Happy Holidays!

Very tardy but nonetheless heartfelt...for those who celebrate along with me...

Merry Christmas
Feliz Navidad
Mele Kalikimaka
Joyeux Noel


this very busy elf wished everyone a wonderful holiday season!

Idiot's Guides Sewing (review)

                                        


Idiot’s Guides: Sewing by Cinnamon Miles is a basic book on sewing, particularly using a sewing machine. There are excellent photographs detailing every aspect, from threading a needle, loading a bobbin and making seams to reading a pattern, creating practical things such as pillowcases or a little clutch or tablet case. The gradual progression from the very basic to more complicated projects makes this an excellent reference for those learning how to use this versatile skill.


I am never crazy about things labelled for ‘idiots’ or ‘dummies’ as I do not equate lack of knowledge with a lack of brainpower but I realize that this is the trend. I think this is a great series to either introduce complete novices to a new ability or refresh or brush up on the skills of an amateur in a particular type of craft. The satisfaction of being able to say that something is made with one’s own hands helps mitigate the inevitable imperfections but with these very clear instructions and explanatory photographs, the journey is much less frustrating than it could be. I am still prone to clumsiness so I keep the bandaids close at hand but I definitely find the books in this series to be useful and entertaining and this one is no exception (even if the seam ripper is probably going to be the most used instrument in my sewing kit at first!).

© Night Owl Reviews

I received a copy of this title in return for an honest review.  

Idiot's Guides: Sewing (Amazon link)
 

I wish all of you who celebrate a very Merry Christmas!  I will probably be quiet for the next few days and I suddenly realized that I have to compile my favorites list to share...but first I am going to snuggle in with some delicious hot chocolate and a good book (or three, lol).

The Reckless Engineer Jac Wright (excerpt, guest post and GIVEWAY)

                                    
                                     

THE RECKLESS ENGINEER by Jac Wright

Can you forgive betrayal?
The aftershocks of an affair reverberate out to those in the lives of the lovers, who will NOT take it lying down.

Jack Connor lives an idyllic life by the Portsmouth seaside married to Caitlin McAllen, a stunning billionaire heiress, and working at his two jobs as the Head of Radar Engineering of Marine Electronics and as the Director of Engineering of McAllen BlackGold, his powerful father-in-law's extreme engineering company in oil & gas. He loves his two sons from his first marriage and is amicably divorced from his beautiful first wife, Marianne Connor. Their delicately balanced lives are shattered when the alluring Michelle Williams, with whom Jack is having a secret affair, is found dead and Jack is arrested on suspicion for the murder.

Jeremy Stone brings in a top London defence attorney, Harry Stavers, to handle his best friend's defence.

Who is the bald man with the tattoo of a skull seen entering the victim's house? Who is the "KC" that Caitlin makes secret calls to from a disposable mobile? Has the powerful Douglas McAllen already killed his daughter's first partner, and is he capable of killing again? Is Caitlin's brother's power struggle with Jack for the control of McAllen Industries so intense that he is prepared to kill and frame him? Is the divorce from his first wife as amicable on her part as they believe it to be? Are his sons prepared to kill for their vast inheritance? Who are the ghosts from Caitlin's past haunting the marriage? What is the involvement of Jack's manager at Marine Electronics?

While Jack is charged and his murder trial proceeds in the Crown Court under barrister Harry Stavers' expert care, Jeremy runs a race against time to find the real killer and save his friend's life, if he is in fact innocent, in a tense tale of love, friendship, power, and ambition.

Buy THE RECKLESS ENGINEER on 

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Excerpt: Jeremy Gets a Disguise

