This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions (click on the banner above to see more tour dates). Liz will be awarding a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn host.
Essence of Time by Liz Crowe
Blake has just jettisoned his dream job—head of a fast-growing craft microbrewery—to escape from the woman who shattered his soul. Arriving at a Chicago beer festival prepared to drown his sorrows before moving on he is miserable and numb.
Fate throws the men together altering their respective worlds forever.
Once Rob reveals the personal demon that has haunted him for years, Blake allows himself to fully trust again, and admits he wants a child. But a mutual attraction evolves out of a business arrangement with the woman hired as their surrogate, which has the potential to destroy an already delicate status quo.
But time is of the essence, and becomes the one luxury they don't have.
An honest depiction of a modern relationship mosaic reminding us to treasure every single moment we are allowed to love and be loved.
*** You can check out an excerpt and my thoughts on Essence of Time here.***
Author Interview
How much of a story did you have in mind before you started writing?
For this book, I already knew a lot about the 2 men in question, including the fact that they were bisexual, damaged by their previous life experiences, both into beer brewing and cooking. While you can read this book as a stand alone, if you read it in the sequence (book 4) you’ll get to know these guys pretty well thanks to their relationship to the protagonists in the first 3 books. I had hinted at what happened to them in those books so for book 4 I let myself tell both of their stories.
What about your characters surprised you while writing?
The intensity of their commitment to each other. As business partners as well as lovers their relationship is pretty fraught with stress. I admire any couple that can work together every day and still want to look at each other, much less anything else by the end of the day.
What was your favorite chapter (or part) of Essence of Time to write and why?
I have a couple of them: One is when Rob convinces Blake to go with him to Paris and they set some “parameters” for their relationship. Another is the one when they take Lila (the woman who will be a surrogate mother for their child) out on a first date. But the one when they are trying to get their gastro pub The Local open is pretty awesome and hilarious too.
Essence of Time is the fourth book in the eight-book Stewart Realty series. Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?
The Stewart Realty series is a 9 book one so trust me, I’ve been working with these folks a lot! The final novel (unless my fans get their way and get a sequel) is Good Faith and takes the characters in Essence of Time (and the other couples) through parenthood and beyond.
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Getting random emails from total strangers who say, “I just read your book and you are my new favorite!” They are coming more and more lately, which is great!
How did you celebrate the sale of your first book?
I went to my daughter’s soccer game—I was at one of her many tournaments! It’s where I am for a lot “milestones.”
What’s your biggest challenge as a writer? How did you overcome it, or how are you working to overcome it?
Finding time for everything. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to editing so I subject my work to lots of drafts and edits so getting all that done plus all the required promotional work is a 28-hour a day job. I am trying to time manage a bit better but as a creative (ergo: not the most organized) person, I struggle with finding the time I want/need to get it all done.
Do you prefer to write in silence or with music?
I have no real preference. I can write in a room full of people drinking coffee and talking if need be!
Finish the sentence: One book I wish I had written is… one I will probably write before I’m done. I have all sorts of ideas for books and will mention that my first self publishing series, The Love Brothers will release in January (pre orders in November). They are books that I’ve been thinking about for a while and am excited to get around to them (although now that I’m deep in edits I’m sort of sick of them, but honestly if you care about your craft as an author, that is a stage you gotta get to!)
I have a great thriller novel set in a future anti-dystopian Detroit (a completely revived city long about 2035) outlined and hope to get to it in 2015.
An addition to being an author, you are also a microbrewery owner and beer blogger. What beer would you pair with a weekend reading of Essence of Time?
In honor of Blake Thornton, the master brewer of the 2 men and “hop head” like myself, I’m going with “several pints of Bell’s Two Hearted IPA..” especially by the time you get to the final chapter…just saying.
What project are you working on now?
I’m in edits on the first 2 books of the Love Brothers series, a family saga set near Lexington, Ky and finishing up book 3. They feature each of the 4 brothers in a boisterous, mixed Irish/Italian American family whose father owns “Love Brewing” (“Love” is their last name, a bastardization of an old Italian name thanks to an Ellis Island mistake when great-great-great Grandpa Amatore showed up in the New Country). Love Garage is book one (oldest brother Antony owns a shop), Coach Love is book 2 (Kieran, brother #2 played basketball in college and NBA but was injured and is now back home trying to find his way), Love Brewing is book 3 and is about super bad brother Dominic, a master brewer and the one brother everyone worries about. Book 4 will be Family Love, which will be a novel within a novel by youngest brother Aiden, budding author who drops out of his MFA program to rush home to Kentucky because he hates the program but also because their beloved, strong, saucy and strong willed Mama, Lindsay is very ill. The first 3 books will be available all at once around Jan. 5 next year. I’m working on a trailer now and the covers are done, thanks to a custom photo shoot and an amazing cover artist.
“The Love Brothers: A family saga with heat, humor and heart…not to mention beer, bourbon and basketball!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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 at 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 ever 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.
Pictured with Liz is SCOTT NOVA, a cover model who portrayed "Hans" her beer loving muse at a book release party.
www.lizcrowe.com
www.brewingpasssion.com
www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor
www.facebook.com/groups/lizcrowefans
www.twitter.com/beerwencha2
www.a2beerwench.com
www.amazon.com/Liz-Crowe/e/B00573TC7M
Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, thank you.
ReplyDeleteLove the interview! Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview! Love that picture. :P
ReplyDelete