We’re so pleased to have author LA Witt joining us today to celebrate the latest release in the Anchor Point series, Wash Out. She’s done some reflecting from last week’s RT convention in Reno, Nevada, and there’s also a giveaway so be sure to check those details out below.

Welcome, LA!

Looking Back at RT

You’re most likely reading this during the week after the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Reno (aka RT). I’m writing it at the convention, and today it was announced that this will be the final RT. I’m pretty sad about it because this is my 7^th RT, and I love this con. So, I thought I’d reflect a little on the con and how it’s helped to shape my career.

I went to seven RTs in a row: Chicago, Kansas City, New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and finally Reno. Some of the venues were great, some weren’t, but all the cons were amazing. I met so many authors who have since become friends I look forward to seeing each year. Some who I knew through the M/M genre—Damon Suede, Stephani Hecht, Tara Lain, Belinda McBride, Reesa Herberth, Michelle Moore, and about a bajillion others who I will be mortified over forgetting but it’s 10:30 at night in the middle of a convention so I promise it’s nothing personal. I also met some authors I knew through the Absolute Write community, like Anna Zabo and Andy Dunn, and I couldn’t begin to count the number of readers I’ve met.

RT in Atlanta was where I first met Greg Tremblay (literally minutes after I’d been proofing his narration of Conduct Unbecoming). I met Cari Z in Las Vegas after she won my “I’ll buy your first trip to Vegas” contest, and that resulted in an amazing co-writing partnership (we just started our 6^th book this week!). Anna Zabo introduced me to her agent, Jennifer Udden, at RT in New Orleans, and two years later in Vegas, I signed with Jen myself.

There’s a very blurry line between networking at conventions and making friends, and in most cases, I’ve done both simultaneously. Business conversations derail into gabbing about cats. Commiserating about terrible service at a hotel bar that won’t be named segues into brainstorming elaborate multi-author projects that may or may not ever come to fruition. You just never know.

Meeting people at RT was always kind of a funny thing. I mean, there’s like 5,000 introverts, and randomly striking up a conversation with a stranger (or worse, someone you admire but haven’t met before) is intimidating. Still, people made connections, and often in the last places you’d expect. Sometimes it was the person in line next to you for the goody room, the book signing, or the bathroom. Sometimes it started with “is anyone sitting here?” and turned into an all-night conversation. I’ve been on both ends of the conversation where two strangers start talking and one suddenly realizes they’re talking to a favorite author. Any of y’all who’ve ever felt embarrassed by fangirling? Rest assured I did the same thing with Suzanne Brockmann, the world didn’t end, and I eventually stopped wondering “did I really just say that?” So I get it. Been there, fangirled like that. It’s all good, I promise!

Being a huge event, even a well-organized one like RT still felt chaotic to a certain degree simply because so much was going on. Sometimes it was overwhelming. Sometimes it was sensory overload and I just needed a break. After the big Saturday book fair, many of us went up to our rooms to decompress because Holy Ned, it’s exhausting. Con Crud was pretty much a guarantee, especially with the amount of hugging going on. Because there is a LOT of hugging at things like this.

So yeah. I’ll be sad to see RT come to a close and be left in the past. It’s an amazing event. I would still have a career without it, but it wouldn’t be the same. I’d still have friends in the industry, but not the memories of playing Cards Against Humanity in hotel lobbies while wearing pajamas and waiting for pizza delivery, or being so hoarse by Thursday that I couldn’t speak at all by Saturday.

There will be other conventions.

But there will never be another RT.

About the Book

Casey Olson has always known he was destined to be a Navy SEAL, and the best day of his life was when he was accepted into training. The worst day was when a snapping bone ended his dream.

After three combat tours in five years, Logan Carter left the Marines and self-destructed. Now he’s sober and, thanks to a forgiving ex with friends in high places, has a promising job as a civilian contractor. All he has to do is stay on the rails and out of a bottle, even when his demons won’t leave him alone.

Logan likes his job, and he really likes the gorgeous man at the next desk. Casey tries not to check Logan out, but who is he kidding? From the start, despite their best efforts, neither man can resist the other. Sizzling chemistry leads to sex so hot they can both almost forget why they’re stuck in this office to begin with.

It would be perfect, except Logan can’t stop reliving wars he’ll never forget and Casey can’t stop grieving the SEAL he’ll never be. And they’ll never have a future together until they can make peace with their pasts.

Buy the Book: Amazon || Other Online Retailers

About Anchor Point

Welcome to Anchor Point!

Nestled on the northern coast of Oregon, this small town is home to Naval Air Station Adams. On base, you’ll find freshly minted Sailors who’ve just graduated boot camp, salty officers counting down till retirement, grounded pilots who’ve landed behind desks, and everyone in between—and they’re all looking for love. Well, not all of them, but that won’t stop love from finding them.

So pull up a barstool, grab a beer, and get ready for some sea stories as these men in uniform—or not—navigate the waters of love and life in the military.

Anchor Point stories can be enjoyed in any order. Hop in wherever you’d like!

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…

L. A.’s backlist is available on her website, and updates (as well as random thoughts and the odd snarky comment) can be found on her blog or on Twitter (@GallagherWitt).

The Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Wash Out, L.A. is giving away reader’s choice of two eBooks off of her backlist! (Excludes Wash Out.) Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 26, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!