L.A. Witt's Blog, page 15

NOW AVAILABLE: What This Woman Wants

What This Woman Wants, a lesbian erotica short story, is Now Available from Carnal Passions! More links will be added to my website as they're available. (and it's only $1!)

Beth loves Naomi, but something's missing, and every time she's suggested it, Naomi's refused. Now Beth's starting to wonder if she's going to have to choose between the girl she loves and a fully satisfying life in the bedroom.

But tonight, Naomi's got a little surprise for Beth…

Also, I've just been informed The Closer You Get is a finalist in the Erotic Romance category of the 2012 New England Reader's Choice Bean Pot Award!

NOW AVAILABLE: For The Living

For The Living is now available from Amber Allure. Additional links will be added here as they are available. And if you'd like a little nibble of the story, For The Living is my Six Sentence Sunday story this week.

For the last year, Jay Warren has struggled to find the nerve to tell his wife he's gay. He's ashamed of hiding it all this time and he doesn't want to hurt her, so every time he gets the chance to tell her, he freezes up. The guilt has been almost unbearable, but when his wife dies suddenly, Jay's conscience threatens to eat him alive.

Funeral director Scott Lawson deals with the bereaved every day of his life, and he's also all too familiar with the inside of the closet. He offers Jay some much-needed compassion and understanding, and from that connection comes a friendship that quickly—perhaps too quickly—turns into something more.

But are grief, guilt, and loneliness the only things tying them together? Or will Scott get tired of being used as an emotional crutch before Jay realizes what he has?

Also, I'm excited to announce that Reconstructing Meredith is a finalist for the National Leather Association's Pauline Reage Novel Award! The award will be announced in early May - fingers crossed, but I'm thrilled just to be a finalist!

In which I put my weight loss goals out there for public scrutiny.

So if there's one thing I've learned over the last few years, it's that posting my word count progress meters publicly is incredibly motivating. I highly doubt anyone looks at them except me, but the meters are visible nonetheless...and deep in the darkest corners of my little brain is an incredibly paranoid voice who insists that EVERYONE IS WATCHING and they will NOTICE if the word counts don't progress like a very progressive thing. I know that little voice is full of it, but nevertheless, I am neurotic about not letting those counters stay stagnant.

After struggling to lose weight the last year or two, I've come to the conclusion that the same principle applies. I need someone peering over my shoulder, kicking my ass, and telling me EVERYONE NOTICES even when I know full well they don't. I'll be signing up with a personal trainer at some point, but for the time being, I need to stir up that voice in the back of my head so it starts running on its "OH GOD THEY'RE JUDGING ME" hamster wheel, which will get me off my butt and into the gym where I will repeatedly lift heavy things and put them down.

So...I will now be including weight loss updates every couple of weeks on my blog. Specifically, the 1st and 15th. My goals are not as obsessively numeric as my word counts; I've also recently figured out that one of my weight loss pitfalls is my obsession with numbers. Even when I know I'm slimming down, I get twitchy because the scale isn't moving much, which then results in a downward spiral that ultimately ends in "fuck it, I give up."

So, here I am today, looking delightfully disheveled after a workout:
And from the side...
Goal #1: Look less like a pregnant Cabbage Patch kid.

This is a dress a friend gave me a few years ago after I'd lost some weight:
Ironically, it looks bigger on the hanger. Go figure. Anyway...

Goal #2: Fit into ye olde green dress o' slimness in time for Authors After Dark in August. And by "fit," I mean put it on, look in the mirror, and not feel like crawling under the bed and crying.

This is the dress I wore to all three homecoming dances in high school (1996, 1997, and 1998):
And it still fit for some years after high school, taking me through a few formal events without the requisite shopping trip.

Goal #3: Fit into this dress, with the same caveats as the green dress, by GayRomLit in October.

And finally...my wedding ring, which I haven't been able to wear in *mumble* years thanks to gaining *mutter* pounds:
Goal #4: Get that fucker all the way on my finger -- without the use of WD40, my finger bloating to strangled proportions, and the use of a can opener to remove it -- by December 14th, which is my 10th wedding anniversary.

