Sloan Parker Blog

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted an update on my writing progress, so I thought I’d share where I’m at with my stories.

If I didn’t mention it before I’m back to revising Walter & Kevin’s book, an erotic romantic suspense set in the same world as More. My goal is to have this book finished and submitted before the end of 2011. That may be pushing it since I usually spend more time revising than I do writing the first draft (and I have some research left to do), but I think it’s good to have a goal that pushes you to work hard. That said, I won’t submit it until I can feel really good about the story. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

So far I’ve worked through some issues that were in the beginning of the first draft and came up with changes that I’m really happy with. I sliced and diced a few scenes, and it really made the story stronger so far. I also added one scene that knocked my socks off, even as I was writing it. I’m still amazed when that happens.

I’ve also drafted a new scene for my serial story More Than Just a Good Book. I’m hoping to add one or two more scenes and then publish part 3 in late October. I’ll share a link for part 3 when it’s available on my website or you can sign up for my newsletter to get the announcement.

Since my writing plans changed a bit during 2011, I thought I’d post the answer to a question I often get asked.

FAQ: Are you still going to write more with Luke, Richard, and Matthew?

Definitely. I still plan to complete 2 more books with Luke, Richard, and Matthew. I had originally planned to write one stand-alone release in between each MORE book. After Breathe, I took the time to outline all 3 of the remaining More books (which included Walter’s) and sent the story synopses to my publisher. They were interested in seeing Walter’s book next (at that time More was still a new release and we weren’t sure how well it would do with readers). Before I had a chance to finish Walter’s story, there was a submission call from my publisher for Christmas stories. I had already started notes for Take Me Home, so I worked up a proposal. That proposal was approved, and I took a break from Walter’s book to finish writing Take Me Home, which is now scheduled for a December 13, 2011 release. And I have to say, I’m so glad I did that because I love how Take Me Home turned out.

Now I’m back working on Walter & Kevin’s story, which has a working title but I’ll wait to share when I’m closer to finishing the book since it may change.

I’m not sure if I will be writing another stand-alone contemporary or Richard’s book next. I’m leaning toward Richard’s book, but in either case I will be finishing both Richard and Matthew’s stories. The boys have more to learn, about each other and themselves.

The above answer also explains the year gap between books. Since finishing Breathe, I have outlined 4 novels, written one manuscript, and completed a first draft for another, both novel-length. This means I should move more quickly through the next couple of projects in 2012.

Q: I don’t see your ebook when I search Amazon.com. Is it available for the Kindle?

A: I’ve had this question come up a few times so I thought I’d explain.

If you’re searching for my ebooks on Amazon.com and key in “Sloan Parker” in the search bar on the homepage, you’ll get one of my novels but not the other. To find MORE you have to search within a department such as “Books” or “Kindle Books” or a category within those departments. However, BREATHE is available by searching anywhere.

Why is this? I contacted Amazon and learned it’s because MORE is labeled as “adult” content while BREATHE is not. Not sure how that happens, but the limitation in where you can search for it didn’t occur until several weeks after my publisher released the book at Amazon. My guess is the excerpt for MORE is highly explicit so either Amazon or reader comments/complaints bumped it to an “adult” rating. If anyone knows more specifics for how this label gets applied to a book, I’d be interested in learning more.

Now don’t get me wrong, MORE is adult content, so I have no issues with the labeling (although I wish the labeling was more consistent across all explicit content on Amazon.com and that all explicit materials were treated equally). I just wanted to explain how the search works for those who may have the same question as others have asked me.

So, if you’re looking for MORE for your Kindle on Amazon.com, it’s there. Just buried a bit. You can always go to my author page to view my books available on Amazon.com. Or you can search for my name directly via your Kindle since that searches the Kindle story only.

I’m guessing this limitation in searching for adult-labeled books may be the same for other erotic romances so don’t give up after one search. If there’s a book you really want from Amazon.com, drill into the “Kindle” or “Books” category and try the search again. I’m not sure how that works for print books, but I’m guessing it’s the same and you’ll need to browse to the “Books” category before performing a search.

This FAQ has also been added to my website’s FAQ page.

I finally got the FAQ page added to my website. It includes questions like When will More be available in print, When is your next book due out, and others.

I’ll keep adding the most common questions I get asked by readers as I have time.

Drop me a line if you have a question that isn’t answered on the FAQ page.

I’m thrilled to share that MORE was selected as a finalist in the First Book category of the More Than Magic RWA (Romance Writers of America) contest.

As I posted before, MORE and BREATHE were finalists in the Passionate Plume Contest and BREATHE won third place in the New England Reader’s Choice awards. (Final results for the More Than Magic and the Passionate Plume contests will be announced in July.)

