Sloan Parker's Blog

As a thank-you to my readers and all readers of the romance genre, I’m holding a giveaway for free gift certificates (winners’ choice between Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and All Romance eBooks).

Here’s how the giveaway works:

One random winner will be selected from all who comment on this post. Additionally, for every 50 entries another gift certificate will be given away (up to a maximum of 6 total winners). All winners will have their choice from the following options:

• Option 1: $25 gift certificate to amazon.com
• Option 2: $25 gift certificate to barnesandnoble.com
• Option 3: $25 gift certificate to allromanceebooks.com

Rules and instructions for the giveaway are listed below. Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST Sunday, January 1, 2012 or as soon as there are 250 entries (whichever comes first).

Instructions / Rules

• To enter, leave a comment on this blog post indicating that you’d like to enter and share what you love about reading romances.
• Be sure to include a valid email address in the email form field in order to be entered in the drawing. Your email address is for my use only (in order to contact the winners). It will NOT be published on the blog or used for marketing/promotional purposes.
• If for any reason you cannot leave a comment, email me and I’ll post your comment for you (that way everyone can see how many entries there are).
• Winners are randomly drawn from the total list of entries.
• One entry per person please.
• Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST Sunday, January 1, 2012 or as soon as there are 250 entries (whichever comes first).
• Winners will be announced on the blog and privately emailed within 48 hours after the giveaway ends.
• If I do not hear back from any winner with his or her selection within two weeks, I reserve the right to select another winner.

Feel free to share the link to this blog post. There’s also a direct link to the giveaway on my website.

Good luck to all who enter and thank you again for your love of reading!

Also, for those of you interested in my latest release, Take Me Home, a friends-to-lovers romance, check out Chris’s post at Stumbling Over Chaos for a chance to win an ebook of Take Me Home. (Thanks, Chris, for hosting the giveaway!)

Happy reading in 2012!

Much love and happiness to you all.
Sloan

Reminder: To enter the gift certificate giveaway, leave a comment on this blog post indicating that you’d like to enter and share what you love about reading romances.

Thanks to author Drea Becraft, a huge group of authors are participating in a blog hop giveaway. There are over 190 authors offering up prizes on their blogs. All the contests will start Friday, December 16, 2011 and will go until midnight Sunday, December 18, 2011. (Not sure, but that might be midnight EST). Just go to the blog hop page and click to each author’s blog to enter their giveaways.

For my contest, I’m giving away one e-book copy of TAKE ME HOME. The winner will be selected randomly from all who comment here on this post. Be sure to include your email address in the email form field so I can contact the winner.

Also, I was recently interviewed at Joyfully Jay, sharing more about the writing of Take Me Home. You can also enter there for another chance to win a copy of the book. Just leave a comment on the post for a chance to win. The giveaway closes Tuesday, December 20 at 11:59 pm EST.

Happy Holidays!

Edited to add: Thanks guys for all your interest in reading Take Me Home. And for the wonderful comments about my writing and the rainbow awards. I have the best readers!!

Thanks again, everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

I mentioned the other day there would be a few more chances to win a copy of TAKE ME HOME. The lovely Janna at Rarely Dusty Books invited me to do a guest blog today. I’m talking about the setting of the train in Take Me Home and how setting can be used to help shape the story and the characters.

Comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book on release day. The winner will be announced on December 13.

What are some of your favorite settings in a romance? I’d love to hear from you!

Elisa Rolle is hosting an anniversary party on her blog today. Stop by to congratulate her and enter to win a free gift. There’s a huge list and it still looks like there are a lot of items left as of this posting.

Congratulations to Elisa for much success on her blog and a huge thanks for all she does for LGBT books.

Sorry I didn’t get anything posted yesterday. It was a crazy Monday, but a good kind of crazy. Today I’m going through the line edits for Take Me Home. Should be getting cover art in the next few weeks. I’ll share the art and a new excerpt as soon as I can. It’s getting closer!

I’m thrilled to share that part 3 of More Than Just a Good Book is now available. You can read the opening of it below. I’ve also updated the cover art based on tips I learned in a publishing class. A special thank-you to Connie and Rosie for critiquing the story.

