Welcome special guest: author Liz Crowe ( @beerwencha2 @DecadentPub )

Today we have Liz Crowe, who is also known as “Beer Wench” or just “E.T.” in her role as microbrewery owner/marketer, visiting. 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.

* When did you attempt your first story? What length was it? What's become of it?
I wrote my first story during the summer months of 2009. It was a monster of a book, full of forbiddens:  head-hopping, passive voice, skewed timelines and some of the hottest sex scenes I’ve yet written.  “Floor Time” has since been critiqued, Beta read, revised and re-written—frankly I shudder at the thought that I believed the thing was worth publishing in anything like its first iteration.
     It was a 100k+ novel that has been whittled down to about 65k and sits in a few AE inboxes.  Got a request for a “full” on it a couple of weeks ago!  Yay me.
     It’s a 10-year span in the life of one young woman Realtor and the men in her life.  It’s worked into a trilogy of novels, each at about 70k words.  Fingers crossed, true?
* How many stories did you complete before you sold your first?
See above: I wrote this massive novel first then started another: The Tap Room.  I pulled a few chapters from it and submitted them as shorts.  It’s now available as a “choose your romance” novel along with its 3 and soon to be 4 “shorts” that serve as missing chapters, or side stories.  I sold the first one in April of 2010 and it was published September 2010.
* What genre(s) do you write in? What drew you to write in it/them? What’s your favorite genre of all to write in?
Contemporary erotic romance is what I write and what I prefer to read although I’m hopelessly and embarrassingly addicted right now to the JR Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
* What are the best and worst pieces of writing advice you ever received?
Best: Never Give Up.  And Get a Real Critique Partner.
Worst:  don’t waste time on the internet.  Just write books.  WRONG.  Unless you are already Stephen King or whatshername with the caterer mystery solver ones.  That is flat out unrealisitic in this day and age and in our crowded genre.
* How do you celebrate/deal with acceptance/rejection letters?
I’m lucky really.  The only flat out rejection I got turned into an acceptance for the very series I’m pimping here today.  Decadent took a pass on the massive realtor novel (see above) and I used that frustration to give it an even better spit shine before sending in on elsewhere.  And I channeled the rejection frustration to finally use my experiences living in Istanbul Turkey to create a series of hot stories about one Turkish family: The Turkish Delights series.
     I don’t kid myself though.  Rejections are part of a writer’s life.  I’m crushing my own hands sitting on them trying not to hound the publishers I subbed to over the summer…patience, grasshopper.  Patience.
* In regard to the book you’re promoting, which actor and actress do you envision playing the roles of your hero and heroine? If there’s a villain or other characters who are pertinent to the story, who would play those parts?
Well, my heroes and one of my heroines in the series are Turks.  I have picked out some pretty hot Turkish actors to thrust into the limelight of my best selling, and soon to be blockbuster movie:
COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU:
Emre/Tarkan: Mert Ocal a former model turned TV actor in Turkey. Yeah. I’m gonna pluck him from obscurity and Make Him a Star (wouldn’t you? RAWR)

Ellery Kensington: I love Elizabeth Moss.  She is the perfect combo of tough and needy for my tough as shit CEO and woman seeking love without releasing it.

Caleb Blessing: Yeah, Matthew…Hot for Teachahhhhhhh. He is PERFECT for Caleb.

Adem Broussard: Kivanc Kasabli

Lale Deniz: Noomi Rapace. Period. She is PERFECT.

Andreas Michos: Uber smoking hot Greek actor Giannis Spaliaras.  You don’t know him….yet.

* The book you’re promoting, is it a stand-alone story or part of a series? If it’s part of a series, please list the order the books need to be read in for maximum reading enjoyment.
It is a series.  It is withing a series already: the very popular 1NightStand series wherein all stories must adhere to a theme—that of “magical dates” arranged by Madame Eve.
I love to read series and have created a bunch of them.  I think they give the reader more opportunity to be involved in the story.  And I have been told (again by editors and readers) that many times my secondary characters are so strong they DEMAND their own tale.  So I gave it them with this series and Decadent likes it so much they have accepted the PREQUEL to the whole story.  “The Diplomat’s Daughter” is a novella, not a part of the 1NS series and will release in early 2012.
*** Now for some fun info… ***
* Are you a cat, dog or both kind of person?
Dogs!  I have 2 standard poodles—my muses.
* Are you a morning person or night owl?
Night Owl, for certain. I despise mornings.  It’s a well-documented fact.
* What’s your favorite day of the week?
I own a brewery and a bar and so my favorite day of the week is FRIDAY—it’s our busiest night!  Second fav is Saturday during football season. The energy of a college town with a Big Time football program is second to none on game day!

*** About the stories… ***
~ Blurbs ~
TURKISH DELIGHTS:
The fifteen year age difference between Elle Kensington, ex-patriat American executive and Emre Deniz, son of Istanbul's most successful businessman, has not kept them from becoming fast friends as they tour Istanbul together. But the time has come for him to return to the U.S. to finish his master's degree and she has just been named CEO of the pharmaceutical company that brought her to Turkey in the first place. Elle adores her adopted country, and is alarmed to find herself falling in love with the young man who's been her impromptu guide for the last few months.
But she knows they can never be. She will return home to California within a month, leaving behind all she loves about the ancient city. In a rare fit of spontaneity, Elle has contracted with Madame Eve's OneNightStand dating service to hopefully find a way to forget the dark, handsome young man who has captured her heart. Little does she know what awaits her in the ancient recesses of the Ottoman palace turned luxury hotel under the hands of her one night stand masseur.
BLUE CRUISE:
Caleb and Tarkan were an odd couple, men from two different cultures, but so in love they were determined to overcome any obstacles. Fate had different plans.

