Giveaway & Guest post: Sloan Parker Talks about Breathe

I’m very pleased to have author Sloan Parker as a guest here at my blog today! I loved her m/m/m debut novel More. Next Tuesday her new m/m ebook Breathe will be released at Loose Id and today she’s here to share some insider’s information about that book!
Sloan’s also giving away one copy of Breathe to a lucky commenter.



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A huge thank you to Janna for asking me to post on her blog today. She suggested I tell you about my latest book, BREATHE, and the main characters, Jay and Lincoln. I thought I’d also share a bit about my process for how I create my characters.

Before I started writing BREATHE, I developed character sketches, basically answering a series of questions per character. These sheets are very detailed, but I don’t answer every question for every character. There are some questions I force myself to answer, and others I pick and choose from based on what I feel I need to know about that person and his/her particular backstory.

For example, here are a few questions from my character sheets:

Sample Must Answer Questions
1) What is this character’s darkest secret?
2) What are his biggest mistakes or regrets?
3) What is the worst thing that could happen to him right now?
4) What does he fear most in the world? And why?
5) What does he have to gain from the outcome of the story (i.e. the outcome of the final conflict)?

Sample Optional Questions
1) A sad movie is on. How would this character react if he were alone? How would he react if he were with others?
2) If he had a bad day, how would he relax? What would he do?
3) Does he sleep nude? In pajamas? His underwear?
4) Does he eat quickly or slowly? Why?
5) Does he drive fast or slowly? Why?

Then while I was writing the outline and the first draft, I filled out even more of the character sheet as I learned more about who I wanted these people to be and what I wanted to say about their story.

For BREATHE, I wanted to tell the story of two strangers living in a small town. They meet and discover an undeniable attraction only to learn a little too late they should never have met at all. Or so they think. One man’s wife was killed in a car accident a year before the story starts. The other man is the person who caused the accident that took her life. I wanted them to be two very likeable guys stuck in an impossible situation.

Without giving away too much from the book, here are a few facts about each man based on my character sheets:

Jay Miller
1) Personality traits: Bookish, caring, talkative, intelligent, trustworthy, broad-minded, captivating, conscientious, curious, inquisitive, lonely, sensual, sincere, depressed.
2) Drives fast or slowly: He’s a careful driver. But he shuts down during the process, not allowing himself to imagine what the last moments were like for his wife.
3) Mode of transportation: a beat up Jeep he’s had since high school.
4) Eats quickly or slowly: Quickly. Eats without really tasting the food. Mostly pizza and fast food. He never cooks anything for himself.
5) One word this character would use to describe himself: Broken.

Lincoln McCaw
1) Personality traits: Attentive, conscientious, devoted, honorable, serious, jealous, loyal, passionate, realistic, reliable, responsible, somber, relentless, systematic, trustworthy.
2) Greatest source of strength in this character's personality: his loyalty and devotion to those he loves.
3) What he does when he is angry: Yells a little. Scowls a lot. Does something to try to fix the situation or if he can’t he tries to fix something else.
4) The worst thing that could happen to him: He causes another accident.
5) One word this character would use to describe himself: Guilty.

Those are a few of the questions I answered for each of the main characters from BREATHE.

Thanks again to Janna for allowing me to share about my work and my latest book. As you can see I love talking about my characters and my writing process. Thanks for listening!

Sloan Parker

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Thank you, Sloan! Personally I can’t wait to read Breathe! The premise of the story and the little peek in the writer’s mind you gave, are intriguing me immensely.


Giveaway:

Sloan has generously offered an ebook copy of Breathe to give away to one of the commenters on this post.

Giveaway is open to everyone and runs until next Tuesday. I will announce the winner on November 16, the release date of Breathe.

To enter the giveaway all you have to do is comment on this post and leave a way for me to contact you, either in your profile or in the comment itself. It would be nice if you’d say something related to the content of this post. :)
The winner will be picked with random.org.

Good luck to you all!
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Backblurb of Breathe:
Lincoln McCaw lost everything--his home, his job, his partner--after he caused a fatal accident. A year later, he's drowning the guilt and despair in whiskey, but he needs to move on. His sister and her kids are counting on him. Then he meets a man who ignites a passion Lincoln thought he’d never find. Too bad one night is all they can have together. Now he needs to figure out how to turn away from the only person who makes him feel alive...before whoever is sending him threats decides Lincoln needs to suffer more than he already has.

Jay Miller is surrounded by grief and misery until he finally gives in to all those years of sexual fantasies about being with another guy. Realizing he’s ended up in the arms of the man who caused his wife’s accident, he tries to pull away. But can he give up a friendship he needs more than anything--a friendship and a love that could save him? Or will someone else destroy it all?

Linking:
Sloan Parker’s website | weblog | on Goodreads | on Twitter | on Facebook

Buy Breathe here
Read the first two chapters of Breathe here
Read another excerpt here

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