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Greetings Liz fans, followers, stalkers, creepers and lurkers. I’m pondering a sober topic today as I wend my way through the final novel of the Stewart Realty series. Besides the fact that I am giving this series a fairly firm ending as lea… |
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Welcome to my beer bar Lucy! what can I pour for you to start?
I’m sorry to say that I don’t drink beer, so a vodka and coke would be great, thanks. Welp, here is some water. This is a beer bar. No other alcohol allowed or encouraged….
 You and I have a fair bit in common. I have worked my entire working life in public relations and marketing (and sales). Do you find that this helps you promote your own work?
Yes, absolutely. It means I can keep on top of the social networking, blogging, blog tours and so on pretty easily as well as writing.
So….you have written a fair bit of girl on girl erotica….that is something that seems a little thin on the ground as it were, as most readers of erotic fiction go for m/f or m/m or some combination of that. Am I off the mark? Do you find you have a completely different audience for girl love?
I’m not sure, as my f/f readers keep pretty quiet! My f/f stuff is my best selling stuff, though, so someone is definitely buying it. You have not been at this writing (for publication) thing long (again something we have in common). Was your path to publication pretty easy? What was the first book you had published?
I was very lucky on my route to publication. When I got into erotica I immediately started researching the market and publishers. My first piece was published in a magazine called Scarlet, which is sadly no longer around. After that, my first piece in a book was Fantasy Assignment, in Xcite Books’ Seriously Sexy 3. Uh oh empty glass–what would you like next?
I’ll have the same again, thanks.
refills her water glass
Tell us about your latest release.
The Perfect Dom is a mini-anthology of four hot BDSM-themed stories.
Four kinky and erotic BDSM tales from the smutty pen of Lucy Felthouse. 
Balancing the Books
Philip’s a well off man, and doesn’t need a job. But when he sees the gorgeous owner of his local bookshop, he applies for the role that’s being advertised there immediately. He’s totally stricken by the stunning Giovanna, and when it turns out she wants to boss him around in a sexual sense as well as an employment sense, he has no intention of refusing.
Feeling the Heat
Taylor and Maisie’s car has broken down. Luckily, Taylor’s handy with engines and is working hard to get them back on the road. Unfortunately, Maisie is getting annoyed at the amount of time he’s spending in the garage and confronts him. Instead of arguing back, though, Taylor comes up with an ingenious plan to keep Maisie quiet.
The Perfect Dom
Part of Mia’s nightwear is a pair of hotpants with SPANK ME emblazoned across the arse. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but when she forgets that she has a houseguest and heads to the kitchen for a drink, she’s shocked to find Alex in her living room. Immediately spotting what he sees as an invitation written across Mia’s bottom, Alex makes an offer and Mia soon discovers that he is, in fact, the perfect dom.
Meet Me at the Spanish Steps
Darby is working at a holiday camp on the outskirts of Rome and is getting along just fine, with the exception of her sex life. For various reasons, she’s not getting what she wants in the bedroom, and her tastes are very particular. She turns to the Internet to get what she needs, and when she discovers William, it seems that he’s more than willing—and capable—of scratching that particular itch.
There is more info and buy links here: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/the-perfect-dom/
Do you self publish? If so, why? If not, why not?
I have done, yes, though only a couple of short stories and an anthology. I haven’t done anything longer yet, though I may well do if there are any books I write that won’t work well with traditional publishers. What sort of marketing services do you offer writers? why do that? Why not focus on your own works?
Blog tours, release blitzes, social media and website maintenance, website creation and much more. I do that because it’s my “day job”. If I don’t do that I’d have to go back to being employed (as opposed to self-employed) and wouldn’t have nearly as much time to write. So this route is much, much better for my writing as I can work out my own schedule to squeeze in the work and the writing.
And the nightcap…what’s your poison?
Another vodka and coke would be great! I like what I like and I keep drinking it J
Well you will leave here very nicely hydrated…here is your ice water nightcap…
 Thanks for stopping by!
