Hello everyone! I am so pleased to welcome author B.G. Thomas to the blog today. He is here to talk to us more about his new release, Spring Affair. He has also brought some very exciting news to share with us! And a great giveaway. So please join me in giving B.G. a big welcome!

Pssssttt…. Don’t Tell Anyone Yet, But…It Looks Like I’m Getting Married!

Stefano Bolognini photgrapher

Stefano Bolognini photgrapher

Yuppers. I think it’s going to happen!

We were waiting for same-sex marriage to become legal in Missouri so we could get married on the same day we had our official “commitment ceremony” seven years ago. We didn’t want there to be any of that two-different-marriage-dates-stuff going on. The date WE think of as our real marriage date and the one that the government will consider the real one. But then something kind of magick happened.

Friends of ours were going to Baltimore to be witnesses over a gay wedding. Things fell through. Don’t worry, the guys are getting married, they’re just not going to have a big fancy ceremony—just do the Justice of the Peace version. They told our friends to save their money on the plane tickets and all that.

The thing is, the hotel package was already paid for….

…so they gave it to me and R!

Now my husband R is the most heterosexual gay man I have ever met. He wears plaids with stripes, loves pickup trucks, dislikes musicals, barely knew who Bette Midler was before we met, and is not very romantic. He had to learn to buy flowers and such….

R: “But flowers die when you pick them! Why would you want to kill them?”

Me: “Well, so they can fill the house with beauty and I can be reminded of your love every time I see them? And flowers are going to die anyway, so why not inside where I can look at them?”

R: “Baby—do you really need reminded that I love you?”

….sigh.

But every now and then R does something SO incredibly romantic it makes up for all the times he was blissfully un-romantic.

For instance, when we got married we wrote our own vows and being the romance-writer I am, I stooped to the lovely cliché about him being my Knight in Shining Armor and rescuing me.

Then when it came to his turn he said, “But Ben…. Don’t you know that you are the one that rescued me?”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, even the big straight guy sitting in the front row who had been so uncomfortable when we first met because he had never really known gay men before.

So when R waits a few days to slowly spring on me why he wants to go to Baltimore so much (he’s not much no of traveler), I almost cried right there in the break room at work (yes, he did it where we work).

R: “Because you know Ben, the reason so many gay men are going to Baltimore right now is so they can get legally married.”

I nodded and the conversation continued for a bit and then I suddenly froze and said, “Wait! Back up. Rewind. Did you say ‘married?’”

Yes. He said married.

So we have done our research. There is a 48-hour waiting period in Baltimore. We won’t be there for 48-hours. Not business days anyway. We arrive on Saturday and leave on Monday. So I called the marriage license office Friday and got this charming old lady who was very happy for us and when I said we had been together going on 14 years, she said, “Oh Honey! It is time you two get this done!”

So she mailed the legal documents (they did not yet arrive today! Aarrghh!) and we are to take the papers to the Kansas City office and show our ID and get some kind of “gold seal” that says we are who we say we are. We get this done and we can just show up on Monday morning in Baltimore and get married!

But wait! There’s more….

R-the Un-Romantic did some research and said, “There are ministers who will marry us on Saturday or Sunday.”

Me: “But you aren’t particularly religious. I figured you would just want a Justice of the Peace.”

R: “But if a minister marries us, we will be married the whole time we are in Baltimore instead of the last minute Justice of the Peace and then us rushing for the airport. Baltimore will be like our honeymoon.” (and we never had a honeymoon)

Okay, I am getting tears in my eyes writing this!

If there is a religion R likes, it has to do with the church I go to. It is very Unity. No hellfire and brimstone. None of that “God-hates-the-sin-but-loves-the-sinner-stuff.”

So I need good thoughts and good vibrations my friends! Send out….”The paperwork will all work out and Ben and R will find a minister and they will get married on the last weekend of June!” energy!

Married. Legally married! Wow. I never thought growing up and coming out that this would ever or could ever happen to me. To be legally recognized.

