All The Wrong Places by Ann Gallagher - Blog Tour with Author Q&A and Givewaway

Welcome to the Riptide Publishing/Ann Gallagher blog tour for All The Wrong Places!

Ann Gallagher is the slightly more civilized alter ego of L.A. Witt, Lauren Gallagher, and Lori A. Witt. So she tells herself, anyway. When she isn’t wreaking havoc on Spain with her husband and trusty two-headed Brahma bull, she writes romances just like her wilder counterparts, but without all the heat. She is also far too mature to get involved in the petty battle between L.A. and Lauren, but she’s seriously going to get even with Lori for a certain incident that shall not be discussed publicly.

ALL THE WRONG PLACES Blurb:

Three cheating girlfriends in a row have given skateboarder Brennan Cross the same excuse: he wasn’t meeting their needs. Desperate and humiliated, he goes to the professionals at the local sex shop for advice.

Zafir Hamady, a sales clerk at Red Hot Bluewater, has an unusual theory: he doesn’t think Brennan is a bad lover. In fact, he doesn’t think Brennan is heterosexual. Or sexual at all, for that matter. He also can’t stop thinking about Brennan. But even if he’s right and Brennan really is asexual, that doesn’t mean Zafir has a chance. Brennan’s never dated a man, and Zafir’s never met anyone who’s game for a Muslim single father with a smart mouth and a GED.

Brennan’s always thought of himself as straight. But when sex is explicitly out of the mix, he finds himself drawn to Zafir for the qualities and interests they share. And Zafir can’t help enjoying Brennan’s company and the growing bond between Brennan and his son. They work well together, but with so many issues between them, doubts creep in, and Brennan’s struggle with his identity could push away the one person he didn’t know he could love.

All The Wrong Places is available June 13^th from Riptide Publishing.

I'd like to know how did you decide upon an ace character. Did you start out knowing you wanted to write an ace character or was the character already 'talking' to you and said "Hey, by the way I'm asexual' write my story please! And how did you stay true to how the character presented himself?

Which came first – the chicken or the ace? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Anyway, in this case, I knew I wanted to write an asexual romance for the Bluewater Bay series because we’ve really wanted this series to be diverse in every way. I’ve already written gay/bisexual men and lesbian/bisexual women for the series, and the other authors are keeping it nice and varied too, but I really wanted an ace romance in there.

As soon as I decided on that, Zafir’s character pretty much fell fully-formed from the sky. I seriously went from “I want an asexual romance” to “this dude is a kinda-lazy-Muslim asexual single dad working in a porn shop with a smart mouth and a GED” in about two minutes.

Brennan was a little more vague in the beginning. Then I realized Zafir is the kind of dad who is terrified of anything happening to his son, but also mindful of not being as overprotective as his own parents were, which meant that the mere thought of his son on a skateboard would make Zafir hyperventilate. Clearly that meant I needed to pair him up with a skateboarder. Once I settled on Brennan being a semi-pro skateboarder, the rest of his personality started to come about, but he was definitely slower to form than Zafir.

Initially, I wasn’t sure if I wanted both guys to be ace or just one. As Brennan’s character slowly formed, though, it became very clear he was ace, but still figuring out his asexuality.

So, Zafir happened because I wanted to write an asexual romance, and Brennan followed – taking his sweet time – and eventually told me that he too was ace. From there, the story came together pretty much on its own, and the end result… All The Wrong Places.

Giveaway 

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of two eBooks off my backlist (excluding All The Wrong Places, but including books written as L.A. Witt or Lauren Gallagher) and a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on June 20^th, and winners will be announced on June 21^st.  Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.