        Otter had nowadays moved into acting and backstage production and was today doing the costumes for the stage adaptation of the acclaimed Ealing comedy The Ladykillers at the Gielgud Theatre.
        Jeremy got off the taxi at Piccadilly Circus and picked up the ticket he had booked on the phone. The show was due to start at 7:45 p.m. He presented his ticket at the entrance. Then he jotted his name down on the back of a Barrett Stavers business card, handed it to one of the ushers, and asked for Otter. A few minutes later he was led backstage where he was greeted with screams of delight by the man in person.
        ‘O. M. G., Jeremy! Welcome, welcome to my parlour baby boy. How is Harry? I was gonna give him a call soon anyways because . . .’ He lowered his voice into a whisper, bringing his mouth next to Jeremy’s ear and covering it with his hand: ‘. . . I have an offer from a Broadway producer to join a gig in New York for a spell.’ Otter withdrew from his ear. ‘Yeah? So how exciting is that? My black grandma would have been thrilled if only she were here, bless her soul.’
        He winked and clapped his hands.
        ‘Come, come this way.’ Otter took Jeremy’s hand in his and led him to an empty dressing room lit with dim yellowish-white lights that looked like a dungeon full of colourful costumes, makeup, props and chests of showbiz treasures, the door of which he carefully closed and locked behind them.
        ‘I need to get Harry to look at this contract of mine and see how soon I can get out of this one without badly riling somebody’s feathers.’
        Otter pulled out an old brown wooden suitcase from under a desk, its exterior covered with badges of West End shows stuck onto it. He dug into it through a pile of costumes, masks and other props and pulled out a cardboard folder.
        ‘Take a look at this. What do you think?’
        He pushed Jeremy onto the sofa covered with costumes, tossed the file onto his lap, and stood expectantly with one hand on his hip jutted out sideways.
        Jeremy turned the pages, pretending to read through and understand it all.
‘I’m going to have to get our expert, Harry, to take a look at this also, Otter. Why don’t I take a photocopy with me tonight?’
        ‘A photocopy, yes. Well, there’s no copier in here, Gem. I don’t want any of these bitches to see me doing this because you know they are fucking gossips.’
        ‘There are several newsagents outside. Why don’t I find a copier and make a copy? I can bring this back to you in ten minutes,’ Jeremy suggested.
        Otter sat up next to him and put a hand on his knee.
        ‘You are a lifesaver, darling. But guard that with your life. Now what can I do for you?’
Jeremy slid the contract under his Jacket.
        ‘Well, I need someone who has seen photographs of me not to recognize me, Otter. Darker hair, maybe a moustache, slightly more aged and greying? A few extra pounds of weight perhaps? We can keep it light because these men have only seen my pictures on the newspapers and possibly on TV. I need it on me for Saturday.’
        ‘Of course, leave it to Otter. When I’m done with you your mamma won’t recognize you, Gem. Your mamma will say, whozaaatt?’
        Otter got back up and gave him a hand up. Otter often shortened his name to Gem. Jeremy liked it. If he ever got into a stage career he would call himself Gem, he thought.

Guest Post: Writing a Legal Thriller Set in the English Courts

Inside an English Crown Court

The Reckless Engineer is as much a legal thriller of a case through the English criminal courts as a traditional murder mystery. I thought this was fitting because the lawyers get involved the moment a suspect is taken into custody. The police get 48 hours to either charge the suspect or release them. To hold the suspect in custody for longer they must present their case to a Magistrate and get a court order showing good cause.  There are two criminal courts in the English system: the Magistrates’ Court and the Crown Court. All criminal cases start in the lower Magistrates’ Court, which continues to hear the cases of smaller crimes carrying community service or shorter custodial sentences. The cases in the Magistrates Court are usually heard by a less senior officer called a Magistrate. This lower court will pass on the hearing of more serious crimes carrying longer sentences and generally requiring a jury hearing over to the Crown Court.

Writing a legal thriller through the English courts was, however, a daunting task to take on. There are no legal thrillers set in the British courts that I was aware of.  I had read Earl Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series in my late teens, but these stories are set in an American court. Even most of John Grisham’s cases are based in civil litigation. Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer series is the strongest contemporary criminal litigation stories I know. I decided to base no part of my book on past literature, not only because there was no past thrillers I could find based in English courts, but also because I wanted this work to be real, contemporary, and original. I decided to write it from real experience of the English courts system.

Fortunately I have a close friend who is a barrister to help me with my legal research and in whose image I have cast Harry Stavers. I followed my friend and his solicitors through months of criminal litigation, from the initial arrest and interview of suspects at police stations through to criminal appeals in the high court. I have spent many a day sitting in a courtroom, absorbing the environment and the proceedings. The rigorous and solemn proceedings for a Crown court hearing is a grand affair with wigged and cloaked judges and court officers.  I have also spent many hours reading my friend’s legal books searching for the right procedures and real case histories.

Behind the calm and solemn proceedings the police station and the courtroom is arena of fierce dueling and battle. The police lie, the prosecutors lie; the witnesses and the lawyers lie at times. Unfortunately, the rich and the powerful do get away with crimes  or get light sentences while the poor get treated harshly unfairly in the British courts. I decided, however, not to explore that in the book. I decided to make the court system equally just and tough for the rich and poor alike in The Reckless Engineer.

