Friday Photo: Look at what I got in the mail

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

As a member of Romance Writers of America, I like to support the individual chapters who accept digital-first and digital-only books in their published author contests. Earlier this year, I entered Take Me Home in the Oklahoma RWA’s International Digital Awards. It won first place in the Contemporary Novel category, and I recently received this awesome plaque in the mail.

Huge thanks to the contest coordinators and judges for their time and efforts in running and judging such a professional contest, their tweets and other mentions of my book’s win, and for the beautiful personalized award. I love it!

The Good and Bad of my Blogging Hiatus

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

“Life can be like a roller coaster…
And just when you think you’ve had enough,
and you’re ready to get off the ride
and take the calm, easy merry-go round…
You change your mind, throw your hands in the air
and ride the roller coaster all over again.
That’s exhilaration…that’s living a bit on the edge…that’s being ALIVE.”

–Stacey Charter

Here’s some news from my recent blogging hiatus:

The Good News

The Bad

  • I lost my writing buddy in July. He held on for almost a year since his bad crash the vet thought he wouldn’t make it through. For most of that year, he did really well, so it was hard to see him lose all his strength and energy in the very end. He definitely wasn’t ready to go, and I wasn’t ready to let him. It’s not quite the same in my writing room anymore. I kept plugging away on the final edits for How to Save a Life (and it was nice to have something else to focus on), but it also made the moment bittersweet without him there.

Good-bye, my bubby. You made every day special in so many ways. Writing sure is lonelier without you.

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

(c) Sloan Parker 2012

 

MORE is a finalist in More Than Magic RWA contest

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.

ebooks as ebooks & Congrats to Breathe’s Cover Artist

Recently I decided to enter my 2010 book releases in a few RWA (Romance Writers of America) contests, not only because I am proud of my work (who knows if my explicit love stories will have a shot, but it was fun to enter), but also to support the individual chapters of RWA since the contests are often a way for chapters to earn money.

But I wanted to give my support (and money) to those chapters who recognize ebooks, and not ebooks that are printed and bound as print books (some require you to submit bound books even when entering an ebook). When I’m done entering the contests on my list, I’ll post the names of the chapters to thank them for accepting ebook submissions, but for now, I have news…

Included in the ones I’ve entered so far were two cover art contests.

Well, one of the contests has posted its results, and I’m happy to say, the Loose Id cover for BREATHE (cover artist: Valerie Tibbs) is a finalist in the Dunes & Dreams Picture Perfect Cover Contest. CONGRATULATIONS Valerie!!!

This contest looks at both the cover and the blurb together. Not only do I love this cover and the story (obviously), but I wrote the blurb, with a few tweaks by Loose Id, so I’m really happy with this contest final for many reasons.

Thank you again to Valerie and Loose Id for such a beautiful cover.
Sloan

RRW is Looking For Quotes About Writing

For all my writer friends out there…

Share Your Wisdom, Inspiration & Experience With Other Writers

Rainbow Romance Writers (RRW), a chapter of Romance Writers of America, is looking for volunteers to submit brief quotes about writing to be featured in our newsletter, the Pot of Gold.

The newsletter is published quarterly for members of RRW, writers of LGBT romances at various stages of their writing careers (new writers working on their first story to multi-published authors, as well as a few publishers and editors).

If anyone is interested in submitting an original quote, we’d love for you to share your wisdom, experience, inspiration, humor, etc. about writing. Quotes will be selected based on their relevance to the current newsletter’s theme (New Year/New Beginnings). Topics could include motivation, setting goals, starting a new project, trying something new, or others. General quotes about writing and why you write are also welcome. Quotes submitted before January 17, 2011 will be considered for the upcoming edition and some may be saved for future editions.

Please use this form to submit a quote: http://bit.ly/gzZOFE
Feel free to pass along the link to anyone who may be interested.

Thank you,
Sloan Parker
RRW Newsletter Editor