I was talking with my office buddies (Nell Iris and A.L. Lester) about 24 Dates and said it’s a miracle I manage to come up with twenty-four dates for the story since I’m the least romantic person in the world.

I had a list with date-suggestion I’d written and crossed them off as I went. I even had dates that never happened left. I said I couldn’t remember what they were since the list now was gone.  Nell told me I should’ve saved it, and I thought to myself yeah, I should have.

Then Christmas came and the pile of papers on my desk needed to if not get thrown away, then at least put in a nicer pile LOL. I ruffled through the papers, most of the sheets with something printed on one side, and me having scrawled down dates on the backside for when to post, pin, and schedule things.

And there it was! Wrinkly and with a folded corner and with hubby having written on it too and then crossed it out. It has name suggestions of characters for other stories, numbers added together than I can’t remember what they were for, and at the bottom it says:

The most fish
The biggest

Which, I guess, it’s for the date on the 12th of December.

So, Jian and Victor had twenty-four dates from December 1st to December 24th. What they didn’t have was:

• A museum date – When I wrote it down, I figured Jian would take Victor to a museum where they would see some cool things. Hubby and I went to Naturhistoriska in Gothenburg a few times when we lived on the west coast. There’s a whale hall that always has me in awe. That awe is mixed though, part of me think it’s so cool to get to see how big a blue whale really is, another part is outraged we’re making exhibitions out of dead animals.
• Concert – Jian and Victor go to Whiteport to watch a musical, so I skipped going to a concert because it felt like too much of a repeat. But I had it on the list of suggestions.
• Beach Walk – I figured they could go to the coast and stroll on the wintery beach. I miss beach walks. The sea in the wintertime is amazing. It’s amazing any time of the year, but that dark grey, raging sea crashing towards the deserted beach – it fills my soul with freedom. The wind tearing at your hair, the scent of salt in the air… *sigh* I want to go home.
• Coffee Date – They have a dessert-tasting date, so I figured going to a coffee house was a bit of a repeat. They don’t do much people watching, though, so maybe I should have included some date where they go out in public just the two of them.
• Scavenger Hunt – Let’s be honest. I was too lazy to include this one. A scavenger hunt could be a lot of fun, but I’d have to come up with the rules. Still, I could see Jian doing it for Victor LOL.
• Fake Tour Guide – I figured Jian could pretend to be a guide and show Victor around either a museum or if they went to a city where he could guide him up and down the streets talking about interesting historical facts that had happened.
• Sunset and Eggnog – Here I pictured them sitting out in the cold and watch the sun set while having eggnog, but since they have a rooftop stargazing date it felt a bit like a repeat.
• Drive-in Movie – The idea was that Jian should take help from his friends and set up a drive-in movie for Victor and him, but they’re up north, and winters are cold LOL
• Amusement Park – Normally, we go to Liseberg with the kids on Christmas. This year it’s closed, but it’s beautiful. There are lights everywhere, they have an ice skating show, Santa is there, and some years there’s been real reindeers.
• Poetry Night – The last thing on the list is poetry night. I painted a picture of a cosy pub where they held poetry readings, but I chickened out. Poetry isn’t my strong suit, I think it’s amazing, but to write a poetry night date I figured I’d have to write some poetry, and that won’t happen.

See, 24 Dates could’ve been 34 Dates…maybe LOL.

Of all the dates I wrote, my favourite (to write) was December 5th. I laughed. And it just so happens that Angel Martinez did a Friday Reading of that date over at her site, so hop on over there and listen to it!

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When Victor Hill bought a house with his boyfriend, Jian Kouri it was a dream come true. But now, two years later, instead of living their happily ever after, they hardly see the other awake.

With Jian out the door before Victor gets up in the morning, and asleep on the couch nearly as soon as he walks in the door, the life Victor imagined couldn’t be further from reality. They don’t talk; they don’t touch, and Victor fears he and Jian have already drifted too far apart.

The holiday season is a time for hope, but when Victor comes home to find Jian with a plan to woo him for Christmas, is it too little, too late? The dates are great, and there are filled with Christmas fun to get Victor in the right spirit for the holiday, but are they enough for the two of them to fall in love again? Or is there just too much in their relationship that needs fixing?

books2read.com/24Dates

In the JMS shop

Today, I’m stealing a spot for myself. Turning Wood was published last year. It’s a short Christmas story about Otho Newcomer and Mason Dager and it was the story that started the whole Up North series.

