Authors from the genre are posting throughout the month, and there will be lots of prizes and giveaways, including a grand prize giveaway of ten books. For the full schedule of guest posts check out this list, and be sure to stop by the blog as often as you can during the month because there will be individual giveaways too.
My post will be up at Scorching Book Reviews on April 28th. Hope you can stop by.
Big thanks to Nix and Scorching Book Reviews for hosting and celebrating LGBT books.
I wrote a new three-word scenario this week. It’s called Partners and includes the following three words:
Stop by my website to check out this snippet with cops Sawyer and Finn. Or you can read it below.
Partners
by Sloan Parker
Sawyer drew in a long breath and leaned back on his elbows. His T-shirt lay crumpled in a ball beside him on the mattress, and his jeans were open at the front. He didn’t bother to zip them up. In a few minutes he and Finn would get back to where they’d been headed.
Who the hell got half naked, kissed like they’d been doing five minutes ago, and then stopped before they got to the fucking? Something was seriously messed up between them.
Finn stood across the room, his back to the wall, his arms folded across his bare chest. He sported a scowl that said everything Sawyer didn’t want to hear.
Or maybe he did. Maybe they needed to have this conversation. Get everything out in the open. Finally.
They hadn’t slept together in weeks. Every night after work, they hung out at Sawyer’s apartment, watching one of those ’70s cops shows, not talking, not even laughing at the stupid-ass crooks or the retro hairstyles they usually mocked all through the show.
Sawyer threw Finn a smirk, knowing that alone would piss him off. “You’re mad at me.”
Finn kept his hard gaze locked on Sawyer’s chest. “I’m not mad.”
“Fuck that. You’ve been mad at me since that day in the parking garage. Like it was my fault.”
“You got shot.”
“I didn’t ask the guy to shoot me.”
Finn made eye contact for the first time since the kissing ended. “You might as well have. You went at him like you had no training at all.”
Sawyer sat up with a jolt. “Are you calling me a shitty cop?
“No. I’m calling you a reckless one.”
“I know you don’t mean that.” Slowly, like he might spook Finn if he moved too fast, Sawyer got off the bed and went to stand in front of him. “Just like I knew in that garage you’d have my back. Like always.”
Finn met his gaze again and grunted out a laugh. He didn’t let up on the tense posture, though.
Sawyer grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him forward until they were eye to eye, their foreheads almost touching. “Just admit it. You’re pissed about the shooting because it freaked you out like nothing else on the job ever has. And it freaked you out because you’re in love with me.” He drew him forward until they were back to the kissing, this time their mouths and tongues and bodies coming together slowly, tenderly.
When they finally parted, Finn leaned against the wall again, the tension in his body long gone. “God, you’re infuriating.” He smiled with a softness Sawyer had never seen before.
“And you’re right,” Finn added. “About everything. So don’t ever get your ass shot again.”
Sawyer gripped him by the waistband of his jeans and tugged until Finn was in his arms again. “Deal.”
Copyright (c) March 2013 by Sloan Parker
This short has now been revised and expanded into a longer story. It is now available in the e-book FRIENDS AND LOVERS.
Read more 3-word scenarios and other free fiction by Sloan Parker
(c) istockphoto.com, PepitoPhotos 2007
I blogged at the Loose Id author blog this week, sharing about the challenges and rewards of the writing process. Having finished writing HOW TO SAVE A LIFE and my holiday short story, I’m looking back at completed works and how strange it feels to have taken a spark of an idea and created a coherent (I hope) story.
Read the full post: The only easy day was yesterday
I shared my latest Three-Word Scenario on my site today. Stop by my website to read my gay m/m romance scenario using the following words. Or check it out below.
7/6/2015: Edited story link and added text below.
Everything About You
by Sloan Parker
I stopped with the jigsaw puzzle piece held in mid-air and stared back at Joe. I couldn’t have heard him correctly.
He was on the couch across the room from me, leaning forward with his elbows propped on those strong, muscular thighs. He had a crooked smirk on his face, that innocent, yet wicked expression usually reserved for the moment right before he was about to attack my dick with his lips. I could almost see a halo over his head and a red pitchfork in his hand. Maybe I had heard him correctly after all.
He added, “I think that piece is part of his beak.”
“What?”
He pointed at the puzzle piece in my hand.
“Oh.” I inserted the three-sided section into the last empty space that made up the red-winged blackbird’s beak.
Now that Joe had asked the question, and the words were hanging there between us, I felt like the biggest dork with the folding table before me covered in puzzle pieces sorted by shape and color. For weeks now I’d been putting together the puzzles my grandma had left behind when she’d passed away. I met his gaze again and studied him.
“What?” he asked.
“Why now?”
“I’ve been watching you put together these bird and rabbit puzzles since the funeral, and I realized something tonight.”
“What?” That I’m the biggest dork on the planet who can’t figure out how to say good-bye to his grandma?
“I love everything about you, and I want to marry you.”
Copyright (c) August 2012 by Sloan Parker
Read more 3-word scenarios and other free fiction by Sloan Parker
Part 5 of MORE THAN JUST A GOOD BOOK is now available on my website. You can read part five here or download parts 1-5 of the serial story in one PDF. Hope you enjoy reading Mark and Scott’s continuing story. I probably won’t work on the next installment until I get the last of HOW TO SAVE A LIFE sent off to a couple people for feedback. I’ll keep you posted on the progress of both.
Want to be among the first to read the next installment of MORE THAN JUST A GOOD BOOK? You can sign up for my newsletter here. I announce the link there first, along with a giveaway for free books in every issue and other exclusive content.
Also, I’m guest blogging at Jessica Freely’s blog today, talking about the importance of reading for me as a writer and giving away a PRINT copy of MORE. Stop by and leave a comment to enter. The giveaway ends on Monday, July 9th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be contacted via email.