2012 Was Definitely A....Year.
Greeting Liz fans, friends, followers and all those who just can't keep from visiting this blog 'cause it's so cool.
I'm having a whirlwind of a year end, as you already know. The holidays were kinda weird given all that's gone on this year, events of all sorts of bizarre and at times horrific magnitude to me personally. But you know what? Now that The Moment I've Been Waiting for All Damn Year Long is finally here....that "2012 finally in the rear view mirror" moment....I'm feeling a little remiss for not naming all the GREAT stuff that has happened to me as a writer. So, let's count them down, shall we?
Liz's Top 10 Writerly-type Events for 2012:
10. Getting some straight-up flamer haters. Yeah, I guess you can claim that it means "you've arrived" but until you read something THAT nasty/ugly about you and your "supposed" writing talents, for no real reason on a social network by someone who you don't even know and haven't had a change to truly be a bitch to, you don't realize how quickly you can be transported right back to middle school mean girls, emotionally speaking. I've learned from it and want to to personally thank those of you who feel that Being a Grownup and Mature about books you don't like is something you are allowed to leave behind when you hide behind your social networking avatar. Selling a shit ton of books is what I did this year, despite our little tiff. I hope you have a better year. I know I plan to.
9. ROMFEST in Gatlinburg! It was a whole bunch of firsts for this newb! My first writer's convention, my first book signing, my first "book club meeting at breakfast with a table full of new fans," my first face-to-face and fun time spent with amazing publisher/editor/cheerleader/and now friend Jessica--all sorts of great stuff! I loved it and plan to be there again in 2013. I had hoped to sponsor a party but the "2012 sucked ass generally" reality is precluding that. But I'll be there with my par-tay shoes on and for those of you cool famous types I met, THANKS for the fun time!
8. A bunch of hardware: My first semi big time review awards came through from Just Erotic Romance Reviews! 3 of my books (Sweat Equity, Essence of Time, Paradise Hops) got their highest ranking (Gold Star = "best of the best" in their opinion). I was also the proud recipient of many 5 star reviews, several "Top Pick" nods from The Romance Reviews, am up for Best Read of the Year on one site and have several others claiming one or more of my books as among their favs for 2012. Not too shabby. Of course, I also got pretty much eviscerated, right and proper, by RT so it truly is a karmic balance, this "reviews" thing. Being #1 on a big old Facebook list/group thing naming Floor Time (Stewart Realty #1) as the best book after 50 Shades was pretty much a buzz too. I expect the movie deal any moment now.
7. Adding 2 publishers: I had a brewery based menage book published by Ellora's Cave in 2012. Pretty exciting but mostly very eye opening. And I began a relationship with Tri-Destiny Publshing that frankly, turned a year that was headed right into the crapper for other reasons into Something Incredible. More on this later....
6. Changing my mind: I got the rights back to the Brewing Passion series...the publishing adventure that started it all more or less, for me. I plan to eliminate the "choose your romance" element of the main novel (The Tap Room) revise the entire series, and publish them with Tri-Destiny in 2014.
5. Going mobile: This may seem like a small thing if you are not a writer, but I had myself convinced that I could "only write" on my big Mac computer on the desk at home, while editing, promoting and networking could be accomplished on the Macbook Air. Not this year---I wrote the entire novel Essence of Time in about 3 weeks beginning on a verandah at The Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas and that ladies and gents popped my writer suspicion cherry. NOW I write on everything, even at times, the notes app on my phone.
4. Turning rejection into best selling mojo: Paradise Hops is one of the books published this year by Tri-Destiny. It was one of the 2 books that received many rejections before finding a home. Cheeky Blonde being the other, which was published by Decadent Publishing. Both of these books are brewery-based and both are departures from the tradition-bound "romance" genre. Despite that, at least one of them sold nearly 2000 copies its first month of publication (Paradise Hops) and the other (Cheeky Blonde) was one of my first "silver star" best selling award notice recipients on all Romance ebooks. Paradise Hops lead to Item Number 10 on this list--go on back up, I'll wait.
3. Blogging .... and people actually read it: The Brewing Passion Blog went over 100,000 hits about a month ago and The A2 Beer Wench blog is right at 99,000. Both blogs have been in existence for about 2 years now. I try to keep them interesting, fresh, pertinent with just enough give away freebie stuff to keep you coming back.
2. Local book signing X 2: Thanks to the hard work and efforts on my behalf by Tri-Destiny publishing's team of publicists, I had my first live, local book signing in November. Nicola's Books is one of 2 independent book stores left in Ann Arbor, and is the bigger one, about the size of a "mall Walden books" and if you don't know what that is you may just be too young to read my books. We had a GREAT time, met fans who travelled from far flung locales like Illinois and even Toronto, Canada. I got the news that weekend that my books had been requested by the Ann Arbor Library system too which was way cool in a way that even surprised me. I dovetailed my two worlds in December, by hosting a women's networking event in my brewery's new rental hall where I signed my books along with several other Michigan based lady scribblers.
And the Number 1 thing that rocked about 2012:
Finding a publisher who gets me, my voice and is dedicated to pushing me hard both creatively and professionally to reach the goals I've set for myself. I have a couple of fairly lofty projects in the pipeline for 2013, including a couple of mainstream fiction novels I want to at least start while continuing to write sexy romance novels that piss people off and get me more fans.
But 2012 was the year of Jack Gordon--the year the Stewart Realty series FINALLY (finally, thank you god and sonny Jesus) saw the light of day and turned me from "just another" into "something new." While I am befuddled more than a little by the trends in this genre thanks to a certain best selling phenomenon I honestly tried to read but simply could not, I think 2013 is gonna bring even more great stuff to my very own "Romance For Real Life" list of books PLUS some very new and potentially controversial new novels.