The result is something unique––a traditional murder mystery closely woven together with a realistic and contemporary legal thriller through the English courts.



Author Bio

Jac Wright is a poet published in literary magazines, a published author, and an electronics engineer educated at Stanford, University College London, and Cambridge who lives and works in England.  Jac studied English literature from the early age of three, developing an intense love for poetry, drama, and writing in Trinity College Speech & Drama classes taken afternoons and Saturdays for fourteen years, and in subsequent creative writing classes taken during the university years.  A published poet, Jac's first passion was for literary fiction and poetry writing as well as for the dramatic arts.  You will find these influences in the poetic imagery and prose, the dramatic scene setting, and the deep character creation.
These passions - for poetry, drama, literary fiction, and electronic engineering - have all been lovingly combined to create the first book in the literary suspense series, The Reckless Engineer.  There are millions of professionals in high tech corporate environments who work in thousands of cities in the US, the UK, and the world such as engineers, technicians, technical managers, investment bankers, and corporate lawyers.  High drama, power struggles, and human interest stories play out in the arena every day.  Yet there are hardly any books that tell their stories; there are not many books that they can identify with.  Jac feels compelled to tell their stories in The Reckless Engineer series.

Jac also writes the literary short fiction series, Summerset Tales, in which he explores characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances in the semi-fictional region of contemporary England called Summerset, partly the region that Thomas Hardy called Wessex.  Some of the tales have an added element of suspense similar to Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.  The collection is published as individual tales in the tradition of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and Thomas Hardy's Wessex Tales.  The first tale, The Closet, accompanies the author's first full-length literary suspense title, The Reckless Engineer.

Author Links

THE RECKLESS ENGINEER Buy Links on Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Author Website | Amazon Author Page | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Q&A Group

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GIVEAWAY

The author, Jac Wright, is giving away two $25 Amazon gift cards to two random commenters on the blog posts on this tour on the 30th of January 2013.  He will add two extra entries to anyone who shares this post on his or her Facebook page.  Please enter your comment below and your email with the comment or on the Giveaway Web Form.

Breathe You In by Lily Harlem

Fair warning, despite my name, this time of the year is always a little angst-filled for me for a multiplicity of reasons and I am not always in a cheerful holiday mood so some of the titles I share are going to be a little more somber but this one is well worth reading and IS a romance.  I have just started reading this author and have been very impressed by her stories, my review of her story The Glass Knot will be posted in the near future.

                                       



Breathe You In by Lily Harlem details the experiences of bereaved widow, Katie Lansdale, who feels driven to find the recipient of her late husband’s donated organs. Her rather questionable search leads her to museum worker Ruben Strong just before the second anniversary of her loss and inexplicably starts her on a journey of change and an end to her apathy about her life. Ruben is grateful for his new lease on life and delighted to find a woman who seems to be sharing in his attraction but the discovery of the secrets she is hiding may end their relationship before it has a chance to flourish.


This is one of those emotional reads that just makes you say “wow” when you read it. I am impressed by the author’s sensitivity in depicting an extremely difficult decision and its aftermath while ensnaring the reader in the emotions involved in a new relationship made even more awkward by the underlying circumstances. There are deliciously sensual scenes but also very vivid vignettes (I think my favorite is Ruben’s reaction to the hot air balloonists) that give depth and texture to this impressive story of new beginnings and its tribute to the life that can be provided with such a profound gift. There is a fine line between obsession and natural curiosity and one could argue that perhaps Katie needed professional counseling but the story wonderfully conveys the intense pain that she seeks to assuage. A beautiful love story.

© Night Owl Reviews
I received a copy of this title in return for an honest review. 

Best of all, it is available for only $.99 right now!

Breathe You In  (Amazon link)
 
I was remiss and did not include the link to Lily Harlem's website and she was gracious enough to share a link to allow us to find out more about the inspiration behind this striking story at this link.

 

Idiot's Guides: Knitting (for non-idiots) Review

                                          




Idiot’s Guides: Knitting by Megan Goodacre is a how-to book with plenty of pictures and illustrations that lead one step-by-step into the intriguing craft of changing yarn into objects using two needles. The author starts with the very basics and gradually leads one into the more complex concepts, like reading patterns and knitting intricate stitches. A wide variety of subjects related to performing this craft is presented, including blocking, adding or decreasing stitches, picking up dropped stitches, choosing the appropriate yarn and which hands are used as the dominant one are included. The book closes with a nice variety of patterns and a very brief glossary.

