L.A. Witt's Blog, page 8

So what's going on with Wilde's (aka The Distance Between Us)?

On Tuesday, the newest Wilde's story,  No Distance Left to Run , will be released. I've had a few questions recently about how this book fits with the others in the series, what's going on with the series, etc., so I wanted to take this opportunity to answer them.

The Wilde's series, which is generally called The Distance Between Us series because it all started with the book by that title that was supposed to be a standalone but then... wasn't. A.J.'s Angel came along after that, and Kieran made a little cameo. And then he got his own story in The Closer You Get. And then recurring side character Dale got his own story in Meet Me in the Middle.  So as you can see, it kind of took on a life of its own.

      
  
Basically, the series has evolved into something not unlike Tucker Springs. They're all set in the same world (specifically in Seattle, with the night club Wilde's featuring heavily), and sometimes characters cross over into each other's stories, but aren't necessarily related outside of the night club. Wilde's actually made its first appearance in the standalone book, The Best Man, and I guess I was kind of attached to the place, so I keep going back to it. (What can I say? They have awesome Kamikazes...)

Which brings us to No Distance Left to Run, the first co-written Wilde's story, having been written with the other half of my brain, Aleksandr Voinov.


This book does have some cameos by previous characters. Liam is still the shift manager. Kieran is still tending bar. But Chris and Julien? They're new characters entirely.  No Distance Left to Run  is a standalone (though it will have a sequel), it just takes place in the Wilde's universe.

Will there be more? It's hard to say. Like I said, I keep gravitating back to Wilde's, and now that my co-author extraordinaire has joined me there, it's a safe bet that we'll revisit the place together.

Hopefully I didn't just make it even more confusing. LOL  I hope Wilde's fans will enjoy this newest installment and the new set of characters... and stay tuned for news about the sequel!

No Distance Left to Run  is available May 13th from Samhain Publishing.

NOW AVAILABLE: It's Complicated (Tucker Springs 7)

The seventh book in the multi-author Tucker Springs series,  It's Complicated , is now available from Riptide Publishing, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and AllRomance.

After their umpteenth breakup, Brad Sweeney and Jeff Hayden are living apart and starting over from scratch. The morning after a promising first date, they’re more optimistic than ever that they can make it work this time . . . until Jeff’s ex-wife and business partner calls to announce she’s pregnant with Jeff’s baby. Brad’s already competing with a demanding business for Jeff’s time. Now there’s a baby on the way, and worse, he’s afraid Jeff is still carrying a torch for the woman who’s carrying his child.
Jeff is desperately trying to keep his life together, but before he can even get his head around the news that he’s going to be a father, his ex announces that she wants to leave Tucker Springs. Now he either has to take over her role at the shop while ferrying the baby back and forth from Denver, or move the business—and himself—with her.
Brad and Jeff knew reconciliation wouldn’t be easy, but they’re rapidly running out of room for compromise. And sooner or later, something has to give.

NOW AVAILABLE: Roped In (written with Marie Sexton)

So Marie Sexton and I have joined forces, and the result is a kinky little contemporary cowboy novella called  Roped In . The book is available now from Amber Allure, and will be on sites such as Amazon and AllRomance soon. 

Graham and his roping partner Jackson have ruled the rodeo scene for ten years running, but lately, Graham’s heart isn’t in the game. He’s tired of the bruises, the cowboy mentality, and the animal rights activists who picket every event. And then there’s Jackson. 

Graham and Jackson have been friends since they were boys. But ever since their drunken sexual encounter the year before, things have been awkward. Graham’s accepted that he might be gay, but no matter how attracted he is to other men, he always panics and runs when the clothes start to come off. 

Then Graham has a run-in with one of the rodeo protesters, and everything changes. Kaz is young, idealistic, and sexy as hell. And Kaz has an idea for getting Graham past his nerves and into bed. 

All they need is a bit of rope.

NEW RELEASES: If It Drives, Guarded, and For The Living

It's been a busy week -- three new titles launched! I didn't want to do a post for each release because that would just clutter everything up, so I've rounded them up for a single post.


Cat Grant and I are pleased to announce the release of our kinky rock star novel, Guarded, available on Amazon, AllRomance, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords.

