Announcing New Reader Appreciation Day with Giveaway

Fellow author SJ Frost and I are thrilled to announce the all new M/M Reader Appreciation Day at The Sweet Spot. This is one day every month for authors of m/m romances to say thanks to all the readers out there who support our writing efforts.

Readers, every month stop by the Yahoo Group to chat with authors and enter for a chance to win free books and other prizes from a variety of m/m authors.

The first Reader Appreciation Day will be held on Saturday, April 7. On that day, we’ll post a list of all prizes available. Just respond to the giveaway thread on the Yahoo Group between 8 am and 8 pm EST to be included in the drawing.

Authors, if you’re interested in participating in the giveaway, send an email to s.j.frost3 [at] gmail.com AND sloanparker.author [at] gmail.com with what you’d like to donate for the April giveaway. In the future we’ll include you in our monthly announcement for a chance to donate. You can participate as little or as often as you’d like. During the Reader Appreciation Day event, everyone who donated a book in the giveaway is welcome to post to the group with a blurb and buy link for their donated book(s). Gift certificates and other prizes are welcome too.

Hope to see you at TSS on April 7th!

The Sweet Spot (an m/m romance reader group) is now on Facebook

I’m excited to share that author SJ Frost and I have created a Facebook page for our m/m reader group, The Sweet Spot.

Like our Yahoo Group, we’d love for the FB page to be place where readers can connect with each other and authors of m/m romances. We’re also discussing plans to hold contests, reader polls, share photos that inspire us, and other fun stuff like that. We’d love for you to stop by and “Like” the page. Share why you love m/m romances, what you’re reading, or anything else you’d care to talk about. The page is open for anyone to post.

Looking forward to seeing you on Facebook!

You can also join us at our Yahoo Group. We’re in the process of planning a monthly Reader Appreciation day full of fab prizes. We’re finalizing the details now and hoping to start that in March.

I’d love to see you on the Yahoo Group or Facebook or both!

Hope you have a good week.
Sloan

For the Love of: Audio Books & Editors

(c) istockphoto.com, Tony Tremblay 2005

Sharing a couple links today…

  • Earlier this week I blogged about my love of audio books at my RWA chapter blog. The post is titled What Else Can I Clean? I’d love for you to stop by and let me know what you think of audio books. Do you listen to them? If so, do you find you lose yourself in the story as much as if you were reading the book yourself? Or perhaps more?
  • Author SJ Frost has written a fabulous article about the unsung heroes of the publishing world: the editors. Definitely all true, so I’ll take this opportunity to say another huge thank you to my editor at Loose Id, Antonia, and the line editors and proof readers who have helped with my stories. Your insights, time, and effort are greatly appreciated!

The Sweet Spot for readers & writers of m/m romances

Hello everyone! Hope you are all having a fab week. I have some fun news to share. Authors S.J. Frost, Johnny Miles, and I have launched a Yahoo group called The Sweet Spot for readers and writers of m/m romances. The group is open to join now and our official launch party will be April 16th when we will host a chat and give away books from the three of us.

We hope the group’s discussions will be casual and fun. I’d love for you to join us. Here’s the text from the group’s homepage with more details:

What is The Sweet Spot?
A Romance club for fans of the M/M genre. Brought to you by authors S.J. Frost, Johnny Miles and Sloan Parker. We’d love for The Sweet Spot to be a place where readers can hang out, chat with other readers of the genre, share recommendations, discuss their favorite books, or ask us any questions. We look forward to chatting with each of you.

Readers: We’d love for you to join us. Sign up and introduce yourself to the group. Let us know what it is you enjoy about M/M romance stories.

Authors: Feel free to share your new releases, special contests, or other news. We just ask that you not overdo it with too many promotional type messages. About once a month or so we’ll have special days set aside exclusively for that purpose so please save your excerpts for those days. More information to come on that in May.

Our “official” launch date for The Sweet Spot is April 16, 2011 when we will host a live chat, book giveaways from SJ, Johnny and Sloan, answer reader questions, and more. The live chat will be held from 6-9 pm EST on April 16, but you are welcome to come by any time during the day (starting at 8 am EST) to chat with other readers and to enter the giveaway to win free books. A giveaway thread will be re-posted throughout the day. Just respond at any time and you’ll be entered. Winners will be announced ASAP after the live chat. We hope you can join us!

Your friends at the Sweet Spot,
SJ, Johnny and Sloan

If you’re interested in joining, the address for the group is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheSweetSpotMM/

Hope to see you there!
Sloan

I was tagged today. Here’s my M/M meme

I was tagged by Devon Rhodes to complete this m/m meme. Thanks for including me. Devon! These are some good questions. And thanks to Kris at Kris ‘n’ Good Books who started it all.