This wonderful teaching manual aids any novice who wants to try to learn the wonderful handicraft of knitting. It has a nice collection of photographs that detail the yarn and needle positioning and clear explanations that help one learn how to start creating with simple tools and produce something fairly quickly. I tried to teach myself this ancient craft quite a few years ago but tended to get lost when faced with patterns and this book helped me pick up my decidedly rusty skills. I am afraid it can’t do anything about my propensity for tangling my yarn but the pictures really helped me figure out how to position my needles and how to cope with the left-handed issue. It was very helpful to have the yarn colored in red in some of the pictures so I could see what had been done in order o achieve a particular stitch. It will take a while before I tackle anything major but I definitely feel that I can create a washcloth or scarf using the author’s meticulous instruction and would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to knit (although I don’t really appreciate the designation as an idiot, lol).
© Night Owl Reviews

I received a copy of this title in return for an honest review.
 
Idiot's Guides: Knitting (Amazon link)
 


Fair warning, I started trying to make the hubby a scarf (way overdue from the one I crocheted last year but that he thought was too wide...) using the stitches I am learning...ahem, NOW I know not to use the stockinette stitch exclusively because the edges curl!  So, it may not be as pretty as I envisioned...but at least it will be warm!

Harper's Wish (and a brain quiz)

                                        


Harper's Wish
A Montana Series Christmas Novella by Krista Ames


Blurb:
Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time of year, but for Harper Donaldson it’s just another day.  Orphaned at an early age, she doesn’t have a single good memory of Christmas.

But, when a Santa’s Mailbox mysteriously appears in the lobby of the post office where she works as postmistress, Harper wonders what it could hurt to send her own letter to Santa.

Could he bring her the family she’d always wanted?


Harper's Wish (Montana Series) (Amazon Link)


About the Author:

Born and raised in Northern Indiana, Krista now resides in Northern Lower Michigan.  She is married to a very supportive man who allows her to follow her true passion of writing and never complains when she is pirated away on her computer for hours.    Krista is also a mother of 4 ornery children who keep her plenty busy.  With an addition of 2 beautiful chocolate lab sisters and a playful kitty, there is never a dull or spare moment in her household. 

Krista has always loved to read and would often sit up for hours into the night not able to put down a book until she was finished.  She still reads when she can but her main focus is creating her own stories to share with the world. 
She loves to communicate with her readers so please feel free to drop her a line anytime at krista@kristaames.com or visit her at
Website
Blog
Facebook  
Twitter
Goodreads
The Ladies’ Cave

Amazon Author Page
TRR Author Page

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And, for those of you who were wondering whether you are right-brained or left-brained, the folks at the Casablanca blog had a link to a quiz yesterday....Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

Good Faith by Liz Crowe (book blast, excerpt and GIVEAWAY, GFT)

                                      
                                           

BLURB

please note this is NOT a romance or a NA romance.

Strong personalities—volatile marriages—stressful careers—conflicting goals—difficult children. 

Contemporary challenges facing close-knit families form the crucible that forges a new generation.

Brandis, Gabriel, Blair and Lillian emerge from the entanglement of their parents’ longstanding emotional connections, but one’s star will burn brighter – and hotter – than the others.

With a personality that consumes everyone and everything in its path, Brandis Gordon struggles to maintain control as he ricochets between wild success and miserable failure. His life proves how even the strongest relationships can be strangled by the ties that bind.

Brandis and Gabe Frietag are as close as any brothers, bound by both loyalty and fierce rivalry. The strength of their ultimate alliance is tested time and again by Brandis’ choices.

Companions from birth, Blair Frietag and Lillian Robinson share loner tendencies, but come to rely on each other through adolescence. As they mature, both are forced to confront their feelings for the men they knew as boys.

Somewhere between the tangle of good memories and bad, independence and addiction, optimism and despair, the intertwined destinies of the new generation finally collide, leaving some stronger, others broken, but none unscathed.

As a chronicle of three families navigating the minefields of teen years into the turbulence of young adulthood, Good Faith holds up a literary mirror to contemporary life with joys and temptations unflinchingly reflected. Its fresh, real-life voice portrays the sheer volatility of human nature, complete with the hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks of marriage, parenthood and “coming of age.”

