Welcome to the Riptide Publishing/L. A. Witt blog tour for Noble Metals!

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of two eBooks off my backlist (excluding Noble Metals) and a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern Time, on July 19th, and winners will be announced on July 20th.  Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

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Most steampunk I’ve read is set in Victorian London. Which is fine. I adore London, as my frequent flyer mile account will attest, but when I set out to write steampunk for the first time, I wanted to do something different. I also hadn’t been to London at that point, so I wasn’t completely sure about that setting.

Furthermore, I was hell-bent on writing steampunk that didn’t involve airships. Because seriously, why are there so many airships in steampunk? (Says the author who included airships in the second Metals book, Precious Metals, but we don’t need to talk about that right now.)

So as I pondered a winter-themed steampunk book (that’s explained in another post), I thought “winter…Alaska…KLONDIKE.” And really, why not? You have thousands and thousands of prospectors traveling through incredibly cold and treacherous conditions while carrying loads of stuff with them. Between the journey from Seattle to Dawson City, and actually mining for gold, it was the perfect opportunity for some steampunk gadgetry to come into play.

And hey, Frontier steampunk wasn’t entirely new. Wild Wild West, anyone? Okay, so I didn’t have Will Smith or Kevin Kline, and I couldn’t work a giant mechanical spider into the equation, but I liked the idea of the American West as a setting for steampunk. Throw in the grueling conditions of the Klondike Gold Rush, and… count me in.

So, I started in Seattle (I know, all of my readers are stunned – stunned, I say! – that a book of mine is set in Seattle), threw my boys together, and sent them north.

But did they find what they were looking for?

Only one way to find out. 😉

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L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer currently living in the glamorous and ultra-futuristic metropolis of Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, two cats, and a disembodied penguin brain that communicates with her telepathically. In addition to writing smut and disturbing the locals, L.A. is said to be working with the US government to perfect a genetic modification that will allow humans to survive indefinitely on Corn Pops and beef jerky. This is all a cover, though, as her primary leisure activity is hunting down her arch nemesis, erotica author Lauren Gallagher, who is also said to be lurking somewhere in Omaha.

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).

NOBLE METALS Blurb:

Ever since Robert Belton gambled away the money to stake his claim in the Klondike gold fields, he’s been stranded in Seattle working as a prostitute. When an attractive customer needs help hauling provisions to the frozen north, Robert eagerly volunteers.

Dr. John Fauth is only searching for one thing, and it isn’t gold. He needs platinum for the prototypes of his revolutionary inventions, and if he doesn’t find it in the Klondike, his university career—and his research—is over.

Getting to the Klondike is a grueling, dangerous journey, and just hours after leaving Seattle, John and Robert find themselves in over their heads. John is carrying an invaluable device that his competitors will do anything to get their hands on. And as the cold nights and mutual desire pull John and Robert closer together, they discover that they have much more to lose than gold or platinum.

(Publisher’s Note: This book was previously published by a different press; it has since been edited extensively and expanded by over 10,000 words.)

Noble Metals is available July 7th from Riptide Publishing. Precious Metals, a novel set in the same steampunk/Klondike Gold Rush world, comes out this fall.