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.
Hi Liz, thank you so much for dropping by. Love that
cover by the way!
Okay, starting off with the book…
- If you had to sum up ‘Healing Hearts’ in 30 words or less what would you say?
Tragedy leads to
the triumph of companionship and love.
- Abby sounds intriguing – what do you most like about her?
Her innate
nurturing tendencies—she takes care of people—and she is channelling that into
what she hopes will be success as a nurse someday.
- Is there anything about her that frustrates you? Not really. She has been through one young marriage that ended with her on the receiving end of a lot of debt she is determined to overcome. By the time she meets Jay she has such focus that she nearly misses the fact that he is in deep need of a human connection.
- What does Jay most admire about her? What draws him to her?
That nurturer in
her soul—he needs it, bad. He has cut himself off from everything and anything
that would remind him of his past and is drawn to her, without even realizing
it at first, coming to her friend’s coffee shop in Traverse City every day to
stare out the window.
- Jay sounds quite damaged, what is/are his redeeming feature/s?
Actually, Jay
Longmire is a great guy. Good looking, driven, a successful entrepreneur with a
nearly annoying positive outlook on life,
a pretty typical “romance alpha hero” if you will---it’s what happens to
him and to the family he adores, right in front of his eyes, that is his
motivation by the time the story begins, or rather, his anti-motivation.
- And is he the type of guy you could fall for, or would you steer clear? I’d pay good money for a guy like him.
- What/who inspired you to write the story?
A story I read
in Rolling Stone about 2 years or so ago. Something similar happened to a man
in real life and I have had a hell of a time getting it out of my head. When I
was asked to contribute to a series for Decadent Publishing about main
characters facing challenges in their lives that must be overcome in order to
find love, this is the very first thing I thought of. I changed the majority of
the details, but the crux of the tragedy is there.
- And what about the characters - are they a little bit you, people you know, or did they just leap out and grab you (metaphorically speaking of course!)?
These are
fictional characters of course, and really evolved for me over the course of
writing this (For me) short story. Jay was a pretty easy guy to create. For
Abby I needed someone strong, yet soft—a woman worth the effort for Jay to step
back from the abyss of his horribly ruined life and cling to.
And we, sorry I, being naturally nosy would love to
know a bit about you…
- Where/when do you write?
Anywhere and
everywhere. I own a brewery and manage the beer bar that is attached to it so I
write early in the mornings, late at night in my office at the brewery, on
weekends, while waiting for my kid to finish soccer practice, in the car, in my
head…a better question for me is where and when DON’T you write.
- What part of writing do you enjoy most, coming up with the idea, planning, writing it or typing The End?!
I like The End
because I feel like it’s an accomplishment. I’m a serious marathon writer (and
reader for that matter). I wrote Healing Hearts in about three days. Once I get
an idea I will head write, usually while walking my dogs or doing housework,
then sit and it just will pour out of me until it’s done. I have a new nearly
200,000 word novel that will release later this year that I wrote in three and
a half weeks. Of course the revision and editing and more revision occurs after
that—I’m a sucker for a hard line edit that cleans up my repetitive words and
what not. But because I write this way, typing “The End” feels like a real
victory.
- Sum yourself up in 30 words or less (ha, I hate questions like this!)?!
Brewery-owning, beer
snob/wench and mom with a soccer fetish and writing habit I must feed, daily.
- Do you spend much time reading? What’s your favourite bedtime/holiday read? Favourite author/genre?
I don’t read a
lot anymore (see above: owning a brewery and trying to make money writing
books). But when I do I will devour a book, cover to cover, OR I will set it a
side and stop after a chapter or two. I’ve don’t a LOT more of this in 2012
than I care to mention, with a lot of “best sellers.” I can’t really abide
copy-cat plots, thinly crafted characters, or cookie-cutter concepts. I had a
reviewer just today say about one of my other recent releases (a ménage called
Honey Red that is set in the brewing industry):
“ If you
like honest emotions even when they are uncomfortable, non-traditional
relationships, and a love story that breaks all the romance novel rules, this
book is probably just what you have been looking for. “
I’m pondering adopting that:
“breaking all the romance novel rules since 2009” thing as a mantra. There are
plenty of people who don’t like it and don’t mind telling me as much. But more
and more do and I’m gratified to find readers who are willing to go outside
their typical reading box and contemplate a “novel” that may be called
“romance” but it something else entirely.
I read a lot of
mainstream fiction, some Young Adult if it comes recommended to me and have
several authors whose grocery lists I would read. They include:
John Irving
Margaret Atwood
Ana Quinlan
Barbara
Kingsolver
John Greene
Zadie Smith
As for my genre,
I am sorry to say that I’ve put aside a dozen or more of those this year.
However, I have discovered some new ones to me I enjoy:
Roni Loren
Lauren Dane (non
paranormal)
Laura Kaye
Cat Grant
Ann Mayburn
The problem with
this genre, in my honest opinion, is that many publishers push conformity,
(having had it thrust upon me I know this for a fact). I get that they “know
their readers” and the relative successes of many of them hinge upon cranking
out the same story with different character names a different sets of man
nipples on the cover every month. But I am willing to bet, now, that they are
all re-evaluating their business models, and could open up for more “outside
the box” type stories. I know Decadent Publishing (publisher of my Healing
Hearts, Cheeky Blonde a stand alone brewery based suspense novel and Turkish
Delights, a series of stories about a multicultural family) is doing this and
my other main publisher Tri-Destiny avoids cookie cutter stories at all
costs. The model of “same old same old”
is fading. And many publishers are shifting gears and reaping the rewards and
benefits. Readers can only benefit.
- Coffee or tea (or wine!)?
Coffee in the
morning
Craft beer in
the evening.
- Starter or dessert?
Starter,
preferably something with a lot of cheese involved.
- What would you be doing if time & money were no object?
Exactly what I
am doing but with a lot less stress and a sh*t ton more paid advertising for
both of my businesses. Well, maybe I’d spend half the year on the southern
coast of Turkey, but otherwise…yeah.
- Best bit of advice you’ve ever been given, and by whom
And
before you run off, can you share a little excerpt?
Thanks
for sharing Liz and good luck with ‘Healing Hearts’.
Thanks. This is a pretty tough story I won’t kid you. What Jay has experienced
and is recounted through the telling of his recovery from it is beyond
horrific. This is a novella not for the
faint of heart.
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.”
Buy
it:
All Romance ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-healinghearts-1036413-149.html
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/healing-hearts-liz-crowe/1114050249?ean=2940016149783
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.
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).
Also, check out Decadent Publishing’s
submission guidelines here: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/index.php?osCsid=vm2lcn38t4dk6b96pm24l844h3&content=submissions
thanks for having me!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, the story looks great!
DeleteI can't believe how much the Muse loves you! Healing Hearts looks like another wonderful book.
ReplyDeleteLiz, I can't believe how much the Muse loves you! Congratulations on another wonderful book.
ReplyDeleteLoved reading about you and your book. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi, Liz. Wonderful excerpt and interview. Still doing the down dogs?
ReplyDeletethere are no down dogs in Bikram yoga Vicki but plenty of sweat!
ReplyDeleteLove this book and Liz's writing!!
ReplyDelete