Two years after tragedy strikes, Caleb is still a hollow shell of himself, alone and miserable. Adem Broussard is happy enough, as owner and chef of his restaurant on the Turkish southern coast. But a tall, American Adonis he saw once, years ago on a Turkish Blue Cruise haunts his most erotic dreams and he hopes contracting with Madame Eve's 1NightStand service for an unconventional date will help him forget.
When Caleb caves in to his friend Elle's insistence that he return to Turkey and exorcise some of the demons that haunt him, he reluctantly climbs on board a private yacht for a special 1NightStand Blue Cruise. There he comes face to face with the man who remembers him well, and wants to help him heal.
TULIP PRINCESS:

Lale Deniz, young, drifting and prone to wildness that her Turkish family doesn't understand is seeking something to help her reestablish control over her life. Her beloved brother Tarkan has exited her life. His twin, Emre lives far away in America with his growing family. When Elle, Emre's American wife has a scary brush with death giving birth, Lale is dispatched to California to help with their five-year old daughter. But a recovering Elle has plans for Lale that involve a magical 1NightStand.
Andreas Michos, Greek former NFL star, now athletic director at UNLV also floats through life, unsuccessfully seeking satisfaction. His former wife and sexual sub left him when he took away the limelight of football stardom. He doubts his own abilities anymore and has given up finding an outlet for his natural Dom.
Set against a backdrop of ancient cultural clashes and Mediterranean family dynamics, Lale and Andreas do meet in Las Vegas at the famous Castillos resort for a date. But it seems destined to fail. Unless they are both willing to relinquish control and discover what can be found inside the soul of another.
~ Turkish Delights excerpt PG ~

     “I miss you already,” Emre said, with his usual candor. “I can’t believe I just met you and now we must part.” He finished his tea and signaled the waiter for another. Before she could lean back, he reached over the tiny table and captured her hand, putting it to his mouth. Elle’s entire body zinged. His lips were gentle, soft but with a firmness that spoke of his potential talents with them. Exactly as she thought they would be, even if only pressed to her hand. She bit her lip, no longer caring what the gawkers around them thought, as she pressed her thighs together to ease the ache building between them.
     “I know.” Her voice was a whisper. “It’s been…nice getting to know you.” Lame, her brain screamed. Just kiss him, for crying out loud. You are the newly-named CEO of a major pharmaceutical company. You eat fear for breakfast. What the hell is your problem?
     She stood, pulling up her bag. Emre remained seated, staring at her.
     “I’m not what you think,” he said, as he stretched long legs out in front of him.
     Her face flushed with anger. Good. Now I’m on familiar ground. Mad at a man for assuming things about what I think.
     “Just what do I think, if you don’t mind sharing.” She used her coolest-cucumber voice, and it pleased her to see the young man frown. Anger she could cope with. Besotted was beyond her, especially since she felt the same damn way about this boy nearly fifteen years her junior.
     “Never mind.” He stood, towering over her even as she stood in her highest heels. “Let’s not fight. It’s our last day together, no?”
     The urge to run a finger down his strong, stubbled jaw was intense. She clenched her hands together so hard they hurt. He put a familiar arm around her shoulder, nearly bringing her to her knees with lust. The smell of his subtle cologne, mixed with the exotic manliness she’d come to associate with him in his element at his grandfather’s spice booth nearly sent her over the edge. She shut her eyes, leaning into his strong torso ever so slightly. Was it her imagination, or did he flinch? She drew away, ashamed at herself.
     “I should get back,” Gesturing in the general vicinity of where her car and driver waited, she gasped when Emre held her close then dropped to one knee right onto the cobblestones. Embarrassment and excitement fought for her brain. He took her hand, kissed it, held it to his heart.
     “You are the most amazing woman in the universe. It has been my honor to know you. I wish….” He blinked, and she used the opportunity to pull her hand away. “I just wish we’d known each other sooner.”
     It was Elle’s turn to blink. Realization rushed through her, heating her face. He knows damn good and well I’m a dried up specimen, too focused on my career to find and keep a man or sustain any relationship beyond the office. Fists clenched at her sides, she tried to calm her breathing.
     You are a fool, Ellery Kensington. He knows you’re a horny old lady. And he might oblige you between the sheets, but get the foolish romantic bullshit about spiriting him back to the States with you out of your head. That’s patent nonsense and you should know better.
     Finished with her self-lecture, she squared her shoulders and leaned in to press her lips to his jaw. Closing her eyes against the chemical reaction she had to him, she stepped away quickly.

***Find Liz here***
If you want a beer education follow her: www.a2beerwench.com.  For writing related stuff, including her backlist, go to: www.brewingpassion.com

Thank you for joining us here today, Liz! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your work.

Liz will be giving away:  three Turkish themed prize packages to randomly drawn commenters which may include, but aren't limited to:
* a holiday stocking made from authentic Turkish kilim rug
* a mug with the Turkish "evil eye", meant to ward off said evil
* a pewter dish, that is traditionally used to hold "lokum" or the actual Turkish delight confection/candy
* a box of traditional lokum
* a small Turkish kilim rug (reversible--authentic)
Please follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/10/virtual-book-tour-turkish-delights-by.html