Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

I’m recommending a whole book this week: “Handmade Holidays” by ‘Nathan Burgoine. Based on something that really happened and started a real-life tradition for the author this book deserves to be a TV movie and I feel it is already a classic! Well worth the read. Also, a perfect gift to find under a tree. And there’s a Tom of Finland reference! Can’t top that! Here’s an excerpt: Nick is on his own after his homophobic parents toss him out of the house. He has next to nothing, but it’s Christmastime so he decides to get a tree. Here he is, returning to his apartment with the only tree he could afford.

They’d just shoved in all the branches and the stand and then used packing tape to keep it closed. The end result was a lumpy mess, so he used a knife to cut the tape free. If he was going to be on his own for Christmas for the first time ever—not to mention the foreseeable future—he was at least going to have a Christmas tree, dammit. He was nineteen. An adult. He could do this.

I wish you all the best for this holiday season, full of good things to read!

—–jeff baker, December 25^th, 2021.