Leading gay film producer and distributor Guest House Films has announced the creation of it’s new publishing arm, Guest House Books.
The subsidiary will launch with the publication of Make The Yuletide Gay: The Novel by Rob Williams, based on his screenplay of the company’s hit 2009 Christmas comedy feature film.
While Guest House Films is known worldwide for its production and distribution of gay-themed films, the launch of Guest House Books will let the company’s fans enhance their movie-going experiences through the publication of novelisations of some of the company’s films as well as screenplays of all Guest House Films productions.
In addition, Guest House Books plans to publish gay-themed books from a variety of authors, including its founders, Rob Williams and Rodney Johnson, the author of the Rinnah Two Feathers young-adult mystery series, The Secret of Dead Man’s Mine and The Curse of the Royal Ruby.
Make The Yuletide Gay: The Novel was funded entirely by a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign earlier this year. The Kickstarter campaign funded a limited-edition run of 100 books with a unique cover that were hand signed and numbered by author Rob Williams for the first 100.
In Make The Yuletide Gay, Olaf “Gunn” Gunnunderson is an out-and-proud college student with a secret – his parents (the bubbly Anya and the perpetually stoned Sven) still don’t know that he’s gay. So when his boyfriend, Nathan Stanford, shows up unannounced at the Gunnunderson house over Christmas break, Gunn finds himself juggling his reality with the lies he has told his family for years. Will the truth come out before Gunn does?
In addition to the novelisation of the movie, the book includes a new epilogue that gives a brief glimpse into the characters one year after the movie ends, as well as an original short story, When Olaf Met Nathan, which details the first meeting between the two college freshmen, randomly assigned as roommates but destined to become much more.
“Make The Yuletide Gay has been popular with audiences ever since it started screening, and with this novel, fans can learn more about the film’s characters and experiences beyond what was shown in the movie,” said Williams. “It was very exciting for me as a writer to revisit these characters and to offer readers a glimpse into what happens next for them, and I hope readers enjoy all the new material in the book.”
“We have produced and distributed movies and soundtracks in the past, so moving into book publishing seems like a natural extension of the Guest House brand,” said Johnson. “We are committed to telling gay-themed stories in a variety of ways, and we look forward to the fan feedback on our first book, Make The Yuletide Gay: The Novel.”