I cannot tell you how blown away and thrilled I am with those results in this year’s RWA contests for my highly erotic m/m/m and angst-filled high-drama m/m love stories. Well done Luke, Richard, Matthew, Lincoln, and Jay!

A special thank-you to the New England, Passionate Ink, and Romance Writers Ink chapters, their contest coordinators for putting together the awards, and the judges. I was very impressed by the organization and professional communication from all. Also a huge kudos to these chapters for hosting contests that recognize digital-only books in electronic formats.

BREATHE recently received three wonderful reviews. I try not to get too focused on reviews for fear both the good and bad will mess with my head, but I have to say, I was thrilled to see such lovely comments. (oh, and don’t get me wrong. I love to SEE reviews for my work. Just not sure authors like me should read his/her own if they are going to interrupt the writing. Reviews are for the readers.)

A Best Book by Tuberose at Whipped Cream Reviews
“This is one of the best books I’ve read since I started reading m/m books. Sloan Parker does it again with her sophomore release. Her characters, Lincoln and Jay, are so well written that you fall in love with them and are cheering them on towards their happily ever after despite the odds against them.”

A Recommended Read from Doug at Dark Divas Reviews
“…to place two characters who have such a major event tying them together and holding them apart at the same time…it was captivating. And without giving anything away, I’ll simply state that this talented author has delivered. She has managed to create both as sympathetic, sexual, and lovable. Their relationship becomes something you not only want but need to see succeed.”

A Top Pick from DH Starr at The Romance Reviews
“The characters, their issues, and the action was organic, flowing beautifully from one scene to the next. The fact Ms. Parker has managed this with a large cast of characters and fast-paced movement is nothing short of masterful writing.”

The Sloan-is-celebrating GIVEAWAY

In celebration of this good news, I’d like to give a little something back to the universe…so I’m giving away free ebooks today. Here’s how it works…

• Comment on my blog post to enter the giveaway stating which of my ebooks (MORE or BREATHE) you’d like to win.
• FIVE of the commenters will be randomly selected to win their choice.
• The ebooks are available in winner’s choice of these formats: PDF, EPUB, PRC, LIT, or HTML.
• Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST on Saturday, January 22, 2011.
• Please don’t put any links in your comment. Sometimes those get caught in the spam filter.
• Do include your email address in the Email form field.

I’ll contact (via email) the winning five on Sunday.

Good luck!
Sloan

Update – To all who’ve entered the giveaway:

First off, thank you to those of you who already purchased one or both of my ebooks. As I have more releases, I hope you have a chance to win a future contest.

Looks like there are 18 entries in the giveaway. Since this was a quick weekend contest and you were all good enough to stop by and share which book you are interested in (and since I’m still in such a great mood), I’m going to say “forget the five” and am sending everyone who entered one free book. Look for an email from me verifying which book you want and asking you for a preferred format. Congratulations to all. If you don’t get an email from me by Monday morning, feel free to contact me in case I missed you or the email got lost.

I hope you enjoy the story!
Sloan

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I’m back online and very happy about it. Our cable modem died yesterday, so I wasn’t off-line for long, but it was still an annoyance. It’s amazing to me how much I use the damn internet in one day. From the dictionary to email to random questions where I want an immediate answer. I think maybe I’ll take a week off-line someday and see how long I can actually make it.

In more interesting news, I’ve got a few links to share.

Breathe is now available at…
All Romance eBooks
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Fictionwise

In related news…
Book Lovers Inc is celebrating its Blogoversary and they are having a giveaway, including a free copy of BREATHE. Happy Blogoversary, Book Lovers Inc!

And in other news…
This is cool: MORE has been nominated in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll. All nominations are selected by readers. Voting is open until January 26.

Thank you all for your continued interest and support. Have a fab weekend!
Sloan

Posting late again this week but wanted to share some exciting news about an award, an upcoming contest for readers, and a few reviews.

MORE wins a Rainbow Award
I am thrilled to announce that MORE won first place in the Best Gay Contemporary Romance category of the Rainbow Awards. I would’ve been excited to see my debut novel in the top 10, but to see it win was both shocking and fantastic. Thanks to Elisa for hosting the awards and the judges for volunteering their time. Congratulations to all the winners, including the other top winners in my category, Marie Sexton and Eden Winters! You can view the full list of categories and winners here.

Happy Holidays Reader Contest
Next week I’ll be starting my first Happy Holidays blog contest. I’m giving away gift cards and free ebooks. Be sure to check back on Monday to find out how to enter.

Reviews for BREATHE
Thought I’d share the links to some reviews and mini-reviews for BREATHE. Thanks to Chocolate Minx (at Literary Nymphs), Chris (at Stumbling Over Chaos), and Wave (at Reviews by Jessewave) for taking the time to read my second release. Reviewers are like gold to newer authors like me (every mention of our work helps us get noticed in the sea of new book releases).