Excerpt:

Blair dropped back on the bed and shut her eyes forcing herself to recall happier moments, better times. “You’re so laid back,” her father used to say to her when she still paid attention. “So relaxed.” He would smile as she worked alongside him in their kitchen. While the restaurant irritated her, she used to adore cooking with him, just to the two of them, and baking made her the happiest. “I wish I were more like you.” He’d flick flour from his fingers at her making her giggle and flush with happiness at his attention.
Later, he would accuse her of being “detached” and not willing to have any kind of confrontation even to defend herself. But who cared what he thought? She rolled to her side, picking up her phone as it buzzed with a text.

Hey loser, Brandis had sent. She frowned at the tingle that shot down her spine. She deleted it, determined to ignore him. About ten minutes later, he sent another one. You there?

She sighed and opened her laptop, thinking she’d do some English homework. Her cat jumped into her lap, its usual spot whenever she sat at the desk. The long Saturday stretched out in front of her, endless, boring, and useless. Typically she didn’t mind being alone, treasured her privacy and the time to read or take long walks. But the last few months had been different, frustrating beyond belief as she couldn’t seem to settle or relax, to enjoy herself like she used to.

Stupid adults. Stupid fathers and their stupid marriage-busting assistants. Stupid mothers and their mealy mouthed blindness to the whole thing. The phone kept buzzing with messages. And she kept ignoring it, something in her holding back, preserving herself from the sucking vortex of Brandis Gordon. She didn’t like texting him. It made her feel awkward, forcing conversation via a few tapped out words on the phone.

Finally, the phone rang. She sighed and answered it. “What?” she said, her hands shaking with the effort not to launch into a conversation with him. Flirting simply did not come naturally to her. She had no idea how to handle herself around boys, much less the huge, giant, hulking presence of Brandis—football quarterback, high school super stud, and one-time friend. Other than to settle herself with memories of him, of them, as kids, when things were simple.

His seeming addiction to their strange, late night conversations had confused and thrilled her in equal measure. And she missed them. A lot.

“You are one hard girl to get hold of,” he said, softly.

“What do you want, Brandis?”

“I thought we were gonna stay friends. I mean, we talked about it, after….”

She winced, wishing she had her brother’s willpower when it came to Brandis’ all-encompassing, some would say, suffocating, personality. “He’s a goddamned drain, an energy suck, a…shithead,” Gabe had said to her, a few days after their huge fight. He’d been sporting a black eye and a split lip from the altercation. A terrible, embarrassing moment for everyone concerned—one that signaled the end of her childhood, best she could tell.

“Why? What did he say to you?” Blair had begged her brother to tell her. They were close, and she had no qualms asking him. But he’d pressed his lips together, and threatened her with all sorts of dire, brother-inflicted consequences if she even talked to the guy again. So, she never knew.

Brandis had been on the phone to her within hours, pleading with her to intervene for him, to talk to Gabe, to get him on the phone. She’d enjoyed that moment—when Brandis needed something from her. But it faded, as did his efforts to try to make up with her brother. She’d heard a lot about him lately—drinking, smoking pot, hard partying on every level while still remaining quarterback, and in top, nearly model-perfect physical shape. And of course, all the girls, many of them older, who flocked to him.

“Blair?” he asked, interrupting her aggravation at the thought of all the females he must have screwed. She knew about the “college girls weekend.” Gabe and Brandis had laughed and joked about it enough in front of her. It made her nauseated with jealous fury and headache-y with embarrassment at her own virginal self.

“What?” she said again, getting up to pace. “Why do you keep trying to talk to me? We have…nothing in common anymore. You have plenty of girls to talk to. Leave me alone.” She slid down the wall next to her door, her knees weak, like they always got, at the sound of his deep, rumbly voice.

He’d been a fixture in her life, on vacations, at holidays, camping and fishing in the summer with their dads, going to baseball and football games, just…her friend. The kid with the funny laugh, shock of jet-black hair, and snapping blue eyes who attracted trouble and deflected it with equal equanimity. She had no idea when she’d become aware of him as a compelling member of the opposite sex.

