Check out the other stops on the tour here.
Stewart Realty: Life in the House Lane
Love is an easy word to use, a hard one to demonstrate, and sometimes impossible to trust.
The Stewart Realty series is a sweeping epic, encompassing many 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.While their physical connection sizzles they somehow manage to continuously disappoint one another on an emotional level.
Jack Gordon has it all—money, success, a string of women—but also 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 a side of himself he considered buried out of frustration and unhappiness. Sara soon learns that she must trust him implicitly, something she cannot do, 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 Stewart Realty series is a saga with an emphasis on contemporary life with a healthy dose of realistic eroticism. A tale of modern, busy, driven people seeking the ever-elusive and highly coveted combination—a friend, lover and trusted companion who will be there for the long haul.
Start at the beginning, with the Jack and Sara Trilogy, now for the first time ever in a print anthology. The Stewart Realty series is a best seller in family saga and urban fiction categories. See for yourself what the buzz is all about.
Purchase Stewart Realty Anthology
I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books: the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.
When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?
Voices
Scene in a Hallway
By Liz Crowe
The concept of having “voices in my head” that give me ideas is a funny one. I suppose that is true on a certain level. But for me, it’s more about scenes or probable and compelling scenarios that appear, more or less fully executed, that give me initial ideas for books.
For example, the Stewart Realty series, that has grown from it’s original 3-book trilogy to a whopping family saga of a thing at 9 books including a free back story prequel began with just that: a single scene.
I was still in the real estate business myself when I concocted this particular set of characters. And as such I had plenty of time to sit and ponder things, at open houses, or while trying to drum up business via emails or direct mailings or other mind-numbing tasks done while waiting for the phone to ring as the agent “on floor.” One day, bored out of my skull, I glanced down the hallway of my office and had a flash of an image — of 2 highly driven agents, over worked and at the office late having a hot moment leaning against that wall.
For those of you who've read this series, you should know that it took over a dozen revisions and rewrites prompted by rejections from half a dozen agents and all the major and semi-major publishers to get it anywhere near the point that you got to read it. It’s a process, this writing to publication thing, with steps that really should not be skipped.
But I digress.
That was my first “what if” moment that became a scene and started me down the road creating Jack Gordon and Sara Thornton, the uber, power couple of this entire series. (Funnily enough their names appeared out of the mist, all at once and I've never changed them.) I've had a lot of them since, not just for this series, but for all of my 20 plus book back list. However this series really holds a special place in my heart. It was my first (to write, not to get published). And is among the best of what I've ever done, all the way up to and including the epic and fans-carrying-pitchforks and torches moments of the final novel, Good Faith which released last November.
This trilogy is the true North of the thing though. The beginning, where as Good Faith is most definitely the end of the decades spanning story arc of Jack and Sara. I hope you get a chance to read and enjoy it soon!
Good Faith is on sale for only $.99!!
GOOD FAITH, Liz's final, epic, mainstream fiction novel of the Stewart Realty series continues to enthrall readers and reviewers. As part of the re-release of the first 3 books of the series that focus on Jack and Sara's early years, her publisher is offering GOOD FAITH for just $0.99 on Amazon and Barnes and Noble for the month-long duration the tour.
You do not have to "know" these characters to appreciate Good Faith. But a great way to get to know them is to start with re-released anthology and then read Good Faith. It's not every day you can get a long, juicy, well-crafted novel for just a buck. But thanks to this tour, you can, for just 4 weeks.
Sara smiled at the man lying next to her. He'd taken her world and yanked it into his orbit so hard and fast her head still spun some days. God help her she did love him despite her inner turmoil. She put a hand on his sweat-slicked chest and draped a leg over his. She propped up on her elbow and touched his check.
"Hmm?" his sleepy voice reminded her how much they both needed more shut eye having passed out rather than actually rested last night. He pulled her close. "I'm sorry," he muttered into her hair. "It's just." She nodded into his shoulder. "Shit week, you know. All this wedding talk is not my thing or something. I don't know. I do know I don't deserve you."
"Yeah, that is true. Look, we still have dinner with my parents tonight. My dad is a know-it-all doctor. I dread having the two of you in the same room, frankly, but we have to do it. They're my family and they want to meet you."
She felt him tense beneath her.
"That's fine. I'll be on my best behavior. But I don't want him paying for any of this," he swept a hand towards the small table where she'd piled up magazines and spreadsheets of wedding planning paraphernalia. "I'm doing it. You're grown, not some little girl needing daddy's money anymore."
She bit her lip. "If he wants to I'm not going to stop him. It's his prerogative. Can't you just go with it?" She sat up, swung her legs to the floor.
He sang the same song, different verse, every time. They'd fight, he'd make up by making love to her. She'd let him. They wouldn't talk about it. Again.