If you check it out, I hope you enjoy this next installment of Mark and Scott’s story.

More Than Just a Good Book: Part Three

Mark had no words. He just stared down at Scott. He couldn’t help himself. Never had he met anyone this smart and sexy, so utterly inspiring. “You’re pretty cool, you know that?”

Scott met his stare. “Me?”

“Hell yeah, you.”

“Oh.” Scott searched Mark’s eyes. “Have you…” He looked away and shifted his ass between Mark’s thighs.

“What?”

Scott stilled and met his gaze again. “Have you done this a lot?”

“Done what?” Mark moved to lie on his side beside Scott again, and Scott followed until they were face-to-face. The intimacy of being in bed with a guy long after the sex washed over him. This was crazy. He was usually the one coming on strong. Now it was Scott, with his curiosity and quiet, nervous charm, who was the one slamming into Mark’s resolve to take this slow. To keep his emotions in check. Or else he’d push Scott too far too fast. He didn’t want to scare Scott off. He could come on strong, could be too intense for most guys.

Scott said, “Bring men home you barely know.”

“Sometimes.” None of them had been this interesting, this meaningful, not on a first date. He kept that to himself.

Scott’s brow furrowed, and then, in a swift move, he turned onto his back.

Shit. That look. Hurt? Confused? Mark didn’t want Scott to misunderstand. What they’d done at the library and again at his apartment was special—damn special. But yet again, he held back from saying too much. Not now. Not yet. He sat up and leaned against the headboard. “I’m not all about getting laid. It’s just sometimes I meet someone, and I bring him home.”

“Of course.” Scott sat up and turned away, his legs swinging off the side of the bed. “I get it. I mean, I know I’m weird. Not going out that much…not sleeping around…”

“That’s not weird.” He couldn’t hold back on all of it. “It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted anyone to stay in bed with me. Since I’ve wanted to talk with a guy.”

Scott turned and met Mark’s gaze. “But you’re talking to me.”

“Yeah. That’s the difference with you.”

Scott cocked his head to the side, not as animated as before, but he was still staring with an openness that called to Mark. “Difference?”

“I want to get to know you. I’d like to see you again.”

Scott pulled one leg onto the bed and turned toward him. “Yeah?”

Mark hesitated. This could be more than he’d let himself hope for with any man. More than he was ready to put himself on the line for. So far Scott was proving he was worth the chance. Even with only the possibility of four months. “Yeah.”

“That…that would be—” Scott stood. “I don’t know how to—I should go.” He glanced around the room, his head jerking side to side so quickly he’d give himself whiplash if he didn’t let up. “Where are my pants?”

Mark sat up. “Living room. Scott, what’s wrong?”

Read more

My latest short story “SWEPT AWAY” is now available to read at the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads. If you’re not a member you can also read it on my website or download a copy. (For those who are not members of the Goodreads group I recommend you check it out. It’s a great community for readers of m/m romance. Even if you don’t enjoy participating in book discussions there’s a lot of other entertaining and informative threads, even for lurkers, such as reading challenges, book giveaways, author release news, online retailer sales, and more.)

If you check out “SWEPT AWAY” I hope you enjoy it. It’s a romantic one dedicated to Sean who shared the photo and words that started Eddie and Mike’s story.

Blurb for Swept Away
The biggest case of Eddie’s career and nothing’s going right. He’s stuck in a stifling courtroom with the air conditioning on the fritz during the worst heat wave in years, and the judge has denied his latest motion. He just wants to spend a quiet night celebrating with his partner, Mike, on their fifteenth anniversary.

But Mike has a surprise in mind this year. A surprise that may be more than Eddie imagined possible.

Add it to your bookshelf

Thanks for checking it out.
Sloan

I have a cover for my new short story “Swept Away” (coming soon to Goodreads and sloanparker.com).

Blurb for Swept Away
The biggest case of Eddie’s career and nothing’s going right. He’s stuck in a stifling courtroom with the air conditioning on the fritz during the worst heat wave in years, and the judge has denied his latest motion. He just wants to spend a quiet night celebrating with his partner, Mike, on their fifteenth anniversary.