 On the surface, rock star Jordan Kane has it all. No Rules is burning up the charts and headlining a world tour. His bodyguard doubles as his hot, kinky boyfriend who knows just how to push all his buttons. But behind the scenes, he’s suffocating. 

Jase never imagined he’d have a shot at bedding the larger than life rock star, never mind dominating him, but now he’s worried he’s in over his head. Jordan’s kinks run deep, dark, and sometimes dangerous, putting Jase’s desires to both pleasure and protect him at odds. 

They might have a fighting chance at finding the safe, happy medium between what Jordan needs and what Jase is willing to give, but there’s one problem: Daniel, Jordan’s childhood best friend, the band’s talented guitarist—and the volatile, hard-partying drug addict. Jordan is determined to save Daniel from himself, but Jase has been there, done that, and desperately wants to protect Jordan from the inevitable heartache of watching an addict self-destruct. 

When Daniel goes off the rails again, Jordan calls off the tour to get him help. Tension within the band skyrockets and pressure from the record label sends Jordan into a dark spiral. Now his band—and his life—are balanced on a knife's edge, and Jase is the only one who can pull him back... but only if the echoes of his own tragic past don't push him over instead.

Aleksandr Voinov and I have been busy too, and we're taking you back to Market Garden in the seventh book in that series, If It Drives, available from Riptide Publishing, Amazon, AllRomance, and Barnes & Noble.

If it flies, drives, or fornicates, it's cheaper to rent it. 

After driving James Harcourt, his wealthy banker boss, around for a year and a half, Cal isn’t surprised by much anymore. Not even James’s regular trips to Market Garden, London’s most elite gay brothel. 

But when James leaves the Garden alone one night and turns to Cal instead, Cal’s floored. After crushing on his boss for ages, it’s his wet dream come true . . . until the awkward morning after. Cal still has a job to do, but he wants to offer more. Yet James doesn’t take him up on it; he keeps Cal at arm’s length and continues his chauffeured jaunts to Market Garden. 

As Cal learns what James needs from the rentboys, he tries to fill that need himself. But there’s more to James’s penchant for rentboys than Cal realizes, and it may be one role that Cal can’t fill without overstepping his duty.

And finally, I've re-released my novel, For The Living, and it can be found on Amazon, AllRomance, and Barnes & Noble.

For the last year, Jay Warren has struggled to find the nerve to tell his wife he’s gay. Every time he gets the chance, though, he freezes up. He’s ashamed of hiding it all this time and he doesn’t want to hurt her, and the guilt has been almost unbearable. 

Then his wife dies suddenly, and Jay’s conscience threatens to eat him alive. 

Funeral director Scott Lawson deals with the bereaved every day, and he’s 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 fed up with being used as an emotional crutch before Jay realizes what he has? 

This book was previously published.

 Stay tuned --  Roped In  (written with Marie Sexton) is out later this month, as is the seventh Tucker Springs book,  It's Complicated !

NOW AVAILABLE: If It Drives

Red Tie is back, y'all!  The seventh Market Garden story, If It Drives , is available now from Riptide Publishing, and can be purchased directly or from Amazon, AllRomance, or Barnes & Noble.


If it flies, drives, or fornicates, it's cheaper to rent it.
After driving James Harcourt, his wealthy banker boss, around for a year and a half, Cal isn’t surprised by much anymore. Not even James’s regular trips to Market Garden, London’s most elite gay brothel.
But when James leaves the Garden alone one night and turns to Cal instead, Cal’s floored. After crushing on his boss for ages, it’s his wet dream come true . . . until the awkward morning after. Cal still has a job to do, but he wants to offer more. Yet James doesn’t take him up on it; he keeps Cal at arm’s length and continues his chauffeured jaunts to Market Garden.

As Cal learns what James needs from the rentboys, he tries to fill that need himself. But there’s more to James’s penchant for rentboys than Cal realizes, and it may be one role that Cal can’t fill without overstepping his duty.