He’d changed almost overnight, developing a sarcastic streak, a bit of meanness with his endless practical jokes one of which ended with his own sister’s broken wrist. During those strange years, she would catch him staring at her, his eyes dark, puzzled, confused. And when she’d smile and try to draw him out of it he’d blush, run or bike away, usually yelling something about “stupid girls.” And almost always with her brother Gabe in his wake. Anger lit her brain. “Seriously, Brandis, what do you want from me?”

“I want to be your friend still. That’s all. I…miss you guys.”

“Well then I guess you shouldn’t have said whatever you said that day.” She looked up at the ceiling, willing him not to give up, to stay on the line.

“I know,” he said, then got quiet. “How is he,” he asked after about thirty seconds.

“Fine. Busy, working at The Local, playing soccer, hanging with Lillian.”

“Wow, Lilly-G?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Blair stretched out on her soft rug, propped her feet on the wall, and settled into the conversation. “My mom’s been going out on dates. It’s stupid.”

“Well, your dad did….”

“I know, I know.”

She heard a shuffling sound as if Brandis were getting comfortable on his end. “And you? How many boyfriends for you now, Miss B?”

“Please.” She blushed. “Boys don’t notice me. I’m a sophomore. I don’t play sports or do anything cool really.”

“You play a mean game of Scrabble. I miss that. And I have yet to find a Euchre partner as good as you.”

She bit down on the urge to invite him over, to eat popcorn, watch a movie cuddled up on the couch like they used to do. But she knew things were altered. Now that “Brandis, the super stud,” had emerged he would never be “Brandis, Blair and Gabe’s friend” ever again.

“It’s a good thing you aren’t dating,” he declared out of the blue, making her blush again. “That way I don’t have to beat up any punks, you know, who think they can get anywhere with you.”

“And what makes you think my dating anyone means anything else is happening, hmm?”

“My sweet and innocent Blair, boys want one thing on a date. And it is not the concept of a good movie or a nice meal. Don’t ever forget that.” His voice lowered a bit, making her shiver.

“I guess you would know, eh stud?”

“I, um…I don’t know. Sometimes I wish….” He trailed off.

“What? That you could walk around town without bumping into some girl you’d ‘dated’? That you didn’t have so many pissed off ex-girlfriends floating around? That you would occasionally go a weekend without getting drunk and screwing your way through a party?”

The silence spilled into her ear like smoke. “Sorry,” she muttered, meaning it.

“No, it’s okay. I won’t deny it.” A bit of a swagger had snuck into his voice. “Popularity is my middle name.”

“I thought it was Robert. You know, after my dad? Same as Gabe’s?”

“Oh, right. Got me there. Listen, Blair, I gotta go. I just…wanted to hear your voice.”

Aggravation gripped her and held tight. “Why, Brandis? I don’t party. I don’t know how to kiss boys or…anything else. I’m a bookworm, a geek, a science nerd. I like to be by myself, and I don’t run in a pack of popular girls. Hardly worth your time I’d say.” Her face flushed, and she had to put her feet back on the floor to keep her knees from knocking together.

“Guess that’s why I love you,” he said with a voice so soft she thought he might be talking to himself.

 “Spare me,” she scoffed, suddenly needing to be off the phone. Something about him felt suffocating and needy. While she figured herself for a caretaker, a conflict avoider, someone who liked keeping things simple but wanted the people around her to be happy, suddenly she sensed danger in letting Brandis worm his way any farther into her heart. “Bye.” She hung up, quickly and sat for nearly an hour clutching her phone and calming her racing pulse.
 

Amazon link

AUTHOR INFORMATION:


Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town.  She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse. While working as a successful Realtor, Liz made the leap into writing novels about the same time she agreed to take on marketing and sales for the Wolverine State Brewing Company.  

Most days find her sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, unless she’s writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications. 

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).  More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”

With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and many times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate, and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

If you are in the Ann Arbor area, be sure and stop into the Wolverine State Brewing Co. Tap Room—but don’t ask her for anything “like” a Bud Light, or risk serious injury.

author website
www.brewingpassion.com
www.a2beerwench.com
Facebook
Twitter
www.facebook.com/groups/lizcrowefans


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GIVEAWAY

One randomly drawn winner will win an ebook or print copy of Good Faith, one randomly drawn winner gets an ebook or print copy (where available) of their choice of a Liz Crowe (Tri Destiny) backlist book and one grand prize winner will receive the ENTIRE Stewart Realty series in ebook OR print.  Please leave a comment (with a valid e-mail address) with your favorite drink at this time of year!