Guest Post and Giveaway: What Remains by Garrett Leigh

Please help us give a warm welcome to author Garrett Leigh, joining us today on the tour for her newest release, What Remains. Garrett’s answered a few questions for us, and is also offering the chance for one lucky reader to win a $25 Riptide Publishing store credit. See more details below.

Enjoy and good luck!

Q: How much research did you have to do on amnesia?

A: Loads. I’m close to someone who has a long-term TBI, so that helped, and I read a million booked, watched a ton of documentaries, and got the manuscript betaed by an NHS medical professional, because it wasn’t just important to get the injury right, the standard of care Jodi would’ve received had to be accurate too. Luckily, for Jodi, he was taken to one of the best hospitals in the world. 

Q: Did you take any creative license for the storyline in regards to amnesia, or did you stick to the realities?

A: I stuck to the realities as best I could. There was a temptation to romanticise Jodi’s recovery but it would have diluted the whole story…trivialised it, and for me, that would’ve felt unforgivable. Jodi and Rupert deserved their happy ending, but it had to be real. Besides, the realities of it were enough. They had to be, or the story meant nothing.

Q: What sort of challenges did you face in creating a character and then having to completely recreate him within the same story?

A: That’s an awesome question, and what I found most difficult was saying goodbye to facets of Jodi’s original character that I’d adored. It was really hard to erase his playfulness and cheek, his confidence and his wit, and recreate a shell of the man he’d once been. I grieved for him, I really did. What remained (haha) at the end of the book was still a character I loved, but I mourned the one we (and Rupert) lost.

About What Remains

Web designer Jodi Peters is a solitary creature. Lunch twice a week with his ex-girlfriend-turned-BFF and the occasional messy venture to a dodgy gay bar is all the company he needs, right?

Then one night he stumbles across newly divorced firefighter Rupert O’Neil. Rupert is lost and lonely, but just about the sweetest bloke Jodi has ever known. Add in the heady current between them, and Jodi can’t help falling hard in love. He offers Rupert a home within the walls of his cosy Tottenham flat—a sanctuary to nurture their own brand of family—and for four blissful years, life is never sweeter.

Until a cruel twist of fate snatches it all away. A moment of distraction leaves Jodi fighting for a life he can’t remember and shatters Rupert’s heart. Jodi doesn’t know him—or want to. With little left of the man he adores, Rupert must cling to what remains of his shaky faith and pray that Jodi can learn to love him again.

About the Author

Garrett Leigh is a British writer and book designer, currently working for Dreamspinner Press, Loose Id, Riptide Publishing, and Black Jazz Press. Her protagonists will always always be tortured, crippled, broken, and deeply flawed. Throw in a tale of enduring true love, some stubbly facial hair, and a bunch of tattoos, and you’ve got yourself a Garrett special.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible. That, and dreaming up new ways to torture her characters. Garrett believes in happy endings; she just likes to make her boys work for it.

Garrett also works as a freelance cover artist for various publishing houses and independent authors under the pseudonym G.D. Leigh. For cover art info, please visit blackjazzpress.com.

Social media: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Cover art enquiries

The Giveaway

To celebrate the release of What Remains, Garrett is giving away $25 in Riptide Publishing credit. Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on July 9, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!