Anna Martin is in the clubhouse today with an Excerpt & Giveaway to promote The Kissing Book! Check out our tag-team review of Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me here!!
Hello! Thank you for joining me at Boy Meets Boy so I can talk about my new book, ‘Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me, and One Time I Kissed Him First’.
Today I’m going to give you an introduction to one of the story’s main characters, Scott Sparrow.
The story is told from the viewpoint of the other main character in the novel, Evan, who has been in love with Scott since he was a kid. For that reason Scott was really fun to write, mostly because Evan has this sort of skewed way of looking at his best friend. Scott and Evan are the original ‘opposites attract’ couple—Evan is quiet and artistic, Scott is loud and athletic. They became friends as young children, and the story follows how they grow through their teenage years, to the inevitable split when they go to different colleges, and how they reconcile as adults.
Unlike Evan, who’s an only child of a single mom, Scott has an older brother and younger sister, and parents who are still happily married. (To these cynical millennials, this seems like an achievement!) There’s definitely a big, warm family vibe in the Sparrow house, and again, writing that through Evan’s eyes with a touch of jealousy was really interesting to me.
I think my favourite thing about Scott is how much love he has to give. Evan is definitely the sensitive one out of the two boys, but Scott has a heart of gold and makes sure his friends and family know how much they’re loved. The novel also shows Scott growing up quite a lot; as a teenager he’s got a lot of grand dreams and ambitions, but as he gets older he settles and finds a more easy going life. I didn’t intentionally steal away all his dreams (!) but there’s definitely an element of him coming back down to earth in the later part of the novel. That’s a good thing, by the way—Scott comes to realise that his priorities are his family and Evan.
Here’s Evan’s introduction to Scott in the novel – I hope you enjoy it!
Excerpt
“Evan!”
That voice was familiar, and Evan dropped his head back, knowing he couldn’t ignore it.
“Evan, you fuck!”
Evan laughed and let his head roll to the side. Grinning, Scott stood in his board shorts and a long-sleeved T-shirt, hands balled on his hips.
“What?”
“We’re playing football.”
“Scott, it’s almost midnight. How the fuck do you plan on playing football?”
Scott pointed straight up at the moon. Which, admittedly, was giving off a lot of light in the clear night sky. Scott’s skin glowed, pearlescent in the moonlight. It reflected off his Irish pale skin and lit up his blue eyes like he was magical.
Evan pulled himself to his feet with a heaving sigh. He hadn’t been able to say no to Scott for a long time now.
One by one, the others abandoned the fire pit and wandered over to where Scott and Andy had drawn wobbly lines in the sand to designate a playing area. Someone had brought a foam football or found one in the trunk of the car, and Scott was tossing it back and forth with Andy as they galloped the length of the makeshift field.
“Evan,” Scott said as Evan stretched out the kinks in his neck. “My team?”
It was a question but not one, not really. Like there was any question that Evan King would play on the same team as Scott Sparrow. Evan nodded and kicked off his flip-flops, pushed his fingers through his hair, and cracked his knuckles. It looked like there was about ten of them playing, including a few of the girls. They split down the middle, their friends quickly choosing their allegiance to either Scott or Andy.
Scott hustled Evan together with the rest of their teammates: Katie, who played hockey and was strong and hella fast, Drew, and Tony. They would do well, Evan decided.
“Jamie is their weak spot,” Scott said as he casually threw his arm around Evan’s shoulder and pulled him into the huddle. “We already agreed no tackles, so don’t push it. Karen will fight dirty, so don’t engage her unless you have to.”
“Got it, Captain,” Katie said with a salute. Scott laughed and pushed her shoulder.
Everyone knew Scott and Katie hooked up. It wasn’t a big deal. They weren’t dating, and Katie made no claims on Scott—his time or his affection. Though there was affection there, in spades, both claimed they had no interest in a relationship.
Evan tried very hard not to be jealous.
When you realize you want to marry your best friend at age six, life should follow a pretty predictable path, right? Maybe not.
As a kid, Evan King thought Scott Sparrow was the most amazing person he’d ever met. At seventeen, his crush runs a little deeper, and nothing seems simple anymore. Scott is more interested in football and girls than playing superheroes, and Evan’s attention is focused on getting into art school. A late-night drunken kiss is something to be forgotten, not obsessed over for the next ten years.
When life suddenly brings them back together, it doesn’t take much for the flame Evan carried for Scott nearly all his life to come roaring back, and Evan discovers that life sometimes has a strange way of coming full circle.
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Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the south- west of England and now lives in the slightly arty, slightly quirky city of Bristol. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English Literature at university before attempting to turn her hand as a professional writer.
Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theater (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), going to visit friends in other countries, baking weird and wonderful sweets, learning to play the ukulele, and Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk.
Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, pre-reading, and creative ass kicking provided by her best friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept responsibility for anything Anna has written.
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Ahhh. Love Anna Martin!
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