Wow. How romantic is that? And you heard it here first, before my own blog!

And speaking of romance… (Hey, I have to get that in here!)

…I have a new book! It is called “Spring Affair” and it is a part of my first series—four books in all.

PLEASE NOTE! All four books are stand-alone books! Each book can be read together or separately. If only one or two books appeal, you won’t be missing anything by reading only the ones that sould like your cuppa. However, each book will build upon the last. It will be like a Marvel superhero movie where if you have never heard of Thor, you can love the movie anyway, but if you are a long long time fan, you get the little jokes thrown in there (Like the “Donald Blake” sticky note on Thor’s shirt).

If you read each book in the “Seasons of Love” series, you will get more and more out of the on-going story as it goes along. But on the other hand, you don’t have to commit to anything. And for those afraid of committing before all four books are all written, rest assured that book two (“Summer Lover”) is finished and will be released in July and book three (“Autumn Changes”) is well over half-way written and will come out before the end of the year!

So here is the blurb for “Spring Affair”:

Spring affairSloan McKenna is going through a tough time. His beloved mother has recently passed away, leaving him her house and beautiful garden. But should he keep the house? Sell it? To make matters worse, he’s in love with one of his best friends, Asher, a man who can’t (or won’t) love him back.

Sloan’s neighbor, Max Turner, is married to an ambitious woman with far-reaching dreams, including moving the family to France. But Max is happy teaching at the local college and living in their nice, quiet town. Then he discovers his fourteen-year-old son is not only gay, but out and proud as well. That throws Max into complete disarray, for more than one reason….

When Max’s wife leaves on a two-month business trip to Paris, circumstances throw the two men together. As they become friends, Sloan finds himself falling in love with Max, who is completely unavailable… just like Asher. As for Max, he is discovering that both his son’s coming out and his new friendship with Sloan are stirring up feelings he thought buried long ago. Spring is a time for rebirth—Is there any way the two men can find happiness and a new beginning?

You can purchase this book directly from Dreamspinner Press right here.  Or from Amazon right here.

And Now! Two Cool Deals!

Leave a comment and one lucky person will get a free ebook from my backlog—sorry, not “Spring Affair.” My backlog is right here.

AND ONE MORE COOLNESS!

One of the characters in “Spring Affair” is named Wyatt. Wyatt is a jolly guy always trying to make people happy. He loves to tell jokes. Send me your favorite joke (to bgthomaswriter@aol.com) and if I use it in either “Autumn Changes” or “Winter of Content,” then you will get a free ebook copy of the novel where your joke appears! How about that? I think that is darn cool!

Okay….I must go make wedding plans! (Can’t get the song “Get Me to the Church on Time” out of my head)

Love, Peace and Namasté.
And remember! Leap and the net will appear!
BG.


Bio

B.G. Thomas lives in Kansas City with his husband of more than a decade and their fabulous little dog. He is lucky enough 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 child; it is where he finds his joy.

In the nineties, he wrote for gay 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. Gay men are what he knows best, after all—since he grew out of being a “practicing” homosexual long ago. He submitted a story and was thrilled when it was accepted in four days.

“Leap, and the net will appear” is his personal philosophy and his message to all. “It is never too late,” he states. “Pursue your dreams. They will come true!”

Visit his website and blog at http://bthomaswriter.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at bgthomaswriter@aol.com.

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Giveaway

B.G. has brought along two great giveaways to share. Leave a comment below to enter to win a book from his backlist (not Spring Affair).  The contest closes on Saturday, May 10th at 11:59 pm EST.

And if you send B.G. your favorite joke (to bgthomaswriter@aol.com) and it gets used in one the books in the series, then you will get a free ebook copy of the novel where your joke appears!

  • By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win.  The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
  • If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
  • Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
  • Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
  • By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
  • Readers may only enter once for each contest.  Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
  • Void where prohibited by law.
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