I hadn’t planned on it being part of a series, but for some reason, I feel right at home in the woods around Nortown and Northfield. When I needed a doctor, doctor Ash, who’s crushing on Andre in the Nortown books, popped up. It wasn’t my intentions to put him there, but I did. Then I figured, since I’d already started, I might as well continue.

All Up North stories are standalone, more so than the Nortown stories. The only thing linking the books is the location.

Coolest of all is that Turning Woods is part of the 2020 Top Ten Gay Romance anthology from JMS Books that will be released on December 30th. 

Excerpt:

Looking up from his work, he saw something move—a man walking out on the ice on the river. Was he insane? The currents were too strong there; the ice wasn’t thick enough to walk on. It had closed over yesterday when the temperature had dropped, but it broke open now and then, a constant struggle between the current and the ice.

Before Otho’s brain caught up with what he was doing, he’d dropped the gouge on the ground and ran out from under the carport.

“Hey!” He waved his arms, but the man didn’t look in his direction. “Hey! You, hello!” He ran, his heavy boots sinking into the snow. He jumped over the snowdrift on the other side of the narrow gravel road passing by his cabin. The reeds buried underneath the snow tangled around his ankles, but he kept going.

“Hey, you!” He waved more, but the man didn’t so much as glance in his direction. Shit. When Otho stepped onto the ice, he slowed down. This close to the land it shouldn’t be any danger, but Otho feared he weighed more than the man. It was a grown man, though, not some teen who didn’t know better.

“Come on, man! Come back here!” Otho took one slow step after the other, and in that moment, the man turned around to face him. Otho blew out a breath and waved.

The sound of the ice breaking shouldn’t have been so loud, but it was. It was as if it was moaning a protest before opening its jaws to swallow the man. Otho’s heart stopped. “No!”

For half a second, he stood immobilized, then he dug into his pocket for his phone and called the emergency service center. He slid down on his stomach and crawled over the ice while waiting for the call to connect.

A sharp intake of air was all he heard from the man as he hurried the best he could. A woman talking in a clear, calm voice answered.

“A man has gone through the ice of the river.” Otho almost hung up before adding, “By River Cove on Lakeside Lane in Snowmelt.” He disconnected. He probably should have said more, but the man was freezing to death or drowning. With the pulse drumming in his ears, he pictured the man sliding in under the ice. His breath froze, and he pushed himself forward.

The edge of the hole came closer. The black water looked alive, angry, and threatening as it tried to pull the man under. Only his head and part of his shoulders remained above the surface. His skin was white, not pale, white. His lips blue, his eyes wide, and his body stiff. Otho dragged himself forward, spreading his weight over as large an area as possible.

“Easy.” He was talking to himself as much as to the man. “Can you grab the edge?”

He still had about four feet to go to where the water lapped at the ice, but he didn’t know how much closer he dared move. The man’s wide eyes latched on to his, and Otho forced a calm expression to his face. “Good.”

The man had done nothing, but Otho figured he couldn’t go wrong with praise. “Now can you try to swim?”

He didn’t move, did nothing but stare at Otho.

“Come closer and try to put your elbows on the ice.”

The man continued to stare and his dark lashes were turning whiter by the second. Damn, he needed out of the cold. Otho crawled closer, listening to the ice as he did. His heart was hammering in his throat. If he went through the ice, he would curse himself his entire afterlife—if there was one.

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For Otho Newcomer, the small village of Snowmelt is a haven from his old life. If he’s not exactly a changed man, he at least hopes to keep his distance from all those easy romances, and the inevitable heartache and disappointment that have always followed.

Mason Dager is an idiot. His ex has cleared out his bank account, sold his car and gotten him thrown out of his apartment. And he has no one to blame but himself. But what better way to celebrate a new chapter in his life—one that includes homelessness and the humiliation of telling his family they were right all along—than to spend Christmas at a swanky winter resort like River Cove? It’s already paid for after all.

When a very drunk Mason makes yet another dumb decision, Otho comes to the rescue, throwing the two men together during the most magical time of the year.

What should be the wrong choice for both of them, might be exactly what they need. They’ll just have to survive a nosy best friend, an asshole of an ex, and the scars of their pasts.

books2read.com/TurningWood