I’m a bit late on the Christmas bandwagon, but I hope that everyone had a good holiday!

Canada (especially the Greater Toronto Area where I’m from) was hit pretty hard by an ice storm on the 21st/22nd. Lots of power outages that lasted through Christmas Day for some people, in addition to falling tree limbs and bad driving conditions. While the ice was shockingly beautiful and pretty apocalyptic in some situations, it did prevent me from blogging around the holidays. So I hope you’ll accept these belated wishes. Maybe a 40% off sale at JMS Books (where my two short ebooks, Tertium Non Data and Bad Secret Santa have been published) will make up for it? ;)

Cover by JMS Books.

On the 24th, I was lucky enough to have the wonderful Em Lynley feature me and my upcoming book on her blog. She hosted a great – and mouthwatering – Delectable December Event where m/m romance authors got together to blog about their books, Christmas, and recipes. Em Lynley also had her Gingerbread Palace book come out in December, and her novel Jaded. She’s done a lot of great work within the m/m romance genre and is definitely worth checking out.

At the end of November, I signed a contract with MLR Press for my contemporary romance novel called How to Make a Carrot Cake. Though the book is not Christmas-oriented, the title pretty much gives away what the two main protagonists fixate on for most of the novel: carrot cake. In this case, it’s about how to make something like this vegan and what being vegan would mean to both protagonists. Before anyone starts to worry about the ideology behind a lot of vegan politics – don’t. This is not, as Billy puts it in the novel, one of those “meat is murder” circumstances. Billy is not vegan for political reasons, but for something more domestic and family-oriented (not that those politics are bad, however; they are just not discussed in the novel or blog post about the novel). Being vegan for Billy is like rewriting his favourite recipes and creating something new. So, for Billy and Nate in the novel, the two of them strive to make something different together using whatever ingredients they have.

Head over to Em Lynley’s blog to get the full scoop on more recipes and books that centre on food — and check out my entry to see more about this upcoming title. I feature the carrot cake recipe that Nate and Billy strive to make, along with some vegan gingerbread cookies to keep people in the holiday spirit. :)

Cover by Meredith Russell. Anthology editor by RJ Scott.

Funnily enough, though I had two Christmas titles come out this year, none of them featured food. I sense this changing for next Christmas, however, especially since I already have a great idea percolating in my head for Nate and Billy – and how these two protatongists will spend Chirstmas next year. For now, I can’t wait until MLR Press releases this title.

And though it feels kind of late for Christmas songs, I simply must share this one by Rilo Kiley. This was featured on Maybe This Christmas Too a few years ago and I fell in love with it. Not your typical Christmas song about bells and angels, but about debt and depression. Quite bleak, but I’ve always loved it so much. Enjoy & stay safe for the rest of the holidays.