WANTED: Established Authors Not Afraid to Give a Little to (Hopefully) Gain a Lot - of Exposure

From Cat Grant:
I'm putting together a self-published boxed set of M/M military man stories for release later this year. Right now there's me, LA Witt, Keira Andrews and two other possible authors on board. Ideally, I'd like ten authors in the bundle.
In a nutshell, I'm looking for: Novella length stories - 15 - 25K. Contemporary preferred, the hotter the better. I'd like to have the bundle available in time for GayRomLit this October, which means I would need the completed stories (beta'ed, edited and ready for publication) in hand no later than August 15th. (I will, of course, copy-edit for consistency in grammar, spelling, etc., but the stories will have to be beta'ed and/or edited at the authors' expense.) The bundle will be available for a limited time only (Octoberthrough next February or March). After that, we settle accounts, take the bundle off sale and all rights revert back to the individual authors.
The object here is not to make wads of cash, but gain greater exposure - ideally, to hit the NYT and/or USA Today lists. No guarantee it'll happen, but that's what we're shooting for. I will be the editor/project manager on this bundle, and will publish it under my Cat Grant Books imprint on Amazon. (I will probably upload it to Nook, Kobo and iTunes through my Smashwords account as well.) I estimate the cost for cover art, formatting, etc., to be about $300-400, the cost of which will be split among all the participating authors (so if we get ten authors - $30-40 each).

Interested? Shoot me a proposal at: bittermint2007@gmail.com

Several Reprinted Titles are Now Available

For the past few months, I've been working on re-releasing some older titles that went out of print in 2013. I've posted about some of them, and others have just sort of been quietly released because I didn't want to saturate Twitter of my blog with "this one's available now too!" That and I was still working out all the self-publishing bugs. I'm still working out a few, so bear with me a little, but now that the majority of the books have been re-released, here they are:

From L.A. Witt...

Ex Equals AllRomance * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Smashwords

The Cover Me Trilogy


The Cover Me Trilogy is available as a boxed set or as individual titles.

Also recently released: (Click on the covers for buy links)

Changing Plans  is a collection containing the novellas Getting off the Ground, Infinity Pools, and On The List.

From Lauren Gallagher:

Please note that World Enough and Time was previously published as Until It's Over.

Light Switch & Reconstructing Meredith are available individually or as a boxed set called Wanting Moore.
 

Rant: Female Athletes, Attractiveness, and Double Standards

For the  last several months, my husband and I have been doing a lot of weightlifting. We work with a trainer who is a power lifter, and we go to a weights-only gym where the rivalry between the lifters and the Crossfitters is a constant source of entertainment. Conversations are often dominated by pounds -- "My deadlift has increased by 20 lbs." "I'm benching 10 lbs more than when I was at my peak a few years ago." "I was doing fine until the bastard put a 45 lb plate on it." etc.

In short, we've become meatheads.

So it wasn't all that surprising when a conversation with some friends shifted to bodybuilders. Specifically, those of the female variety.

I'm sure you can already hear a lot of the comments.

"Oh my God, that is so ugly."
"Eww!"
"Does she really think men find that attractive?"

Now, male bodybuilders sometimes illicit similar responses, particularly those who've developed to alarming proportions, but I rarely hear men evaluated based on their attractiveness. And usually the ones who receive the criticism are the ones who'd developed to extreme proportions, whereas even the lighter weight women in the sport start catching hell as soon as they show any substantial definition. Further, even when male bodybuilders are criticized, rarely does the commentary boil down to "he'll never be able to land a woman like that."

It really got me thinking. Maybe conventional standards of beauty dictate that female bodybuilders are "ugly."  Maybe men don't find shredded women attractive.

And maybe, just maybe, the woman who's busting her ass to win a bodybuilding competition doesn't give a shit.

Because hey, news flash -- she's not doing it for you.

Read that again.

SHE'S NOT DOING IT FOR YOU.

Maybe she's not interested in attracting a man. Maybe she already has a partner, presumably one who supports her while she's working her ass off. Maybe she surrounds herself with people who don't determine her value based on how she would stack up on a Miss America Pageant score card.

Do you have any idea how much work it takes to be a bodybuilder? Even those who use steroids still have to bust their asses at the gym. You're talking about hours and hours and hours of lifting. It's not something you do -- least of all successfully -- unless you're really dedicated to it.