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over seventy publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include Best Bondage Erotica 2012 and 2013, and Best Women’s Erotica 2013. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies. She owns Erotica For All, and is book editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebookand Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
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  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 29, 2013 Publisher’s Contact: Jessica Warth Liz Crowe’s Stewart Realty Series (Ann Arbor, Michigan) — Acclaimed author Liz Crowe’s Essence of Time, the fourth book in her best-selling Stewart Realty series, has won the bronze award for Best Erotic Romance in the 2012 Jenkins Group eLit Awards. The eLit Awards highlight the very best in electronic reading entertainment. While technically the fourth book in the series, Essence of Time was written to be read as a standalone. “It wasn’t planned,” Liz explains, “it evolved organically, completely due to reader demand. They wanted to know about Sara’s brother Blake and his partner, Rob. So I wrote it.” Crowe, whose style of writing dubbed by many as “reality fiction,” is proving not every book has to fit a mold. In a recent interview, when asked what she most enjoyed about writing, she responded, “Coming up with ways to break the ‘romance novel’ rules.” Liz goes on to say, “I write what I know. I write what I like to read. I am finding more and more that rarely fits into any one particular established genre. Evidently I have created my own.” If the sales of her latest title, Mutual Release, are any indication, readers have latched onto it and are not letting go any time soon. “I hear from the readers they like the fresh tone, the unpredictability, and sometimes brutal reality. I don’t sugar coat things and I deal with tough topics. It works for some, not for others. I’ve accepted that.” Her best-selling Stewart Realty series currently has seven books with an upcoming novella releasing in June 2013. The eighth and final book, Good Faith, will be releasing in November 2013, at a Stewart Realty Fan Farewell weekend in her home base of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where her fans will be joining her from all over the country. The weekend will kick off with a pajama party and fan club gathering in the Gulo Room at the Wolverine State Brewing Company, which she also co-owns and is marketing director for, and will feature other special activities throughout the weekend. “I’m truly excited to be able to share Ann Arbor with the fans who have taken the journey with the Stewart franchise over the past year.” Saturday will feature a special book signing with a reading and fan reception at the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble. “Getting to sign at the Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor is amazing,” explains Crowe. “A true validation for me in that not only is my business here, my family here, but ninety percent of the books I write are set here, including the Stewart series.” Official Bio: Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three teenagers, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, 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 a successful author. When she isn’t sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, she can be found writing, editing or implementing promotions for her latest publications. Her groundbreaking literary fiction subgenre, “reality fiction,” has gained thousands of fans and followers who are 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. For more information on Liz Crowe, please visit her website www.lizcrowe.com or www.brewingpassion.com (her author blog). She enjoys interacting with her fans on her Facebook author page www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor. Information for all of her books, including eBook and print formats (where available), can be found on her Amazon author page. # # # # Tri Destiny Publishing www.tridestinypublishing.com www.facebook.com/TriDestiny  ESSENCE OF TIME: the book that made more readers furious at me than I care to admit. But one of my favorites. |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 29, 2013 Publisher’s Contact: Jessica Warth Liz Crowe’s Stewart Realty Series (Ann Arbor, Michigan) — Acclaimed author Liz Crowe’s Essence of Time, the fourth book in her best-selling Stewart Realty series, has won the bronze award for Best Erotic Romance in the 2012 Jenkins Group eLit Awards. The eLit Awards highlight the very best in electronic reading entertainment. While technically the fourth book in the series, Essence of Time was written to be read as a standalone. “It wasn’t planned,” Liz explains, “it evolved organically, completely due to reader demand. They wanted to know about Sara’s brother Blake and his partner, Rob. So I wrote it.” Crowe, whose style of writing dubbed by many as “reality fiction,” is proving not every book has to fit a mold. In a recent interview, when asked what she most enjoyed about writing, she responded, “Coming up with ways to break the ‘romance novel’ rules.” Liz goes on to say, “I write what I know. I write what I like to read. I am finding more and more that rarely fits into any one particular established genre. Evidently I have created my own.” If the sales of her latest title, Mutual Release, are any indication, readers have latched onto it and are not letting go any time soon. “I hear from the readers they like the fresh tone, the unpredictability, and sometimes brutal reality. I don’t sugar coat things and I deal with tough topics. It works for some, not for others. I’ve accepted that.” Her best-selling Stewart Realty series currently has seven books with an upcoming novella releasing in June 2013. The eighth and final book, Good Faith, will be releasing in November 2013, at a Stewart Realty Fan Farewell weekend in her home base of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where her fans will be joining her from all over the country. The weekend will kick off with a pajama party and fan club gathering in the Gulo Room at the Wolverine State Brewing Company, which she also co-owns and is marketing director for, and will feature other special activities throughout the weekend. “I’m truly excited to be able to share Ann Arbor with the fans who have taken the journey with the Stewart franchise over the past year.” Saturday will feature a special book signing with a reading and fan reception at the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble. “Getting to sign at the Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor is amazing,” explains Crowe. “A true validation for me in that not only is my business here, my family here, but ninety percent of the books I write are set here, including the Stewart series.” Official Bio: Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three teenagers, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, 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 a successful author. When she isn’t sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, she can be found writing, editing or implementing promotions for her latest publications. Her groundbreaking literary fiction subgenre, “reality fiction,” has gained thousands of fans and followers who are 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. For more information on Liz Crowe, please visit her website www.lizcrowe.com or www.brewingpassion.com (her author blog). She enjoys interacting with her fans on her Facebook author page www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor. Information for all of her books, including eBook and print formats (where available), can be found on her Amazon author page. # # # # Tri Destiny Publishing www.tridestinypublishing.com www.facebook.com/TriDestiny ESSENCE OF TIME: the book that made more readers furious at me than I care to admit. But one of my favorites. |
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 I get a lot of sideways looks when I tell people I’m a “published author.”
“Of what?” is the inevitable question. I live in a quintessential College Town, complete with authors of all ages, sizes and genres. It also has its fair share of would-be, pre-published types in all stages of regret, rejection and story arc outlining.
