The World 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 between 16,000 and 20,000 words, featuring being naked in a garden somehow, somewhere, to mark World Naked Gardening Day on May 7, 2022!
Ofelia Gränd (who also writes as Holly), Nell Iris and A. L. Lester write together in the early mornings in our Online Office. This involves a fair amount of chat and discussion about what we’re working on. As Holly, Ofelia writes stories to mark all the different holidays throughout the year and one day in December Nell and Ally were teasing her about what she should write next and joked that World Naked Gardening Day would be an excellent idea … and lo and behold, here are five of us writing on a similar theme.
Warning! Deep Water! by A.L. Lester
Links: Goodreads :: JMS :: UBL
Celebrate World Naked Gardening Day with gay romance, 1940s England, hurt-comfort, swimming & salad vegetables!
It’s 1947. George is going through the motions, sowing seeds and tending plants and harvesting crops. The nursery went on without him perfectly well during the war and he spends a lot of time during the working day hiding from people and working on his own. In the evening he prowls round the place looking for odd jobs to do.
It’s been a long, cold winter and Peter doesn’t think he’ll ever get properly warm or clean again. Finding a place with heated greenhouses and plenty of nooks and crannies to kip in while he’s recovering from nasty flu was an enormous stroke of luck. He’s been here a few days now. The weather is beginning to warm up and he’s just realised there’s a huge reservoir of water in one of the greenhouses they use to water the plants. He’s become obsessed with getting in and having an all-over wash.
What will George do when he finds a scraggy ex-soldier bathing in his reservoir? What will Peter do? Is it time for them to both stop running from the past and settle down?
The Death of Digby Catch by Amy Spector
Links: Goodreads :: JMS
It had been more than eighteen years since August Catch’s uncle Digby had disappeared to the Cape to mourn the death of his sister. So, when August arrives at Arachne’s Loom to collect his late uncle’s things, he wasn’t expecting to find stories of a man larger than life. Or the very real possibility that Digby’s death may not have been from natural causes.
Theo Webb has had few people in his life that he loved, and fewer still he could trust. But the estate groundskeeper, Digby Catch, had been one of them. Returning home for his funeral, he’s thrown together with Digby’s nephew, and the attraction is instant. But so is Theo’s certainty that things surrounding Digby’s death don’t add up and that at least one person isn’t telling the truth.
Discovering a killer is difficult when someone is desperate to keep more than just their identity a secret. And when all the clues point in one direction, even Theo isn’t sure what to think. The two of them must work together if they’re going to solve a murder, and not let the thing growing between them be a distraction.
But then, maybe a distraction is exactly what they need.
The Hermit of Aldershill Manor by K.L. Noone
Links: Goodreads :: JMS
Charlie Ash is ready to start a new job and a new life at Aldershill Manor. As a historian, he’s thrilled to dive into the estate’s archives. And he can hide from all the memories of his messy break-up back in California, where the man he’d thought he’d marry left him instead. He can find solace in exploring Aldershill’s famous gardens … until he’s caught in the rain, and found by a gardener.
Lionel Briar enjoys making people happy, as long as he doesn’t have to talk to them. He does not like tourists, small talk, or social obligations. But he does like plants and history and his job, taking care of Aldershill’s historic gardens, helping beauty grow.
So when Lionel discovers the estate’s adorable new historian caught in a summer thunderstorm in his gardens, he offers Charlie the shelter of his home on the grounds … a moment of rescue that could bloom into more
Strike a Pose by Nell Iris
Links: JMS Books :: Goodreads : : UBL
Less Gardening, More Nakedness
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?
Perfect Rows by Holly Day
Links: Goodread :: JMS Books :: UBL
Everything would’ve been perfect if Grayson hadn’t been forced to share his garden with Cam.
Everything would’ve been perfect if Grayson Dawe hadn’t been forced to share his garden with Camden Hensley. Grayson has everything he needs in life — a job, friends, a house he loves, and a garden. He wants to grow enough vegetables to cover his needs over the summer, and he has a plan for how to achieve it.
Camden Hensley loves his garden. He loves beautiful flowers in perfect rows, sweet scents and buzzing bees, but his neighbor, Grayson, messes everything up. He mixes vegetables with flowers in the growing beds and is incapable of placing plants in straight lines. And when Cam pulls out the plants growing in the wrong place, Grayson snarls at him.
Grayson doesn’t want to fight with Camden, but he’s completely unreasonable. Cam only wants Grayson to stop creating chaos and to grow flowers instead of vegetables. Neither of them is willing to back down, and days in the garden usually end in shouting matches, at least until Grayson realizes he can shut Cam up by kissing him. But will they ever be able to agree about what plants should grow where?
About Us
You can find out more about The World Naked Gardening Day writers on our websites: Holly Day, Nell Iris, A.L. Lester, K.L. Noone, and Amy Spector. We hope you have as much fun reading the stories as we did writing them!
