The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Comfort and Joy (Anthology)

Joanna Chambers, Harper Fox, L.B. Gregg, Josh Lanyon

Four Stars


I resist shorter fiction and anthologies, because often they just don’t satisfy me. But this Christmas-themed anthology of four long stories is not only by four authors with great writing creds, but they work together thematically to put you in the mood for the holiday season.

Which is to say, they make you cry.

Two of these come to us from the UK, Joanna Chambers’ “Rest and Be Thankful,” and Harper Fox’s “Out.” The other two are American, one East Coast (“Waiting for Winter” by L.B. Gregg) and one West Coast (“Baby It’s Cold,” by Josh Lanyon). All of them involve snow on Christmas Eve, three of them focus on young men at cross-purposes with each other, and one of them takes place in a luxury hotel in Edinburgh.

How to start. They all made me weepy, but that might simply be the season and my generally low emotional tipping point at this time of year.

Confessing, as usual, that Harper Fox is my favorite author, I also must say that the rather oddball setting for “Out” made this story stand out. Cosmo Grant (love that name) is trapped in a grand old hotel in Edinburgh. Severe agoraphobia triggered by a horrific incident has kept Cosmo “in” for over a year. Torn between his love for the staff at the hotel and his hatred of his boss, Cosmo is stuck, physically and emotionally. And then Ren Vaudrey walks into the marble splendor and turns Cosmo upside down. The hotel itself is a major character in this gay romantic take on “The Grand Hotel Budapest.” (Note: I’m pretty sure I stayed in the hotel Fox uses as the model for this in 1970 with my dad when I was fifteen.)

The other three are, to be sure, wonderful stories. In spite of diverse locales, it is more than the snow that echoes through all three narratives. These are cautionary tales about miscommunication; not speaking your heart when you should, and speaking from your own heart without giving through to what the other guy might be feeling.

Chambers’ “Rest and Be Thankful” is surprisingly low key, and is about two men discovering each other, almost by accident, as if for the first time. It really is a tale of how easily we hurt ourselves by assuming the worst of others.

Lanyon’s “Baby It’s Cold” and Gregg’s “Waiting for Winter” concern couples who have split and, charmingly, both involve slightly screwball ploys on the part of one character that go awry. These are more painful to read, since they cast a bright light on the ways we hurt people we love most out of fear and insecurity—and sometimes plain stubbornness.


For all their similarities, these stores are not the same. No one would say that landscape paintings are all the same. In a parallel way, romance stories all share certain essential ingredients. It is the author’s skill as a writer and as a narrator (not the same thing) that makes each of these individual and uniquely appealing. This is very much the case here. Everyone who reads this anthology will find the one story that touches most deeply and satisfies most fully. Which of these four will do that for you depends upon who you are.

I enjoyed all of these stories, too, although I also usually avoid shorter stories. But the authors included in this anthology were too hard to resist.

One thing I should mention is that for each story I had to go back to the start, after reading the first chapter or two, because I was confused, and not sure what was happening. Maybe this is a fault with short stories, in that the author dives right in without having time to give back story, or maybe it's just me! I may need more spoon feeding than most readers. ;)

I felt warm and fuzzy after finishing each story, though, rather than weepy. Christmas time here is always hot, and I don't usually get too emotional. It's not my favourite time of the year.

Just bought the Chambers short to read. I read the reviews of the other two and was not impressed. So I went ahead with just this one.