And lastly this week, I just want to say thanks to everyone who has picked up a copy of BREATHE. I hope you’ve enjoyed Jay and Lincoln’s story.

Have a fab weekend everyone!
Sloan

I’m the guest at Tara Lain’s blog, sharing what I’ve learned from writing my two erotic romances, MORE and BREATHE. I’m also asking if you can tell when an author has passion (or not) for their story? Stop by and leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you think.

What I Learned Writing Two Erotic Romances

Thanks,
Sloan

Happy Friday! Hope everyone is doing well. I’ve had the best week. Does that sound like bragging? Really, I’m just feeling good this week and wanted to share. Just before we celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US, I took a week off from writing (which was both necessary for many reasons and incredibly scary since I haven’t done that in a long time). Well, this week I headed back into a more normal writing schedule, and things are moving along nicely.

Here’s where my current projects stand and some other news:

• Home Again
  I have a tentative title and a first draft for my friends-to-lovers story. For now I’m calling it HOME AGAIN. The draft is pretty rough, but I’m really happy with the story and characters. I can’t wait for everyone to meet Kyle and Evan.
• Walter Simon
  So now I’m back to working on Walter’s story (this book desperately needs a title, but nothing has come to me yet). It’s a stand-alone story with a secondary character from MORE, Walter Simon. I decided to take a break to get the first draft done on HOME AGAIN, but this week I was able to get back to Walter’s. I’ve kept the poor guy waiting on first base for far too long now.
• Contest News
  I’m going to be hosting a Happy Holidays contest on the blog this month. It’ll be winner’s choice of one free ebook from my work or any Loose Id title. Check back in the next week or so for details.
• Blogging News
  I’m going to be guest-blogging at author Tara Lain’s blog next week. I’ll be talking about the differences between writing MORE and BREATHE. If anyone has questions about either book, I’d love for you to stop by and post a comment. I’ll share the link to the blog when it’s live.
• Banners
  I have a couple of new banners and skyscrapers that I’m using for online advertising. Feel free to grab one for your own website or blog if you’d like. They can all be viewed here.

I’m hoping to do more Friday posts than I have been in the past few weeks. Some of these will be writing updates like this one. For those of you who follow the blog regularly, this might get a bit repetitive. I apologize for that, but I think it’ll be a good way to keep my updates easily accessible for those new to visiting my site as more people become familiar with me and my work.

If anyone has any questions about my books, my current projects, or anything at all, feel free to contact me or add your question in the comments section of this post.

Hope you all have a great weekend!
Sloan

I’ve already posted some of my original character details and pictures for Luke and Richard (from More). Now I’m sharing about Matthew.

These are directly from the original character sketch sheet, including the photos I used for inspiration before writing the book.

Matthew Stewart

Photos for Inspiration
The final result of what a character looks like may be nothing like the photo, but an image gives me something to visualize, making him a bit more real.

Sampling of Character Sketch & Personality Traits

• Full name: Matthew Stewart
• Nickname: his mom calls him Matty.
• Works at a music/book store in the mall.
• Lives with his mom whom he adores.
• His parents are divorced. Hasn’t seen his father since the man left, when Matthew was in high school.
• Came out in high school.
• Doesn’t like Chinese food. Loves Italian.
• Doesn’t have much in the way of a savings account.
• Strengths
  • Lively, energetic, funny (despite his shyness)
  • Always has a smile
  • Laughs a lot
  • Empathetic
  • Inquisitive. Curious. Asks questions.
• Weaknesses
  • Shy, nervous, self-conscious
  • Trusts too easily, even when others have failed him
  • Doesn’t speak up when he should
  • Speaks with uncertainty
  • Has issues with people who drink alcohol around him.
• Zodiac Sign: Scorpio (Source)
  • Life Pursuit: To survive against all opposition
  • Scorpios lead fate filled lives and have intense and dramatic personal relationships.
  • Old and wise beyond the average, Scorpios often know all the answers, except sometimes; they too often have difficulty finding what they need to develop their own happiness.
  • Coming to grips with their extraordinary emotional depths and sensitivity isn’t easy for those around them.
  • They are different from all other zodiac signs and this difference has them walking, working and loving to a different beat.
  • Their eyes often blaze with feelings that words never express, and beware on the days or nights they hide their feelings behind dark glasses, there is likely to be a storm of some kind brewing.
  • They often wear a mask. Too often they say “no” when they really mean “yes.”
  • Once they find true love they can be the most faithful dedicated of all partners.
  • When they are negative about something or someone, or critical of themselves, they can tend to get in their own way.

All my blog posts with behind the story information are also archived on my website at www.sloanparker.com

Hope you enjoyed a look at some of my initial ideas for Matthew.
Sloan