These are my goals, and my goals are these.

I shall persevere, and I shall be happier with my body by the time the world ends on December 21st.

A bunch o' news...

(cross-posted from my professional blog)

It's been a pretty exciting day here in Omahaland, and there's load o' stuff to share with my lovely readers. :D

First, I'm pleased to announce that Cold Feet in Hot Sand, a M/F novella, has been picked up by Carnal Passions. Release date is TBA.

Second, new cover art! New excerpt! New blurb! New...genre?

Why yes, a new genre. Here is cover art for my first lesbian story, an erotic short called What This Woman Wants, due out the first week of April from Carnal Passions:

Beth loves Naomi, but something's missing, and every time she's suggested it, Naomi's refused. Now Beth's starting to wonder if she's going to have to choose between the girl she loves and a fully satisfying life in the bedroom.

But tonight, Naomi's got a little surprise for Beth…

A short excerpt is available here.

And last but not least, the part that's had me bouncing off the walls and completely non-productive since about 11 o'clock this morning: I'm thrilled to announce that Static is a finalist in two categories for this year's Lambda Literary Awards!

It's a finalist in the Transgender Fiction category as well as the LGBT SciFi/Fantasy/Horror category, and yes, when I got the e-mail, I may have made some incredibly undignified noises that scared my cat. I regret nothing. In related news, this also marks the first time in my life, to my knowledge, that my name has appeared on the Entertainment Weekly website. That may have also resulted in some undignified, cat-terrifying sounds. Don't judge me.

Nominations: The Romance Reviews

So I was a little stunned this morning when I got an e-mail saying that two of my books have been nominated over at The Romance Reviews for their annual awards!
That was...unexpected. :D

Light Switch
Erotic BDSM Romance

Damaged Goods
Erotic Contemporary Romance

There are numerous other categories with loads of awesome authors -- such as Marie Sexton, Heidi Cullinan, Kari Gregg, Damon Seude, and M Jules Aedin -- so click here and vote for your favorites (and no, you don't have to vote for me! lol).

John Carter of...Rome?

So my husband and I went to see John Carter last night in IMAX 3D. Loved the film, OMG! It was like a mix of science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk with some really funny moments thrown in.

But I have to admit there was something that tripped me out a little. Not enough to pull me out of the film or anything, but enough to make me sit up and go "Wait...seriously?"

It's no secret I have a wee bit of a thing for James Purefoy. And his presence in the film was part of why I wanted to see John Carter in the first place (that and it sounded like a wickedly awesome story coupled with some amazing visual effects). So I was looking forward to some Purefoy on the big screen.

As a general rule, though, I don't read a lot about films before I see them. I'll watch a trailer, and that's it. No reviews, no comments about them, no background, etc, because invariably, someone ruins it for me if I do. So I had no idea that there would come a moment when I would think, "Holy shit, deja vu!"

Because when I saw this:
I immediately thought this:
Trippy? Just a bit.

But I love Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy, especially together, and I loved Purefoy's character in this movie. I loved the whole movie.

GO SEE IT AT ONCE.

Your daily dose of cute.

My cat apparently thinks she fits into the lid of a Droid Razr box.
I can't decide if she's right or wrong.

Some new cover pretties...

Two new pieces of cover art! First up is the second Tooth & Claw Book, The Healing & The Dying (no blurb yet -- that'll be along soon):
The Healing & The Dying will be out in July from Samhain.

And second is my upcoming April release from Amber Quill, For The Living:

For the last year, Jay Warren has struggled to find the nerve to tell his wife he's gay. He's ashamed of hiding it all this time and he doesn't want to hurt her, so every time he gets the chance to tell her, he freezes up. The guilt has been almost unbearable, but when his wife dies suddenly, Jay's conscience threatens to eat him alive.

Funeral director Scott Lawson deals with the bereaved every day of his life, and he's also all too familiar with the inside of the closet. He offers Jay some much-needed compassion and understanding, and from that connection comes a friendship that quickly—perhaps too quickly—turns into something more.

But are grief, guilt, and loneliness the only things tying them together? Or will Scott get tired of being used as an emotional crutch before Jay realizes what he has?

