In the next two weeks there will be several chances to win an ebook copy of my upcoming release, Take Me Home.
The first is at my guest blog post at Babes in Boyland where I’m talking about Sex, Love & Danger. The giveaway closes on Tuesday, 12/6/2011 at 9PM CST.
Keep an eye on my blog for more chances to win.
Came across another oldie that works great for Kyle and Evan (at least most of the lyrics do).
Sometimes When We Touch by Dan Hill
Also added it to the Behind the Stories page on my site.
I’ve posted the first two chapters of my upcoming release Take Me Home on my website. Here’s a direct link to the PDF.
There’s also an excerpt from Evan and Kyle’s first kiss in 10 years (expanded from the sample I posted on the blog a few weeks ago).
Hope you enjoy the preview.
When writing I often utilize my imagination, but I also will pull from my own experiences and the details I can recall about certain places I’ve been or people I’ve met. For Take Me Home I was able to use my experience of traveling across the United States on a passenger train.
But I also do a fair bit of research for each of my stories. I used to dread research, but I’ve learned to embrace it and see it as an opportunity for two reasons: 1) to learn something new about whatever I’m researching and 2) to expand my understanding of the world and the characters in which I’m writing about in a particular story.
I’m a visual person. I find pictures and videos helpful to really get into the story. Even if my description ends up nowhere close to the visual, the images create a spark of ideas in my mind that keeps the description from being stale and typical (at least typical for my writing and my usual vocabulary). Through my writing research I’ve learned about places, occupations, animals, symbolism, and more I might never have had a reason to delve into otherwise.
During my research phase of writing Take Me Home, I saved links and images and descriptions in one document for inspiration as I wrote. So I thought I’d share a preview of Take Me Home using only a sampling of the pictures from my research notes. Under each photo is a link where I found the photo and the credit if it’s available.
**Please note: Some may consider the following minor spoilers for the story, but the pictures give away only a few more specifics than the blurb and merely illustrate the story’s premise.
Photo Credit: Yuri_Arcurs
Photo Credit: kupicoo
Image Credit: Amtrak website
Photo Credit: Wigwam Jones
Image Credit: Amtrak
Photo Credit: Amtrak
Photo Credit: Amtrak
Photo Credit: Amtrak
Image Credit: Amtrak
Image Credit: Amtrak
Photo Credit: no body atoll
Photo Credit: pferriola
Photo Credit: Virtual Farm Boy
Photo Credit: The West End
Photo Credit: Minerva Bloom
Photo Credit: oakmechinsl
Photo Credit: oakmechinsl
Photo Credit: oakmechinsl
Photo Credit: oakmechinsl
Photo Credit: oakmechinsl
Photo Credit: Decarli
Photo Credit: Decarli
Photo Credit: Decarli
Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve
Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve
Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve
Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve
Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve
Photo Credit: Doug Wornom collection
This one’s a video, you can watch here if it’s not embedded below.
Read the blurb and preview excerpts for Take Me Home
(c) Sloan Parker 2011
Just for fun here’s the scene board for Take Me Home (cleverly covered by my editing check marks to avoid spoilers). Each scene actually has 8 or more check mark post-its. I kept track of my read-throughs on a scene-by-scene basis. First time I’d ever done that, and it worked well for me. Gave me a nice sense of accomplishment at the end of every day.
