Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Welcome Liz Crowe Today and a Contest


Welcome to my Reading Nook, Liz Crowe. Please make yourself at home and let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink.

Comfortable? Wonderful. Now let’s get started.

To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out? 
Healing Hearts is the launch novella for Decadent Publishing’s Challenge Series.

How would you describe yourself using only five words? 
Focused.
Goal-oriented
Beer Wench


If you could write a warning label for yourself as a person or an author, what would it say?  Do NOT serve me crappy beer or offer lame, me-too, copycat books to read OR ELSE.

Do you have any guilty pleasures? 
I drink too much, without a doubt.

Name one thing readers would be surprised to know about you. 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  No. I’m pretty much all the way out there. Anything “surprising” might be too naughty to post here.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? 
The Southern Coast of Turkey.

How do you get yourself in the mood to write? 
Since I fit writing in around owning and marketing my brewery, managing a staff of brewers and bartenders, and handling busy athletic teenagers the “mood to write” is pretty much anytime I can fit it in. To get myself there is a matter of good music in my ears, a great craft beer by my side and a decent idea.


Can you share with us your typical writing day.  Is there anything you have to have while writing? I write whenever I can so there is no such thing as a typical writing day. But I do have to have craft beer to create, and prefer loud music.

Who are some of your favorite authors? 
John Irving
Margaret Atwood
Zadie Smith
John Greene
Margaret Mitchell
Anna Quinlin
Lauren Dane (non paranormal)
Shayla Black (non paranormal)
And a new one for me : Roni Loren

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?  No, I’m pretty caught up really but I will read anything released by above mentioned authors (both John Irving and Zadie Smith had new books this year which I LOVED).

Is there something special you do to celebrate when one of your books is released? 
Take a deep breath and start on the next stage of the next book.

Do you have a favorite TV show you can't miss? 
Several but lately I’m a HUGE fan of Shameless…the sheer, amazing, perfect dysfunction of those people is awesome and amazing.

If you could date any character from any book, who would it be and why-no it doesn't have to be from your books?
Scarlett O’Hara so I can show Rhett Butler that he can’t just sweep me off my feet once—he’s gotta work a little harder for that sh*t.

What is the strangest source of writing inspiration you’ve ever had?
A fellow (and fairly famous) brewery owner telling me how he’d sabotage his brewery when I asked him while I was writing Cheeky Blonde.

If your muse were to talk behind your back, what secrets would he/she tell?
Oh, honey, Hans, my 6’6” blond haired, blue eye, uber smoking hot muse in lederhosen who holds my beer knows better than that…… 



CONTEST:
I will give away a copy of any Decadent back list books to one commenter
Here is a link to those books (The Turkish Delights books are a series. Cheeky Blonde and Caught Offside are stand alones).


  
BLURB:
Jay Longmire had it all--a successful business, a beautiful wife, two loving children. But one normal Sunday evening in Ann Arbor everything was ripped from his arms at knifepoint. He has retreated to Traverse City to hide from the world, nursing his physical and emotional wounds and trying to cope with mind-numbing guilt over his inability to protect his family.

Abby Powers serves him coffee he never drinks and has become obsessed with the movie-star handsome but melancholy man. And the anticipation of his appearance every day takes her mind off her own messy life.

What begins as a near desperate physical connection out of the blue develops into a friendship that has the potential to heal two damaged hearts. But Jay is terrified to love again. While Abby's fierce independence forces them both to acknowledge the deeper relationship they both desire, but that remains just out of reach.

Buy it:




Excerpt: 
“Stop flirting with me. That’s a personal bubble violation,” he whispered, letting his lips graze her earlobe, loving how her whole body shivered against him.
“Fine, then stop pressing against me so hard I can feel how much money is in your pocket.”
“Touché.” But he gripped her closer. The candlelight flickered, the music embraced them, and she nearly brought him to his knees with her next words.
“I can’t be what you want me to be, Jay. I have goals. I need my independence. I want to make it on my own.”
He sucked in a breath, slid the hand he had on her hip around to the small of her back. He didn’t need this. But he wanted it so much he was about to explode. “I’m never going to be what you want me to be, either. Let’s just be…what we are…tonight.”
She laid her head against his chest, and he shut his eyes, trying not to let the moment overwhelm him, send him screaming into the night. Christy’s face at their wedding, at the birth of their children, and that last moment when her eyes clouded over after she told him not to blame himself while he watched her die—they all rose, clear and bright. He swallowed, leaned down into Abigail’s thick riot of dark curls, sucked in a deep breath. “What do you want me to be for you…tonight?” he asked.
She put her hand to his face, went up on her tiptoes, and met his lips, urgent and needy. He kissed her, listening to the crowd clap and catcall. Then broke away. “Well?” he asked, his body zinging.
“I want you to be the guy who takes me to bed again.” The simplicity of her words taking his breath away. “I don’t want to be made love to, not now. I need you, Jay. With me, inside me, all over me. And you need it, too. No strings, no emotion. Only physical urges met. I’m willing. Are you?”
He stepped away from her, a little shocked and a lot horny. “Give me two minutes.” Grateful the room had dimmed for the music and dancing, he dropped three hundred in cash on the table, more than enough to cover the meal, wine, and a healthy tip, and took her hand.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, giggling when he pushed her up against the side of his SUV and dove into her mouth, sweeping into it with his tongue, his hands cradling her face then buried in her hair. She molded into him, making that damn noise, the one that made him insane, down in her throat.
He broke from her, stared into her eyes. “Yes.”



Liz Bio:

Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three teenagers, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great middle west, in a Major College Town.  Years of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as an ex-pat trailing spouse plus making her way in a world of men (i.e. the beer industry) has prepped her for life as erotic romance author.  When she isn't sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, she can be found writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications.  Her ground breaking romance sub genre: “Romance for Real Life” has gained thousands of fans and followers, interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”)

Her beer blog a2beerwench.com is nationally recognized for its insider yet outsider views on the craft beer industry. Her books are set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch and in high powered real estate offices.  Don’t ask her for anything “like” a Budweiser or risk painful injury.

 

Also, check out Decadent Publishing’s submission guidelines here: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/index.php?osCsid=vm2lcn38t4dk6b96pm24l844h3&content=submissions

6 comments:

Liz said...

thanks for having me Dawn

Kenzie Michaels said...

Awesome interview! I've told you before, I'm also a John Irving fan, ever since my dad took me to see Hotel New Hampshire:) Then I found A Prayer For Owen Meaney and kept reading:)

I'm waaaaay behind on your back list, sweetie, but slowly catching up:) Your books are smoking!

Katalina Leon said...

Great interview Liz, loved the excerpt. Healing Hearts is something really special.

Jen Robbins said...

I love everything you write Liz. Healing Hearts was a fantastic book that had you stamped all over it! Abby was terrific.

Unknown said...

Amazing book from an amazing author!! Loved it Liz!

Unknown said...

I've only read one of Liz Crowe's books but I keep meaning to get to more.

rmwyer at shaw dot ca

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