Guest Post and Giveaway: New Hand by L.A. Witt

Welcome to author L.A. Witt and the New Hand blog tour, the 23rd and final book in Riptide Publishing’s Bluewater Bay collection. She’s talking focus today, and there’s also a giveaway at the end, so be sure to check out the entry details for a chance at a $10 Riptide store credit and a couple of eBooks from L.A.’s backlist.

How does a writer avoid getting distracted and—SQUIRREL!

So, it’s not a big secret that I’ve got some ADD going on. (And no, I don’t mean like people who just say they have ADD because they got distracted once by something shiny. You’ve probably seen that meme about how ADD is like having 400 browser tabs open at the same time and where the heck is that music coming from???  That’s about the size of it.) My brain is pretty much constantly going in 78 different directions, and yes, that means I’m easily distracted. Couple that with the fact that I write on a laptop that’s connected to the internet, and that I share my workspace with a cat who enjoys chewing through power cords, and you can imagine how hard it is to stay focused sometimes.

So how do I stay focused?

The truth is, I don’t.

I flit. Y’all, I flit.  A lot of people already know I write out of sequence, but that doesn’t just mean I write a scene, then go write a different one, then write another. Most of the time, I have two or three Word documents open, each a different chapter, and I’ll bounce back and forth between them. Those documents each have fragments that will eventually be sewn together into a cohesive chapter, and those chapters will eventually become a book. They’re not chronological, either—right now, I’m working on chapters 4, 5, 17, and 22 of my current work-in-progress.

I also have iTunes and Firefox open. Every so often, I click over to iTunes, and monkey with my playlist for a few minutes until I have another 20-30 songs queued up. Even more frequently, I flit to the Firefox browser. I check both email accounts, check Twitter, check Facebook (and maybe browse my newsfeed for a minute), and check my sales on Amazon. Five minutes later, I do it again. Email-Twitter-Facebook-Amazon. I hadn’t even realized how much that had become part of my routine until I was writing somewhere without internet, and not being able to do my Email-Twitter-Facebook-Amazon routine… threw me off. You would think it would make it harder to focus if I kept doing that, but I actually find it harder if I can’t do my compulsive Email-Twitter-Facebook-Amazon check.

I guess at the end of the day, I’ve kind of embraced my inability to focus, and just sort of go with it.

Which is all a long-winded way of saying that if I have one piece of advice for any writer, it’s this: Find what works for you and go with it. One writer’s disaster is another writer’s method.

And I was going to add something else, but Fluffy tried to eat the TV cord and two seconds later there was a Magpie on the fence outside, and I forgot.

About New Hand

Months after his husband’s death, Garrett Blaine desperately needs a fresh start. He sells his house in Seattle, leaves his accounting job, and starts bartending in Bluewater Bay. There he meets a man who wakes up his nearly forgotten libido.

Jesse Connelly’s friend with benefits bolted after Jesse disclosed his HIV status. Stood up and stinging, Jesse tries to drown his sorrows . . . and finds an unexpected connection with a lonely bartender.

Jesse and Garrett quickly bond over a shared love of comics and card games, and they can’t get enough of each other between the sheets. Not even a bumpy start and a fifteen-year age gap can derail them as they go from strangers to lovers, then friends, then much more.

But as Garrett’s feelings for Jesse deepen, so does his grief for the man he lost—especially as he sees hints of his late husband in his new boyfriend. Now Garrett has to figure out if Jesse is his second chance at true love, or if Jesse’s just filling in for the man he’s never fully grieved. And he needs to figure it out soon, because Jesse’s starting to wonder the same thing.

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About Bluewater Bay

Welcome to Bluewater Bay! This quiet little logging town on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula has been stagnating for decades, on the verge of ghost town status. Until a television crew moves in to film Wolf’s Landing, a soon-to-be cult hit based on the wildly successful shifter novels penned by local author Hunter Easton.

Wolf’s Landing’s success spawns everything from merchandise to movie talks, and Bluewater Bay explodes into a mecca for fans and tourists alike. The locals still aren’t quite sure what to make of all this—the town is rejuvenated, but at what cost? And the Hollywood-based production crew is out of their element in this small, mossy seaside locale. Needless to say, sparks fly.

This collaborative story world is brought to you by eleven award-winning, best-selling LGBTQ romance authors: L.A. Witt, L.B. Gregg, Z.A. Maxfield,  Heidi Belleau, Rachel Haimowitz, Anne Tenino, Amy Lane, SE Jakes, G.B. Gordon, Jaime Samms and Ally Blue. Each contemporary novel stands alone, but all are built around the town and the people of Bluewater Bay and the Wolf’s Landing media empire.

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About the Author

L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer who has finally been released from the purgatorial corn maze of Omaha, Nebraska, and now spends her time on the southwestern coast of Spain. In between wondering how she didn’t lose her mind in Omaha, she explores the country with her husband, several clairvoyant hamsters, and an ever-growing herd of rabid plot bunnies. She also has substantially more time on her hands these days, as she has recruited a small army of mercenaries to search South America for her nemesis, romance author Lauren Gallagher, but don’t tell Lauren. And definitely don’t tell Lori A. Witt or Ann Gallagher. Neither of those twits can keep their mouths shut . . .

Connect with L.A.: Website || Author Blog || Personal Blog || Twitter: @GallagherWitt || Facebook || Goodreads

The Giveaway

To celebrate the release of New Hand, one lucky winner will receive a $10 Riptide credit and their choice of two ebooks off LA Witt’s backlist (not counting New Hand)! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 23, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!