We are fast approaching the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere (although longest in the Southern.) For those of us in the land of snow and ice, this can be a tough season.
Stories are a way to push back the darkness and bring hope. In a sense, Christmas itself is an example of that, a story of hope set not at the most likely actual date of Christ’s birth, but at the turn of the year in the short days, when hope is needed most.
Romances, more than any other fiction, are a reach for that hope – beginning with loneliness and ending with love. In our M/M genre in particular, there are a lot of free and low-cost books. (A good thing, as we look ahead to a worsening US economy and loss of benefits.) I bought a long-awaited mainstream ebook for $11.99 last week, so I am grateful to the generosity of other writers in this community, as I put more hours in than ever on my e-reader. I’ve been diving in to M/M stories for the past month, and the joy those stories give me amid the pages will carry me through this season.
If you hadn’t heard, one place to get free and low cost romances for the rest of the month is the The Smashwords End-of-Year sale – on now through Dec 31st.
**Remember to enable the “Filtering” top right in the Smashwords header to “include all erotica”**
There are hundreds of M/M books in this sale by many authors (Julie Bozza, CS Poe, RJ Scott, Lissa Kasey, Andrea Speed, Gabbi Grey, Sebastian Nothwell, LA Witt, Brent Hartinger, Josh Lanyon and many more) at 25, 50, 75% off and free.
Books bought on Smashwords in epub can be emailed to your @kindle address for your Kindle, or read with any app or on any side-loading reader.
Among the free stuff, if you are looking for Holiday stories, I have Where the Heart Is up for FREE – a stand-alone holiday novella with a veterinarian and his boyfriend.
You can find all the “gay” category sale books here: Smashwords Sale
I don’t know if I’ll write a new holiday story this year. (Experienced authors are laughing at me a bit, because usually we’re writing those in August or September, but I mean a freebie, not for publication. I still have a week.) If I don’t, you can still find a few free short ones from me:
You can download Shooting Star – a 13,000 word story – Dr. Dillon Shaw hiked to a remote lake on Christmas Eve to close one chapter of his life, with no idea what came next. He didn’t expect ‘next’ to be getting tackled into the mud, or gunshots, or a burly cop in trouble. Find it on Prolific Works and you can read it online on my blog too.
Also on my blog, I have Serendipity – a 2-part Thanksgiving and Christmas fake-dating to real story from last year. Adrien spots a well-dressed man shivering in the cold, waiting outside a restaurant, and a moment of kindness sets a change in motion for both of them.
For myself, I’m mostly reading the more angsty stories, where hope is achieved by overcoming pain – a triumph against the darkness – but I also see the appeal of the sweet lightness and warmth of some seasonal offerings (and have indulged in a few.)
Either way, I hope you, as I do, find the stories we share a source of joy and hope and comfort as we head into the darkest days.
Happy Holidays and take care of each other.
– Kaje Harper
Dec 2024