Women know what today's beauty standards are. It's beaten into our heads from an early age. Unless she's been living under a rock, by the time a woman gets into bodybuilding, she knows what that entails, and she knows what society expects of her, and she's well aware of how different those two things are.

Yet she goes into it anyway.

Because -- and I think this bears repeating -- SHE'S NOT DOING IT FOR YOU.

And yet, even after a woman has worked herself into the ground to reach the top of her game, her attractiveness or lack thereof still comes into play, as if we expect her to gasp and say, "What? After all that work, I've become ugly? I shall cancel my gym membership posthaste and vomit until I'm properly pretty!"

Regardless of how anyone else feels about the outcome of an athlete's training, it bothers me that the immediate reaction people have is about the woman's attractiveness. This goes beyond bodybuilding. I've heard it applied to female athletes of every variety. Many women are afraid to go into weight training as part of their fitness regimen because they're afraid of "bulking up" and looking "like that." All myths and misconceptions aside, what it boils down to is that a fit, powerful woman is seen as "manly." She should be thin and in shape, but not *too* fit because then she'll have visible muscle tone, which is not feminine.

If she dares "bulk up", or her body just naturally assumes the toned physique of her sport of choice, then she's ugly. She's off-putting to men. She's intimidating to men. She's not attractive to men.

And as we all know, a woman is not a valued member of today's society unless she's attractive to men.

During the London Olympics, I can't even count the number of times I heard a woman referred to in this way. I'm sure it'll be coming up again soon with the Winter Games starting. If she's doing something outside of figure skating or gymnastics -- the coverage of which seems to celebrate femininity and thinness -- a woman will be labeled an ugly and unattractive. She's manly, oh the horrors.

(Note I'm not discounting the work and athleticism involved in gymnastics or figure skating, only that those sports result in an entirely different physique than other sports, and that particular physique happens to be 'acceptable' for women.)

These are Olympic caliber athletes, and instead of praising them for busting their asses to even qualify -- never mind medal -- at the Games, we criticize them for violating the sacred standards of beauty and what it apparently means to be female. It's 2014, and still a woman's value cannot be calculated without including her appearance and her ability to attract a man, even when she's at the top of her game in a sport that would have her male counterpart receiving accolades without the sidebar about "that's all fine and good, but what woman is going to be interested in that?"

A top notch athlete has to bust her ass to get where she is, and she shouldn't be degraded because being "hot" (according to current Hollywood standards) isn't her top priority.  A track star who sets a world record should be celebrated, not sneered at because her physique isn't slim and delicate. A swimmer who wins a gold medal should be praised for kicking ass, not criticized for having a "manly" upper body and not looking perfect in her swimsuit.

A woman who wins a bodybuilding competition should be congratulated for her hard work, not sneered at because she couldn't win be Miss America.

Because maybe, just maybe, Miss America isn't who she wants to be.

NOW AVAILABLE: Static

I'm so thrilled to announce that my transgender science fiction novel,  Static , is back! Riptide Publishing has revised it, given it a gorgeous cover, and now...here it is!
Static can be purchased directly from Riptide, as well as on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and AllRomance.

After two years together, Alex has been dreading the inevitable moment when Damon learns the truth: that Alex is a shifter, part of a small percentage of the population able to switch genders at will. Thanks to a forced implant, though, Alex is suddenly static—unable to shift—and male. Overnight, he’s out to a world that neither understands nor tolerates shifters . . . and to his heterosexual boyfriend.

Damon is stunned to discover his girlfriend is a shifter, and scared to death of the dangers the implant poses to Alex’s health. He refuses to abandon Alex, but what about their relationship? Damon is straight, and with the implant both costly and dangerous to remove, Alex is stuck as a man.

Stripped of half his identity and facing serious physical and social ramifications, Alex needs Damon more than ever, but he doesn’t see how they can get through this.

Especially if he’s static forever.

They're baaaack!

The Cover Me trilogy has been out of print since spring 2013, but at long last...the boys are back!  The books will be released in February as individuals and as a boxed set. Blurbs aren't quite ready to go yet, but here's a look at the *gorgeous* cover art from L.C. Chase:



Stay tuned for release info.