Monday, January 30, 2012

Liz Crowe is my Guest!




Liz Crowe is here today with a guest post! So, without further ado, I'm going to scoot on over and let Liz have the floor!


Every industry has its catch phrases and funny acronyms.

God knows OUR little world if full of ‘em:
I mean, the DH knows how hard I work creating HEAs, trying to keep my heroines from being TSTL, and he definitely avoids me while I’m in the editing cave, dealing with red lines on a potential R&R while at the same time working through galleys on another project and fighting off plot bunnies at the same time. Damn Muse.


My “other” industry (beer) is almost worse:
Today my brewer threw a fit because the Plato of his latest batch wouldn’t yield the target OG and the assistant messed up the dry hopping of our latest IPL and they both forgot to rack and carb the Amber. Meanwhile I’m trying to sort out new FOB pricing for my wholesaler, schedule ride-alongs and get shelf talkers done for retailers.


Real estate is no better. My new series with Tri Destiny Publishing as part of its new Sizzlin’ line of erotic romance is called The Realtors: Life in the House Lane.
I gave each book in the series a “jargon title.”
The first one, when Jack Gordon and Sara Thornton begin their long, sometimes difficult, many times erotic journey together is called “Floor Time.”
That refers to the hours a licensed realtor will spend “on floor” or as the realtor on call physically at the office to take phone calls and walk ins. Neither of those things are that frequent anymore so many offices have had to set up “virtual floor” schedules for realtors savvy with smart phones and what not to get folks requesting info by email what they need right away. I was one of those realtors for my office when I still sold houses.

The second book: Sweat Equity comes from a phrase likely more familiar to non-realtors. It means the time spent to build “equity” in something like home ownership, business ownership or even a relationship. When you undertake a renovation yourself, paint your own living room walls or otherwise update your existing home without paying someone else you are investing “sweat equity” in the future value of the house. Jack and Sara spend the second book coming together and breaking apart, seemingly unable to coordinate their emotional connections although the physical? Spot on.

By the time Jack and Sara get to book three, it may seem as though there is no solution to their inability to truly connect. If you have ever purchased a house, or even a car, the term “Closing Costs” is familiar to you. Those are all the extraneous, sometimes sort of large, amounts of money that you must bring to the closing table in order to meet your end of the loan agreement. While the end goal: a house is purchased (or in Jack and Sara’s case a relationship finalized one way or another) is achieved, it does come “at a price.”

Series Blurb:
The Realtors: Life in the House Lane
Love is an easy word to use, a hard one to demonstrate, and sometimes impossible to trust. 
  The Realtors is a sweeping epic, encompassing over ten years in the lives of two people who know how to love with their bodies, how to please and get pleasure, to control and be controlled.  When it comes to the deeper meaning of the one word they both need, backgrounds and personalities get in the way and while their physical connection sizzles they continue to disappoint one another emotionally.
  Jack Gordon has it all--money, success, a string of women--but with a deep longing for something more. When he thinks he finds it with Sara Jane Thornton, his world is never the same again.  Sara releases his natural Dom, a side of him he'd thought buried out of frustration and unhappiness. Sara knows a true submissive must trust implicitly, something she cannot associate with him, no matter how many times she tries, and he fails.
  With a rich cast of secondary characters, including a young man who presents a near-perfect foil to Jack's intensity, and who falls hard for Sara; The Realtors series is a romantic saga with an emphasis contemporary life and love, with a healthy dose of white-hot eroticism. Modern, busy, driven characters living lives of purpose and real-time stress, seek the ever-elusive and highly coveted combination --a friend, lover and trusted advisor who will be there for the long haul.

FLOOR TIME BLURB:
Jack Gordon is Ann Arbor's most delectable bachelor. At age thirty-five, he's made millions as a top-selling Ann Arbor real estate broker and has the right connections to close a deal by any means necessary. With his rugged good looks and compelling personality, he has a virtual black book most men would kill for and he uses it often, never settling for one woman for very long.

While his D/s past remains buried, exactly where he wants it, an undercurrent of boredom and dissatisfaction runs through his life now.  Disastrous experience years earlier made him swear off the whole scene, but the more Jack suppresses his natural Dom, the more his frustration grows.   
Sara Thornton, just a rookie in the field, has fast-tracked herself to the top of the Ann Arbor real estate market. Her life evolves into a disciplined and focused routine, exactly what she wants.  However, as her career takes off, the fulfillment she seeks remains inexplicably out of reach.  The one thing she knows for sure, she will not join the Jack Gordon groupies in her company, no matter how tempting that might seem.
A chance encounter, then a difficult transaction, throw Jack and Sara together and the sparks fly high and hot and often. Forced to confront the compulsions that gain momentum with each sizzling encounter, their relationship seems to spiral out of control until Jack finally admits what he needs, and shows Sara what she's been missing.



LIZ CROWE BIO:
Microbrewery owner, 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 beer inventory, sales figures or promotional efforts for her latest publication, doing pounds of laundry for her sweaty athletic children, watching La Liga on the Fox Soccer Channel, or trying to figure out what to order in for dinner, she can be found walking her standard poodles or doing Bikram Yoga. Liz loves her Foo Fighters Pandora station, and watching reruns of Deadwood, when there isn't any decent European football on the telly. If you want a beer education follow her: www.a2beerwench.com. For writing related stuff, including her backlist, go to: www.brewingpassion.com.



What a great post,  and I really love the sound of your books! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I wish you much success in 2012! 



Until next time,

Storm Goddess














4 comments:

  1. Morning Liz and Storm Goddess. Great post and I can't wait to read this series.

    Marika Weber

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  2. Great post! I really enjoyed reading it.
    Your series sounds very intriguing.

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  3. Great post!! Sounds like a great book! I'll be adding it to my TBR list for sure :)

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