LoveToKiss

(c) www.fotosearch.com

Rules:

1. Answer all the questions below in either the comments here or post it on your own site. If you post it on your own site you have to come back and give the link here so I/Kris can mosey on over and see if you have a sticky beak.

2. You have to tag two other people once you’re done and pester them relentlessly until they do the meme too.

3. Instead of a meme image thing you have to post a cookie, preferably a twofer. It is an m/m meme after all. ;)

Questions:

1. How long have you been reading GLBTQ fiction?
Two years this past October. Not sure I had read any romances with main characters who were GLBTQ before that.

2. What was the first book you read in this genre?
Lee Rowan’s Ransom

3. Are you ‘out’ as a reader?
Oh yeah. I’m out all over the place. As a writer too. Of course my dad wants to know how come I can’t leave the “sex stuff” up to the reader’s imagination. He’s so cute.

4. Ebooks, print or both?
Mostly ebooks, but I will buy my favs in paperback or some that are not available in ebook format.

5. Do you buy direct from publishers or from secondary sellers?
I buy from both. I’ve been trying to make an effort to buy more direct, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out (due to pricing and discounts or format)

6. Prove you’re a Book Slut. How many books would you say you buy a week?
That varies. I’ll buy a ton at one time then go a couple weeks or even a month without buying anything. It averages out to maybe 10-20 a month. Sometimes more if there’s a huge sale.

7. Are you a cover, blurb or excerpt buyer?
A nice cover can pull me in. But I always read the blurb before buying (if it’s an author I love). For new-to-me authors, I read an excerpt to see if I like the writing style.

8. Yeah, you read reviews, but do you actually take notice of them?
I do. I have a database of all the books I own/want to read. Sometimes I’ll add links to reviews with the book’s entry in the DB, especially if the review made it sound like something I’d like to buy.

9. Who’s your fave publisher?
Loose Id (Was I supposed to say anything else? They’re publishing my debut novel hehehe. Seriously, they’ve been great to work with)

10. What about authors? Your top two only!!
Oh man. Only two. That’s tough. Okay, off the top of my head, Josh Lanyon and JL Langley and WA Hoffman and Tere Michaels and Jordan Castillo Price and…uh, I can’t stop.

11. Is there a sub-genre you particularly dis/like?
I don’t read much fantasy, but will if I’ve heard enough good things about a book. It’s hard for me to get into the story and characters when I’m trying to figure out the world.

12. Short or long?? *rolls eyes* And, no, I’m not talking about cocks.
Usually long. I want the read to last a few days, and I want to really get into the characters’ heads. Some authors can pull off short fiction with great characterizations, but a lot of the time, I’m just left feeling like I wanted more.

13. Anything turn you off about m/m or is all just glorious smut to you?
I can’t think of anything I’ve actually read that was a turn-off in terms of the sex. Maybe too much of the same sex over and over. I”ll probably think of something later that creeped me out. I don’t like cheating, but if the author is really good and redeems the story/characters with huge emotional payoffs, then I can keep reading (and yes, that includes Jake Riordan. He’s on his way, and I’m hoping he sees the light and gets out of other people’s beds in book 5).

14. Finish this sentence. You know it’s m/m twu wuv when
They get a tattoo or piercing together

15. What trope or theme are you heartily sick of in m/m romance?
Not sure. If an author is really good at his/her craft, I’ll read any trope/theme again. It’s all in how well they build the characters within the plot.

16. If you could choose any 3 characters for a m/m/m who would they be?
It’s probably so wrong to say this, but I’d pick Luke, Richard, and Matthew, the three guys from my book More, an m/m/m tentatively due out in March from Loose Id.  :)

17. What new GLBTQ release are you most hanging out for right now?
I’m looking forward to The Dark Tide by Josh Lanyon and Matt’s story from JL Langley. Oh, and the final Raised by Wolves from WA Hoffman.

18. What GLBTQ book has completely blown you away this year?
The Adrien English books by Josh Lanyon (they were new to me this year) and Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels.

19. What do you think we’ll see more of in m/m romance in 2010?
Vampires. And more short stories and novellas rather than novel length.

20. Don’t you agree that author Josh Lanyon should kill off arsehole character Jake Riordan?
Not kill. I want him to tell Adrien what we all know he feels for him (and grovel…A LOT!). I’m a sappy romantic. I want them to have their happy ending.

Tag, you’re it:

Kathy Kozakewich

SJ Frost