Hi guys! Today I am really excited to welcome back author L.A. Witt. She is here today to talk to us about her new book with Riptide Publishing and has brough a great giveaway.

Hi L.A.! Welcome back to Joyfully Jay! We had such a good time when you were here last and I am so excited to have you back today to talk about your new release, A Chip on His Shoulder.   I just loved this book and reviewed it here yesterday.

Glad you enjoyed it!

A Chip on His Shoulder is a bit of departure from most of your books in that it is a futuristic, science fiction type story rather than a contemporary.  What inspired you to create this world and this story?

This story just kind of…evolved.  Believe it or not, it started out in my head as something in a medieval type setting, then somehow morphed into this futuristic cyberpunk fiasco.  Stories tend to do that. They start out as a nebulous idea, seem like they’re going one direction, then suddenly veer off in another direction and turn into something else entirely.

And I am starting to dip into non-contemporary genres these days. I actually cut my teeth writing epic fantasy, though none of it’s ever been or ever will be published. While I love contemporary and will continue to write it, I’ve been drawn back to SFF for a long time. That, and with as much as I write, it’s really easy for me to get bored. Though my contemporary stories are all pretty different from one to the next, sometimes I just get that itch to throw something else into the mix.

In the future, readers can probably expect a pretty wide variety from me. More steampunk, more cyberpunk, more paranormal. Maybe even some historical fiction. And of course, there will be plenty of contemporary.

Liam in such an interesting character.  Cyber-modified, vampire assassin sounds like a hard sell as a romance hero, but he comes across so likeable (and hot) in the book.  Was it hard to get that mix of loveable and badass?

He was a tough one.  I’m all for anti-heroes, but a paid killer is difficult to sympathize with, you know?  Once I got a better feel for his motives and his history, though, he wasn’t quite such an unsympathetic character.  He wasn’t proud of his profession, and he had a great deal of empathy for the people living in the Gutter.  That said, there were times I wanted to throw him down an elevator shaft because he was being an insufferable butthead, but that happens with a lot of my characters.  Brats, all of them…

I also really loved Daniel and his sort of futuristic Robin Hood vibe.  He is a good match for Liam with a bit more earnestness and more of a conscience, but still pretty badass himself!

Daniel was crazy fun to write. I really never knew what to expect with him, and he threw me as many curve balls as he threw Liam.  The story was very loosely outlined, so I kind of followed the characters as they went, and Daniel surprised me from the moment he walked on-camera. As soon as he was face to face with Liam, and not the least bit surprised or scared, I knew he was going to give me a run for my money. And my God, he did.

You have said that the story will have a sequel (and I for one can’t wait!).  Can you tell us more about the next story?  Will we learn more about Daniel and what set him on such a divergent path from his father?  Any good details you can spill?

The boys are being a little tight-lipped about a few things—they haven’t even told me much at this point—but the sequel will delve a little deeper into Daniel’s history as well as Liam’s.  Rumor has it, Liam’s family will come into play too.  I’m hesitant to say much more about it, simply because if it’s anything like its prequel, it’ll start out one way and end another (the original outline of Chip is way different from the first draft, and the first draft is a far cry from the final version).  So anything I say about it today might be completely irrelevant once I actually start writing it.

That,  and a lot changes during editing. As editors, Rachel and Aleks are…how can I put this delicately? They’re…a little demanding? They challenge me? They’re brimming with suggestions at every turn?

No, screw that. Those two are effing brutal. The edit on this book was a colossal bloodbath the likes of which I’ve never experienced. You should have heard Rachel’s sadistic cackling and seen Aleks grinning while he charged up the cattle prods and sharpened the pointy things! It was insanity!

And in the end, Chip is a much better book for it.  So I fully expect the sequel to get the same tender loving care as the first one…which means who knows how it’ll end up?

(And for the record, I am not complaining about the way those two edit. It’s so brutal I was tempted to classify it as hazing, and I’m reasonably certain it was in violation of the Geneva Convention a time or two, but I will gladly subject my work and myself to that again.)

I know you write like crazy and always have a million books in the works.  What else are you working on now?  Anything else coming out soon?

Since I’m still working on relocating from Japan to the Midwest, I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like. As such, my list of upcoming releases is thinner than I’d like it to be, but rest assured, there is plenty of stuff in the works!  Right now, I’m working on Where There’s Smoke, a contemporary M/M romance set during a political campaign. I’m also working on a couple of SFF stories, the second Tooth & Claw book, and God only knows what else.

As far as upcoming releases, Search Me (the third in the Cover Me series) will be out December 7th.  (For those who liked Nick and Andrew in book #1, they’re taking center stage again in this book!)  My first vamp/were novel, The Given & The Taken, will be out January 3rd from Samhain. This is the first in the Tooth & Claw series.  After that, in mid-late January, I have a steampunk novella coming from Carnal Passions called Noble Metals.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer all my questions!  If folks want to know more about you or your books, how can they find you?

Plenty of places to find me!

Updates are a little slow these days while I get my carcass relocated and settled in, but they’ll be fast and furious once I’m in Nebraska.

Thank you so much for coming! You know you are always welcome back here at Joyfully Jay!

Thanks for having me! I’ll be back soon, I’m sure! 😉 [In fact, L.A. will be back next Tuesday to talk to us about her other new release, Search Me!]

L.A. was nice enough to bring along a great giveaway with her today.  Leave a comment below to win one of her backlist books (excluding A Chip on His Shoulder).  The contest closes Monday, December 5 at 11:59 EST.

  • By entering the contest, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay and leave your email address if it is not in your profile.

Thanks again to L.A. for coming to join us today!