store Elf,’” or other heartfelt letters about hearts thawed and warmed.
Thus, I present to you a list of my Christmas and holiday stories. Perhaps you’ll read over this and find one to your liking. These are my love stories to you, written solely in the hope that maybe, perhaps, can mean a little bit to you. Make you smile, warm your heart, and if I am so honored, becomes a part of your holiday traditions.
Merry to you all!
Love,
BG “Ben” Thomas
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ALL SNUG Elliot and Shawn each want to buy the same one-of-a-kind item for Christmas—a very old and expensive antique bed—as a gift for their lovers. But when they both arrive at the store at the same moment, the proprietor tells them to figure out between themselves who gets the bed. Elliot and Shawn decide to hold a contest: winner buys bed. And so the competitions begin, from selling charity tickets to cleaning out stables, and interpersonal tension and burgeoning attraction mount as the days until Christmas pass. But who deserves the gift more: Elliot, who can afford the expensive gift for his casual sex partner, or Shawn, who can barely cover rent, and the mysterious man he’s head-over-heels for? https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/all-snug-by-bg-thomas-4533-b
CHRISTMAS WISH Harry is desperately unhappy with his life. He hates his job, his apartment, and most especially, he hates the way he looks. Despite this, once Harry hears that his fantasy man, Javier Torres, is playing Santa at the local gay bar, he can’t wait to get his picture taken sitting on Javier’s lap in hopes of finally catching the sexy man’s attention. But it all goes wrong, and Harry ends up telling a different “Santa” exactly how his life could be made better… but he doesn’t expect his Christmas wish to come true! https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/christmas-wish-by-bg-thomas-115-b
CHRISTMAS COLE Javier Torres was a sweet, plump, and very unpopular child. But over the years, he turned himself into a gorgeous gym god. The problem is he’s also become an egotistical snob. But one day his arrogance pisses off the wrong little old lady, and he wakes up to find that, like the Prince in Beauty and the Beast, he’s been transformed into something from his personal nightmares. Javier has nowhere to go but back home, where to his surprise, he is greeted with open arms, not just by the family he remembers, but by his new brother-in-law, Cole. Cole suspects there might be a pretty heart to go with the pretty face locked inside that new body, but has Javier learned enough to earn Cole—instead of coal—for Christmas? https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/christmas-cole-by-bg-thomas-6184-b
BIANCA’S PLAN Bianca worries that her daddy, Gavin, is lonely and decides he needs a boyfriend for Christmas. So she enlists her father’s best friend, the straight and unattached Curtis. Gavin has a Christmas wish, too, and Curtis setting him up on disastrous dates isn’t part of it! Meanwhile, Curtis finds life becoming complicated as he tries to please Bianca, make Gavin happy, and fend off his own unexpected mixed feelings. Will anyone’s wish come true? https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/biancas-plan-by-bg-thomas-5992-b
GRUMBLE MONKEY AND THE DEPARTMENT STORE ELF Kit Jefferies, a part-time department store Christmas elf, is an artist who loves life and his family. Unfortunately, his car dies at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere as he is heading home for Christmas. Enter Nick St. George. Nick is a very unhappy man—he’s achieved his professional goals only to find the rest of his life bleak and empty. Deciding there was only one way to make everything right, he is on his way to San Francisco on a dark mission, and even the horrible sleet storm that blocked his path won’t deter him. That’s when he found Kit. At first, Nick is pretty sure rescuing Kit was a big mistake. Kit’s personality is just too, well, effervescent. But as the miles go by, Kit begins to bring light to his dark heart. It might even be bright enough to illuminate a Christmas miracle. https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/grumble-monkey-and-the-department-store-elf-by-bg-thomas-1071-b
THE BEARY BEST HOLIDAY PARTY EVER Before he discovered the Heartland Bear Clan, Ron Corbin figured no one could ever love a “fatass” like him. But the big group of big men accepts him, and likes him just the way he is. Having finally found a place he belongs, he works hard to get elected president of the club—and wins. He’s the happiest he’s ever been. But Paddy Brennan, a sexy bear cub who blew into town and became Mr. Popular overnight, is elected vice-president. Ron doesn’t think Paddy has earned the honor, and now he’ll have to work shoulder to shoulder (and belly to belly) with the guy for a year. Ron will do what’s best for the club even if that means setting his personal feeling—that Paddy is a jerk—aside. But then as the two men get to know each other, Ron reluctantly finds he not only likes the guy, but is growing more and more attracted to him. Deep down, Ron still worries he isn’t good enough, but maybe Paddy can show him there’s a beary happy ending waiting for them after all. https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/the-beary-best-holiday-party-ever-by-bg-thomas-3015-b
MELE KALIKIMAKA Being rich has its advantages, but it is also rife with suffocating pressures and family telling Chandler Buckingham how to live his life. When his assistant offers to help him escape the mounting obligations of the holiday season by running away to Hawaii, Chandler jumps at the chance. Only to find nothing is quite as he’d expected. Micah Keolu has lived in Hawaii all his life. He has to work two jobs and has little time for a social life, but his loving family and the island beauty around him have given him a heart as big as the ocean. And then one day he rescues a man trapped in an elevator in the building where Micah lives and works maintenance. The unexpected happens as they find themselves drawn together, only to learn there is more to each other than meets the eye. Can two men from very different worlds find a way to enrich each other’s lives? Maybe the magic of the holidays just might bring them lasting joy! https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/mele-kalikimaka-by-bg-thomas-and-noah-willoughby-7979-b
SOMETIMES THE BEST PRESENTS CAN’T BE WRAPPED Ned Balding used to be a decent man—until the stress of seemingly countless responsibilities changes him, and he becomes cold and driven—the kind of man who considers firing an employee days before Christmas. The kind of man who kicks a dog…. But Ned’s transgressions haven’t gone unseen. A Salvation Army Santa witnesses his misdeeds and decides Ned needs to be taught a lesson. When Ned wakes up the next morning, he’s stunned to discover he’s been transformed into a dog. In the past year, Jake Carrara has lost his mother, a lover… even his dog. His boss came close to firing him just before the holidays. He isn’t sure he’s ready for another pet when he’s asked to foster a dog, but Jake’s good heart won’t let him refuse. Little does he know, this isn’t just any dog. Through a twist of fate, two people with little reason to be friends might teach each other to rediscover the good—and the love—in life.
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B.G. Thomas lives in Kansas City with his two husbands and their fabulous dogs Sarah Jane and Oliver. He is blessed to have a lovely daughter as well as many extraordinary friends. He has a great passion for life.
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 a child; it is where he finds his joy.
In the nineties, he wrote for gay adult 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. He submitted a novella and was thrilled when it was accepted in four days. Since then the romantic tales have poured out of him. “It’s like I’m somehow making up for a lifetime’s worth of story-telling!”
In 2015 he made and entry every day in his blog “365 Days of Silver,” where he found something every day to be grateful for. You can find it right here:
https://365daysofsilver.wordpress.com/
“Leap, and the net will appear” is his personal philosophy and his message. “It is never too late,” he testifies. “Pursue your dreams. They will come true!”
Website/blog: https://bthomaswriter.wordpress.com/about-2/