Sunday, January 30, 2011

Free Book Giveaway

Hello everyone,

In honor of Gay Day at the Ethan Day yahoogroup.   I am giving away two copies of my book "The Finest Thing."  the book is in PDF format.

All you have to do is comment to this post and leave your e mail address.   the contest is open until 7PM tonight. (EST)

I will be putting the names in a hat and contacting the two winners either tonight or sometime tomorrow (It depends on some RL stuff going on)

Here is an excerpt:

Aidan´s company kept him busy. In the past few weeks he´d been to Dallas,
Chicago and New York, which didn´t bother him because he liked traveling, but
living out of a suitcase so often was starting to grate on his nerves. He was
happy to be back home at last. He dropped his bags on the floor the minute he
walked in the door and trudged to the couch in the living room and fell down
onto the plush cushions. "Ah" he sighed as he leaned his head back on the couch
and closed his eyes.

He didn´t know how long he´d been asleep when he felt the vibration of his
cell phone in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the caller ID, shocked
that it was his mother calling. He was going to ignore the call then the
thought that it might have been an emergency prompted him to take the call.

"Hi, Mom. Is something wrong?" He asked with dread.

"Yes, something is wrong. Why did I have to find out from Peter´s mother that
you´re coming home?"

As soon as he´d gotten the invitation he knew it was only a matter of time
before his mother would find out and call, but he wasn´t looking forward to it.
"You know how things have been between me and the family. I thought you wrote
me off. So, why are you even bothering to call me, now, Mom? The last time I
heard from you was an impersonal Christmas card, two years ago."

He could hear the guilty pause over the dead airwaves. "I´m sorry, Aidan. I´ve
wanted to call you so many times over the past few years. I just couldn´t find
the right words."

"But you are suddenly finding them now?" He practically yelled. He took a deep
breath to recompose himself, and continued, "Mom, I´m only going back to
Connecticut to see my friends get married. I´m glad that at least the state
has seen fit to let gays get married. Not that it matters to you. I know that
if I ever get married you´d never come to my wedding. You, Dad and Jason could
just never stomach seeing me marry another guy, see me really be happy."

"I´ve only wanted you to be happy, Aidan, but you know how difficult your choice
makes things."

"My choice? Being gay is not a choice, Mother," He said formally. "It´s who I
am. And I´m not going to forget how you treated me after you found out about
Kyle. I loved him, just as much as you love Dad and Jason loves Amy. There is
no difference. Love is love." He could feel himself getting more and more
upset as the phone conversation dragged on. "Look, Mom, I can´t talk about this
right now."

"Aidan, please. I´d really like to see you, and I know Jason would like to see
you too."

"Oh, really? Well, then why haven´t I heard from him at all since I came out?"
He asked bitterly, holding the phone in a death grip. "I´d really like to know
why I didn´t hear from any of you even once when Kyle died. Was it because he
was my gay lover and you couldn´t accept that? I bet if he´d been a `her´, I´d
have gotten all the support I needed."

"I´m so sorry. I wish we´d been there for you, Aidan. Really, I do. It was a
mistake, a big mistake. I know being sorry isn´t enough, but I just want you
to know we love you."

"We? As in Dad, too? Because I know how proud he is to have a gay son," he
added sarcastically.

"There´s something I need to tell you," she said hesitantly, pausing before she
continued, "Your father and I split up."

That was a punch to the gut he wasn´t expecting. "You and Dad split up, when?"

"A few months ago I found out he was cheating on me. There were a lot of
unexplainable charges on the phone and credit card bills and he tried to deny
it, but with the evidence I had, he couldn´t. Then he tried to say he was sorry
and wanted to make amends, but I had enough of him lying through his teeth. I
told him to pack his bags and go."

He didn´t say a word for a minute, trying to give himself time to absorb this
new development. He knew his parents´ marriage wasn´t ideal, far from it.
There had been plenty of arguments when he was growing up, but he never thought
they´d ever get a divorce.

Despite everything, he loved his mother and couldn´t help but feel bad for her.
"I´m sorry to hear that, Mom."

"No, you´re not, but thank you anyway. I´m better off without him. Aidan,"
she said, changing subjects, "I hope when you´re here that you might stop by and
see me and your brother. I know you probably don´t want to after how we´ve
treated you, but please, just promise me you´ll think about it?"

"Sure, Mom, I´ll think about it." He said, making no commitments. "Thanks for
calling. Bye."

"Bye, Aidan." He heard the phone disconnect on her end and slowly shut his
phone. He knew that going to a wedding could present some interesting social
challenges, but he hadn´t expected this latest situation with his family. Truth
be told, he did want to see Jason, since they had been close while growing up.
They had been more than just brothers----they had been friends. When Aidan
came out to his family and things had gotten ugly between him and his parents,
Jason got caught up in the middle. Instead of picking sides, he shut down and
just left without saying a word.

Going home again was going to be an interesting trip in more ways than one. He
just couldn´t wait for it to be over so he could come back to San Diego, which
felt more like home to him than Mystic had since he came out.

Review http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/?p=4602

This book is available from Dreamspinner press.   I want to give a shoutout to them,  I am very grateful to Dreamspinner for taking this newbie to the publishing world and giving my very first book a home.

Here is their website so you can find other wonderful books to read
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/

15 comments:

  1. Just saw your post over on GayDay. The book sounds yummy and I'd love to be entered into your contest.

    itmfiddler at gmail dot com

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  2. Thanks, Susan, you've been entered. good luck!

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  3. This books looks yummy.. please count me in

    sarahs7836(at)gmail(dot)com

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  4. Please enter me in your drawing. This sounds like a very emotional book.

    sstrode@scrtc.com

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  5. Please enter me into your drawing. I would love to read this. I really like the cover also.

    lincat56@hotmail.com

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  6. Now how did I miss this? Me, too, please :)

    ravenesperanza@yahoo.com

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  7. Sounds like a great book. If I don't win I'll be adding it to my wish list for when the book budget allows more.

    carolcobun(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  8. Love Ethan's Gay Day. Please enter me in the contest. I missed it the first time around.

    melaniem54@msn.com

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  9. thank you guys, you are all entered :D

    Thanks Beth :)

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  10. LOVE the excerpt, the dialogue between Aidan and his Mother really catches the the uneasy feelings between them.

    Mindy :)
    Birdsooong@aol.com

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  11. Ooo, all angsty! I would love to read the rest. Another book for the wish list.
    jepeb@verizon.net

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  12. What a great excerpt! I could really feel the pain between the characters. The Finest Thing sounds wonderful.

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  13. I picked two names and have e mailed the winners their copies. Thank you for participating in my giveaway

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