The PayPal Mess, Amazon, and a cultural observation.

(cross-posted from my other blog)

Thanks to a sprained wrist, I can't write at the moment. I can obviously still type, but really, really, really slowly. At least I can blog, though, so here I am. During my involuntary vacation, I've had lots of idle time to just think. And I've been thinking about...stuff. So here I go.

In the last year or so, Amazon and PayPal have both cracked down heavily on certain types of "obscene" material. Generally, this refers to erotic and pornographic material containing things like bestiality, rape, barely-legal material, incest, and pseudo-incest. Both companies have policies regarding such in place. I'm not going to argue about censorship (which I am wholly against) or these policies (which I completely disagree with). In this post, I'm just making a few observations about our culture.

Relatively recently, Amazon has gone so far as to remove adult incest titles from people's Kindles. Not just those containing underage sex, but all those containing any form of incest. (Ironically, one of their own television commercials features a book containing pseudo-incest. Go figure.) Though strangely, I haven't seen Amazon or PayPal restricting anyone's ability to purchase Game of Thrones, but maybe the incestuous sex isn't as graphic as in erotic fiction, so it's okay? I haven't read or seen it, so I can't judge.

So this morning, I did a little perusing on ye olde interwebs. I started with Amazon. Now, while I can't purchase certain types of obscene sexual material even if I wanted to, there is a wide variety of torture porn available to me with the click of a button. I can purchase Saw on DVD, on Amazon instant video, even as a boxed set with all the films together. If that's not enough, there's also the unrated widescreen edition of Hostel. In fact, if I were so inclined, I can even get my hands on a copy of The Human Centipede.

A quick browse of eBay, which is PayPal's parent company, shows a similar variety of options if I wish to buy Saw, Hostel, or The Human Centipede.

And were I to bore of torture porn, and decide I was in the mood to read about children fighting to the death for the entertainment of adults? eBay and Amazon both have plenty of ways I can get my hands on The Hunger Games. (hat tip to a poster on Absolute Write whose post got me thinking about this; for the life of me I can't find the post, though. Still looking, and when I find it, I will properly link it.) Hell, if I don't feel like reading the book, I can just wait for the film to come to the local movie theatre, since it promises to be a headlining blockbuster. Or wait for it to go to video, because then I'll be able to order it with ease and convenience on Amazon.

I'm absolutely not condoning censorship of any of the types of material I mentioned above. I'm also not saying I'm interested in buying (or writing) rape fiction, bestiality, incest/pseudo-incest, or anything like that. I just can't quite get it through my head how those things are more obscene than torture porn or kids fighting to the death for entertainment.

Think about it.

NOW AVAILABLE: Where There's Smoke

Where There's Smoke is now available from Loose Id, LLC! Additional links will be listed here as soon as they're available.

Anthony Hunter wonders what the hell he's gotten himself into when he agrees to manage an unproven candidate's campaign for governor of California. As soon as he meets the gorgeous, charismatic—and married—politician, attraction gives Anthony's rock-solid professionalism a run for its money, and Anthony knows he's in way over his head.

Jesse Cameron doesn't like the idea of putting himself out there as a happily married, wholesome candidate, but his retired senator uncle insists it'll give him an edge over a challenging rival. The only problem is that Jesse's marriage is over, existing only to maintain his heterosexual façade. Oh, and there's that minor detail about his undeniable attraction to his smoking hot campaign manager. Or the fact that the attraction is very, very mutual.

Before long, temptation explodes into a sizzling, secret relationship, but under the microscope of the media and the relentless scrutiny of the voting public, Anthony and Jesse can only keep their secret for so long. And this is one scandal a campaign won't survive…

Jessewave gave Where There's Smoke 5 stars:

"Whether or not [American politics and adultery] are subjects that interest you initially it would be difficult not to become invested in the protagonists – a political candidate and his manager in a campaign for Governor of the State – because if you like excellent writing and great characterizations, in my opinion this is L.A. Witt's best work to date. [...] Highly recommended. (review)"

Read an excerpt of Where There's Smoke here.