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Wow, it's the last CSR Discussion day of 2020! Hopefully everyone has had a great holiday season, and enjoyed the stories featured. I asked a few questions of the authors featured this month the same questions. Enjoy the answers I got back, then share any thoughts you had as you read their ficlets in a comment below! Mikiesboy with The Christmas Cracker How do you celebrate the Holidays? Usually we have a large reunion in early December with the whole family from around Toronto and Niagara Falls. Then we meet with Michael's parents, and his brother on Christmas Day. It's a pretty traditional Christmas. This year is Christmas under lock down. So, just me and my Husband and a zoom get together with everyone else. I'm cooking our traditional meal, only smaller for the pair of us. What is a favorite holiday memory you'd like to share? I don't really have a favourite memory. I look forward to Christmas annually. It always fills me with a sense of wonder and fellowship. Do you have a favourite line or scene in The Christmas Cracker. This part makes me hold my breath for a second, it's among my favourites: What is your favorite Holiday Story: Well my favourite is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. On GA my favourite is this wonderful, naughty version: Bill W with A Gay Christmas Carol How do you celebrate the holidays? This has changed over the years. When the kids were younger and we lived closer to our other relatives, we used to throw a big dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and invite the entire extended family. Sometimes we'd be like the Currie family from The Castaway Hotel series and have up to 30 people at our house for those meals. Now that I'm older and many of those relatives have died and the kids live a long way away from me and each other, I merely chat with them using all of these marvelous new technologies. What is a favorite holiday memory you'd like to share? It's another idea I stole and used in The Castaway Hotel series. On Christmas Eve when the kids were younger, one of the adults would dress up in a Santa suit and then go outside to peek in the picture window so the kids could see him. We would rotate who played Santa so the kids wouldn't figure it out, and some of the women even took a turn doing this. After Santa appeared, we'd use that to urge the kids that they had to go to bed so Santa could leave his presents and this ended a lot of hassles about them wanting to stay up longer. Do you have a favorite line or scene in A Gay Christmas Carol? What is your favorite holiday story? Every Christmas I have to watch at least one version of A Christmas Carol or I don't feel right. My favorite is the 1951version staring Allistair Sims, but I also like the 1984 version with George C. Scott and the 1999 version staring Patrick Stuart. I also enjoy 1970 musical version, Scrooge, so I guess you can tell why I wrote A Gay Christmas Carol.

That's right, this month we have a holiday triple feature! These Christmas stories are like sprinkles of joy you can use to brighten your day and hearts. Just the right length for a short read, please enjoy these stories brought to you from 2 of our Signature Authors and 1 of our Classic Authors. The Christmas Cracker by @Mikiesboy Length: 1,528 Description: Hawken picked up the red Christmas Cracker and offered the other end to Lori-Anne. She grasped it. They pulled. It snapped with a satisfying bang. Hawk carefully pulled out the contents. The others had received little gifts ... but his was different. He looked at Harish, who smiled ... A Reader said: This story was a sweet bit of Christmas magic. ~ dughlas Bear in Winter by @comicfan Length: 4,181 Description: William Watthews runs the local recreation center. Most people call him, Will or Bear, but it seems someone has other plans for him. Just what is going on at the rec center and what will it mean to Bear? A Reader said: I have to come back to like this, but I loved the story.. It was absolutely sweet and wonderful and full of heart. ~ Defiance19 A Gay Christmas Carol by @Bill W Length: 9,495 Description: Scrooge becomes a religious zealot named Franklin Phelps. He has some troubling beliefs about gays and on Christmas Eve he first encounters the spirit of his former associate, Patsy Falwell, followed by three ghosts that attempt to help him redefine his position, but will they succeed? A Reader said: lol well i like the « revised » gay xmas carol 😉 ~ Danilo Syrtis Don't forget to come back and share your thoughts on the CSR Discussion day, Monday, December 28th.

Did you catch Monday's blog featuring Bill W's story, Consolation Parents? It's a short story written for the 2014 Summer Anthology The Backup Plan. The story is one of many of Bill's short stories written for the anthologies. Have you read them? He explores many different themes, social conventions, and more all packed into tiny bite-sized plots that can capture readers. This one pulled me in as a parent. I picked this scene because it resonated so well with the emotions and showed just how things can be, even in the midst of an emotional upheaval and trouble in family. Sometimes authors can be tempted to take the drama too far, or make things just that much more complicated that creates a situation that goes beyond rea life, but Bill's story felt like a story I could have told or been told by a friend who needed a sympathetic ear through a tough time. To read more click here.

As the year speeds up, seasons change, and my own kids grow and continue to make me older (so not nice of them!) I often find myself pulled toward stories that feature parents. But not every story is always sweetness and light and happy--and life is truly represented in this tale that will tug at your heart and maybe make you reach for a tissue or two as well. One of Bill's many anthology entries, you will have missed out if you haven't read Consolation Parents before. Length: 5,161 Description: Scott Fisher received an unexpected phone call early one morning, which ended up changing his and his boyfriend's lives. Although they didn't realize it beforehand, they were vital clogs in a contingency plan that had far reaching consequences. A Reader said: Very touching story. Never like tragedy, but happy when things turn out as positively as it did. ~ Quiet Man If you want to spread the word about Bill W's story, download the graphic below and add it to your signature! Make sure you come back on Wednesday to see the excerpt I chose to share!