I get a similar eye-brow raise when I tell people “I own a craft micro-brewery.” Especially when I tell men this little tidbit. In my town where the bulk of the Real Estate is taken up by an entity that pays no property taxes (I was a Realtor too so this is on my radar) we have something like six different places where beer is made on site and you can buy it. Be they “brew pubs” like the majority of them or “tap rooms,” the more traditional setting like mine, they all boast hand crafted malt beverages ranging in style from complex, fruit infused Belgian ales to accessible, lagers and most things in between. Thanks to my company, which opened its doors two and a half years ago, Ann Arbor has the highest per-capita number of microbreweries of any city in the Great Lakes State. And that is saying something since Michigan is fifth in the nation in the number of microbreweries behind the craft powerhouses of California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.
I’m living the dream of many I realize. But as anyone who has owned a small business knows, sweating cash flow and pasting on a smile every day for the public is not as easy as it looks. Not that I’m really complaining, merely making an observation about the nature of living an entrepreneurial life.
 My writing career is not that different. Having had a small taste of success so far, I realize that the dog and pony show that one must create to go along with your already carefully crafted, edited, line edited and proofread publication is just as demanding as the writing itself. But it all must be done, lest you get lost in the clamoring frenzy that is the publishing world, especially now that we are all Writers of Blogs (myself included). The published work, in other words, is only one-third of the battle.
And especially in my ultra-crowded yet popular genre. So…back to that question: “Of what?”
I write stories about real people in the real estate world and the beer industry, including what I think are interesting careers in brewing, sales, and distribution. These people live real lives and have real (read: complicated) relationships with each other. Most of them are men, as the industry is dominated by Them—although we women are making strides. My main characters are the women who people said industries. My fictional creations fall in and out of love, lust and varying degrees of obsession with each other, mirroring how “real life” tends to magnify the chaos of natural human attraction. I write “erotic fiction” yes, but of the sort where the sex is not some random drop-in scene placed there in order to get you off so you can then throw the book or e-reader down after the scene and pick up another, without ever being engaged in the story.
 In reviews, it’s been said that my work is “achingly real,” at times “unreadable but yet you want to know what will happen so you keep at it.” Recently, I received an email from a new fan who said “Your book is stressing me out! (But) It’s written so incredibly well that I keep coming back for more but I loathe how twisted up it makes me feel.”
I could not ask for a more gratifying description of what I’m trying to do. I want to tell stories that simply don’t “fade to black” when the fire is lit, so to speak and in which the people have to live their lives after zipping the zippers and buttoning the buttons back up, usually in close working contact with each other, which can really complicate things.
I’m also highly amused by those erotic reading rookies (no pun intended) who read, blush, glance up at me in an email or some similarly removed format and say things like “Well, somebody has an active fantasy life.” Or, my favorite, “Wow you really kiss and tell.” Please, people, if I had as much sex as I wrote about I would barely have time to eat or sell the beer I gotta sell. Do you accuse Janet Evanovich or Agatha Christie of being murderesses because they write about such things? Do you really think Stephen King has seen a dome come down over a small New England town? It’s called: “Imagination” and “fiction” arises from such. Some of us are just eager to get it out of our heads and out onto the page, or screen. Yes, we “write what we know” to a certain extent, using our real life experiences to set the stage or give the story some credibility. But again, just setting the stage, making a story credible, and creating plausible real characters who, by the time they ARE hooking up, you give a shit about them enough to want more.
 This is not to say I have not had my fair share of interesting encounters. But the way I’ve evolved in this particular genre is by observing how the natural chemical attraction between certain men and women, women and women and even some men and men plays out. I just take it to its next level in my head, then in written form, and will continue to plausibly deny any sort of Open House romps, shenanigans amongst the fermentation tanks or beer festival hot hook ups. Yeah, they don’t call me the Beer Wench for nothing!
Thanks for listening, reading, following, and drinking CRAFT beer as opposed to macro swill. Good luck to you all. It’s a jungle out here, but Tarzan is as hot as promised.
Cheers
Liz
 Quote from MUTUAL RELEASE, my latest novel from Evan Adams, who tosses away his law career to buy and run a craft microbrewery:
“Six days out of seven, I would agree that going back to suing people in between golf games would be a better plan. But that seventh day, when I look around my bar full of people drinking my beer, being served by my staff, in my building…well, that makes it all worthwhile. Until the next day, of course.” And coming soon: HOUSE RULES, the Jack Gordon novella will be FREE from my publisher (Tri Destiny) and only .99 everywhere else….cover reveal coming May 15. Plus mark your calendars for my book signing and huge STEWART REALTY FAREWELL PARTY the weekend of November 15. Details are emerging but the signing for GOOD FAITH, the final novel of the series will occur at Barnes and Noble, Ann Arbor on Saturday, November 16. Lots more fun stuff that weekend too including a party in my brewery’s Gulo Room for fans, with beer, food and Stewart Realty trivia! |