Sighing she stood, stretched her sated and tingling body, her mind on the massive list of shit to do today. Glancing over her shoulder, she allowed herself a long look at the man who would be her husband.
His six-foot five-inch frame firm, legs and arms covered with a light dusting of black hair; torso mostly bare, but for a line of jet-black hair beneath his navel leading down to the part of his body that he had, apparently, shared with so many. Her eyes trailed up, to his firm, square jaw, in need of a shave. Her palm itched to reach out, feel the sandpapery rasp of it, keeping him real.
How completely unreal this still seemed, even now after he'd given her yet another mind-boggling set of back-to-back orgasms. That should've been solid evidence he was there, with her, "hers" even. But he wasn't. That small voice in her head, the "Old Sara," with its nagging and worry, poked her psyche once again. You're too alike. It will never work. Jack's eyes opened, at the sound of his own light snore. His sleepy grin made her smile in spite of her heavy heart.
She was no sap. Her own parent's relationship had made her a cynic to the extreme when it came to men. She knew it. She fully acknowledged her own emotional constipation. Yet, she let the man who currently held her heart in his large, talented hands tug her down onto the bed, into the circle of his arms. His skin, smell, and feel eased her as always. She closed her eyes just for a few minutes.
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.
Purchase Good Faith
Excerpt from Sweat Equity
(Stewart Realty Series (Book 2):
"Hmm?" his sleepy voice reminded her how much they both needed more shut eye having passed out rather than actually rested last night. He pulled her close. "I'm sorry," he muttered into her hair. "It's just." She nodded into his shoulder. "Shit week, you know. All this wedding talk is not my thing or something. I don't know. I do know I don't deserve you."
"Yeah, that is true. Look, we still have dinner with my parents tonight. My dad is a know-it-all doctor. I dread having the two of you in the same room, frankly, but we have to do it. They're my family and they want to meet you."
She felt him tense beneath her.
"That's fine. I'll be on my best behavior. But I don't want him paying for any of this," he swept a hand towards the small table where she'd piled up magazines and spreadsheets of wedding planning paraphernalia. "I'm doing it. You're grown, not some little girl needing daddy's money anymore."
She bit her lip. "If he wants to I'm not going to stop him. It's his prerogative. Can't you just go with it?" She sat up, swung her legs to the floor.
He sang the same song, different verse, every time. They'd fight, he'd make up by making love to her. She'd let him. They wouldn't talk about it. Again.
Sighing she stood, stretched her sated and tingling body, her mind on the massive list of shit to do today. Glancing over her shoulder, she allowed herself a long look at the man who would be her husband.
His six-foot five-inch frame firm, legs and arms covered with a light dusting of black hair; torso mostly bare, but for a line of jet-black hair beneath his navel leading down to the part of his body that he had, apparently, shared with so many. Her eyes trailed up, to his firm, square jaw, in need of a shave. Her palm itched to reach out, feel the sandpapery rasp of it, keeping him real.
How completely unreal this still seemed, even now after he'd given her yet another mind-boggling set of back-to-back orgasms. That should've been solid evidence he was there, with her, "hers" even. But he wasn't. That small voice in her head, the "Old Sara," with its nagging and worry, poked her psyche once again. You're too alike. It will never work. Jack's eyes opened, at the sound of his own light snore. His sleepy grin made her smile in spite of her heavy heart.
She was no sap. Her own parent's relationship had made her a cynic to the extreme when it came to men. She knew it. She fully acknowledged her own emotional constipation. Yet, she let the man who currently held her heart in his large, talented hands tug her down onto the bed, into the circle of his arms. His skin, smell, and feel eased her as always. She closed her eyes just for a few minutes.
Giveaway Time!!
LIZ WILL CHOOSE FROM AMONG COMMENTERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE TOUR AND AWARD THE FOLLOWING PRIZES IN MID-MARCH:
- 2 signed copies of the new Stewart Realty “Jack & Sara Trilogy” print anthology (U.S. ONLY)
- Audible.com downloads for each of the first 3 books in the series (available internationally) Liz's Page on Audible.com
- 1 signed print copy OR 1 eBook copy of GOOD FAITH, the critically acclaimed final novel of the Stewart Realty series (e-book available internationally, print is U.S. only)
- 1 Stewart Realty SWAG PACK complete with “I heart Ann Arbor mug” (U.S. only) and more!
About the Author
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.
Connect with Liz
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I already bought Good Faith, and as soon as I can afford to buy the trilogy in one form or another, I am going to do so. I so cannot wait to delve into the steamy fun at Stewart Realty! kbinmich AT yahoo DOT com
ReplyDeleteInteresting excerpt
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
It sounds like an amzing series. This book sounds really good, and I'd love to read it. Nice cover.
ReplyDeleteayancey1974(at)gmail(dot)com