But Mike has a surprise in mind this year. A surprise that may be more than Eddie imagined possible.

Sloan’s busy working on her manuscript today, so she asked if I’d like to do a guest blog. I have a feeling I’m going to owe Sloan a lot (she’s writing about me in her serial story More Than Just a Good Book), so I figured I’d better say yes.

My name’s Scott Murphy. Right now I’m going to college in Ohio, but I’m originally from Elmore, Michigan, a rural small town where I grew up with my dad. It’s the kind of place with massive oak trees lining the streets, evenly trimmed green grass behind every picket fence, and a volunteer fire department which includes the town mayor, the local barber, and the president of the bank. Yeah, it’s that kind of picture-postcard town where everything looks perfect. A little too perfect. Because nothing really is when you take a closer look.

I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to say what this blog is about. The thing is, I’ve been really nervous about this. I don’t like being in the spotlight, and when I sat down to write this post earlier today, I drew a blank on what to talk about. I’m still in college. I haven’t done anything with my life yet. What do I have to say? But I made a promise, and I don’t like going back on my word. So here I am.

I guess the problem is my brain’s been preoccupied with this amazing guy Mark who I met where he works at the university library. I’m not sure “met” covers it, though. I was going to say, we went on a date the other night, but you know, I don’t know if it was a date.

We had sex. Twice. Amazing-I’m-going-to-be-thinking-about-that-for-the-rest-of-my-life sex. Once at the library (yes, INSIDE the library. Can you believe that? I still can’t). Then later at his apartment.

Before that, he’d shown me around the library’s comic book archive. Then after the sex we talked. Some. He told me what his plans are for after graduation, and I told him something no one knows about me except my dad.

But is that a date? Can you call it a date when it’s mostly sex? How about if you have sex twice? Do you need to go out for dinner, a movie, or at least drinks first?

I would tell you what happened at the end of the “date” but Sloan might kick my ass for revealing too much. I really don’t want to piss her off. I’d like to get laid again someday. I mean, it’s not like I had much action before she decided Mark should walk over to where I was sitting in the library. Guys like him never talk to me. Not that I’m complaining. It was the best sex of my life. Mark did stuff no other guy has ever done to me before. Maybe that means it’s a date simply because I had a fantastic time with him. I don’t know.

What do you guys think? What constitutes an official date in your book? I mean, if my dad calls, can I tell him I had a date? I think he wants me to find a boyfriend more than I do.

Thanks for the help,
Scott

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Those of you who follow the blog regularly may have seen last week that I finished editing part 2 of More Than Just a Good Book. Mark and Scott’s short story was the first fiction I shared on sloanparker.com, and I’m excited to continue their story in a serial novel.

You can now read part two or download both parts on my site. I’ll be announcing future installments via my newsletter.

I hope you enjoy reading more about Mark and Scott as they find out what else is better than a good book.

For those of you in the US, I hope you have a safe and fun 4th of July!

I don’t have it added to my site yet, but I just had to share my news. I finished the next installment for MORE THAN JUST A GOOD BOOK featuring Mark and Scott. An excerpt and link for part two will be in the next issue of my newsletter, which will be sent out sometime this weekend. Then after that I’ll post the link on my site and here on the blog next week.

This story is both a gift to my readers and a way for me to explore a new writing process. I’ve never polished a story one chapter at a time, and so far this has been a fun, interesting change for me.

Here’s how the serial story will work:

• I’ve outlined a short novel (with at least 10 parts) for Mark and Scott. As I have time between my other writing projects, I’ll work on this story.
• As they are released, links to each installment will be available via my newsletter, website, and announced here on my blog.
• After I finish the last installment, I’ll go back through and do a final review/edit of the entire story as a whole.
• When complete, all installments of this serial story will be compiled into one ebook.

Again, I’ll be sending out the newsletter with the link to part two this weekend.

I hope you enjoy Mark and Scott’s story.

Have a good one!
Sloan