Don’t Forget About Naked Gardening Day 🍆🌱

The first Saturday of May is of course Naked Gardening Day and I hope you haven’t forgotten this super important holiday? As I schedule this blog post (Thursday), the weather forecast says 11°C (52°F for you who don’t understand Celsius) and since that’s waaaaay too cold for naked gardening shenanigans, I won’t be undressing and planting herbs and flowers or pruning rose bushes. If you’d planned on swinging by and watching me, I mean 😂

And honestly, I’m not inclined to be naked in the garden regardless of temperature. I much prefer reading about other people being naked in gardens, and luckily there’s a bunch of stories on this exact topic. Because you haven’t forgotten about the naked gardening stories from last year, written by yours truly, K.L. Noone, Holly Day, A.L. Lester, and Amy Spector, I hope?

It was such a fun project to write; my author colleagues and friends are awesome people and the topic was great. And it was so interesting to read all their stories when they were finished, to see what five creative people could do with the same prompt.

It was actually so much fun that we plan on repeating it: we’re working on another joint project, but this time it’s about letter-writing and not naked gardening. It will be released in early September, so stay tuned. But back to unclothed horticultural (to borrow A.L. Lester’s expression) shenanigans!

Perfect Rows by Holly Day is a story about enemy neighbors-to-lovers who are warring over their shared garden. Warning! Deep Water by A.L. Lester is a historical, very British story. The Death of Digby Catch by Amy Spector is a murder-mystery, and The Hermit of Aldershill Manor by K.L. Noone is about an actual gardener at an old British estate.

My story, Strike a Pose, is more focused on the nakedness than the gardening, let’s put it like that. Or you know, naked statues in the garden…heh heh heh. No actually! I promise! Statues! Too. 😁

Strike a Pose is an age-gap, best friend’s father, second chances romance about Didrik who’s had a crush on his best friend’s father, Johan, since forever

Didrik would do anything for his best friend, Filip, including taking pictures of Filip’s dad, Johan, for a charity calendar. Naked pictures, of beautiful, irresistible, wonderful Johan, who was single-handedly responsible for Didrik’s gay awakening. He was also happily married and unavailable…until he wasn’t.

After losing his husband five years ago, Johan finally seems ready to move on, and as they start the charity project, everything changes. With every meeting, every conversation, every pose for the camera, the attraction between them swells and grows, until it burns hot and threatens to consume them.

Their interactions, their relationship is surprisingly easy, but it’s not without its challenges. The age difference for one thing. Telling Filip for another. Is their connection enough to last? Can they overcome the hurdles to get the happily ever after they deserve?

M/M contemporary / 17545 words

JMS Books :: Amazon :: Books2Read

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All the stories are available to purchase individually, but you can also buy them in a box set, both in ebook but also in paperback. So if you wanna celebrate Naked Gardening Day today, without risking rose thorns where rose thorns should never be, or without accidentally sit in a patch of stinging nettles, why not read one or all of the Naked Gardening stories? Curl up on your porch (if you have one) with the beverage of your choice and indulge in some romance? Or maybe take your book for a walk around the block, and try to see if any of your neighbors are celebrating Naked Gardening Day, and if they do, you can recommend some reading for them when they’re done with the gardening chores. Or bring a blanket to a friend’s lawn or a park, and spend some time reading?

I’m going to grab my brand-new paperback box set and re-read the stories. Tell me your favorite and I’ll tell you mine. 😁

JMS Books :: Amazon :: Books2Read

Celebrate World Naked Gardening Day with five gay romance novellas!

The Naked Gardening Day stories are a collaboration between Holly Day, Nell Iris, A.L. Lester, K.L. Noone, and Amy Spector. They comprise five MM romance novellas featuring being naked in a garden somehow, somewhere, to mark World Naked Gardening Day on the first Saturday of May.

Contains the stories:

Perfect Rows by Holly Day: Everything would’ve been perfect if Grayson hadn’t been forced to share his garden with Cam. Grayson wants to grow vegetables, and he has a plan for how to do it. Cam loves flowers in perfect rows, but Grayson is incapable of growing things in lines. Most days end in conflict, at least until Grayson realizes he can shut Cam up by kissing him. But will they ever be able to agree about the garden?

Strike a Pose by Nell Iris: Didrik would do anything for his BFF Filip, including taking naked pictures for a charity calendar of his dad Johan, the stunning man responsible for Didrik’s gay awakening. Now a widower, Johan is ready to move on. As they start the project, the attraction between them grows. Their connection is easy, but not without challenges. Will they get their happily ever after?

The Death of Digby Catch by Amy Spector: When August Catch arrives at the Arachne’s Loom estate to collect his late Uncle Digby’s things, he is thrown together with Theo Webb, the heir to the Webb family fortune. The attraction is instant. When Theo begins to suspect Digby may have been murdered, he and August will need to work together to discover the killer, and not let the thing growing between them be a distraction.

The Hermit of Aldershill Manor by K.L. Noone: Charlie’s ready to start a new job and life at Aldershill Manor. As a historian, he’s thrilled to dive into the archives. And he can run from a messy break-up. And explore lovely gardens, too. Lionel does not like tourists, conversations, or social niceties. But he loves his job: helping beauty grow. When he finds the new historian caught in a storm, he offers shelter, which might bloom into more.

Warning! Deep Water by A.L. Lester: Spring 1947. England has just come through the worst winter in living memory. Peter’s been drifting since he left the army a year ago. George is lonely, despite the busy horticultural nursery he owns. Peter’s decision to take a swim in the irrigation tank presents them both with the chance to reach out and help each other. Can two misfits find a way to fit together with someone after all?