THANK YOU TRI-DESTINY PUBLISHING. I thank you. Jack and Sara thank you. As do Craig, Suzanne, Beth, Matthew, Brandis, Mo, Rafe, Rob, Lila, Ryan, Grace, Henri, Lori, Eli, Garrett, Nick, Ian, Hannah, Evan, Julie, Brandis 2, Blair, Gabe, Lillian, Kate, Parker, Nico, Metin, Alicia and many soon to be named others. We may not be the biggest but we work our flipping hardest to be the very best. Thanks for giving me this chance.
Yes. They are taking submissions.
Happy New Year One and All!
All the books pictured above are available, many in ebook and print on my Amazon Author page.
Watch for the "WHAT'S COMING FROM LIZ IN 2013" POST NEXT WEEK!
JOIN MY ROMANCE FOR REAL LIFE FACEBOOK GROUP TO GET ALL SORTS OF EXCLUSIVE EXCERPTS, DELETED SCENES FROM THE STEWART SERIES AND INSIGHTS INTO WHAT'S COMING SOON....
Liz
My latest release HEALING HEARTS launches the Challenge Series, new from Decadent Publishing!
I WILL AWARD ONE FREE LIZ BOOK TO ONE LUCKY RANDOMLY CHOSEN COMMENTER WHO ANSWERS THIS QUESTION: What was your first Liz Crowe book and which one was your favorite? All other comments welcome, but keep the flaming to yourself. thanks.
I'm having a whirlwind of a year end, as you already know. The holidays were kinda weird given all that's gone on this year, events of all sorts of bizarre and at times horrific magnitude to me personally. But you know what? Now that The Moment I've Been Waiting for All Damn Year Long is finally here....that "2012 finally in the rear view mirror" moment....I'm feeling a little remiss for not naming all the GREAT stuff that has happened to me as a writer. So, let's count them down, shall we?
Liz's Top 10 Writerly-type Events for 2012:
10. Getting some straight-up flamer haters. Yeah, I guess you can claim that it means "you've arrived" but until you read something THAT nasty/ugly about you and your "supposed" writing talents, for no real reason on a social network by someone who you don't even know and haven't had a change to truly be a bitch to, you don't realize how quickly you can be transported right back to middle school mean girls, emotionally speaking. I've learned from it and want to to personally thank those of you who feel that Being a Grownup and Mature about books you don't like is something you are allowed to leave behind when you hide behind your social networking avatar. Selling a shit ton of books is what I did this year, despite our little tiff. I hope you have a better year. I know I plan to.
9. ROMFEST in Gatlinburg! It was a whole bunch of firsts for this newb! My first writer's convention, my first book signing, my first "book club meeting at breakfast with a table full of new fans," my first face-to-face and fun time spent with amazing publisher/editor/cheerleader/and now friend Jessica--all sorts of great stuff! I loved it and plan to be there again in 2013. I had hoped to sponsor a party but the "2012 sucked ass generally" reality is precluding that. But I'll be there with my par-tay shoes on and for those of you cool famous types I met, THANKS for the fun time!
8. A bunch of hardware: My first semi big time review awards came through from Just Erotic Romance Reviews! 3 of my books (Sweat Equity, Essence of Time, Paradise Hops) got their highest ranking (Gold Star = "best of the best" in their opinion). I was also the proud recipient of many 5 star reviews, several "Top Pick" nods from The Romance Reviews, am up for Best Read of the Year on one site and have several others claiming one or more of my books as among their favs for 2012. Not too shabby. Of course, I also got pretty much eviscerated, right and proper, by RT so it truly is a karmic balance, this "reviews" thing. Being #1 on a big old Facebook list/group thing naming Floor Time (Stewart Realty #1) as the best book after 50 Shades was pretty much a buzz too. I expect the movie deal any moment now.
7. Adding 2 publishers: I had a brewery based menage book published by Ellora's Cave in 2012. Pretty exciting but mostly very eye opening. And I began a relationship with Tri-Destiny Publshing that frankly, turned a year that was headed right into the crapper for other reasons into Something Incredible. More on this later....
6. Changing my mind: I got the rights back to the Brewing Passion series...the publishing adventure that started it all more or less, for me. I plan to eliminate the "choose your romance" element of the main novel (The Tap Room) revise the entire series, and publish them with Tri-Destiny in 2014.
5. Going mobile: This may seem like a small thing if you are not a writer, but I had myself convinced that I could "only write" on my big Mac computer on the desk at home, while editing, promoting and networking could be accomplished on the Macbook Air. Not this year---I wrote the entire novel Essence of Time in about 3 weeks beginning on a verandah at The Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas and that ladies and gents popped my writer suspicion cherry. NOW I write on everything, even at times, the notes app on my phone.
4. Turning rejection into best selling mojo: Paradise Hops is one of the books published this year by Tri-Destiny. It was one of the 2 books that received many rejections before finding a home. Cheeky Blonde being the other, which was published by Decadent Publishing. Both of these books are brewery-based and both are departures from the tradition-bound "romance" genre. Despite that, at least one of them sold nearly 2000 copies its first month of publication (Paradise Hops) and the other (Cheeky Blonde) was one of my first "silver star" best selling award notice recipients on all Romance ebooks. Paradise Hops lead to Item Number 10 on this list--go on back up, I'll wait.
3. Blogging .... and people actually read it: The Brewing Passion Blog went over 100,000 hits about a month ago and The A2 Beer Wench blog is right at 99,000. Both blogs have been in existence for about 2 years now. I try to keep them interesting, fresh, pertinent with just enough give away freebie stuff to keep you coming back.
2. Local book signing X 2: Thanks to the hard work and efforts on my behalf by Tri-Destiny publishing's team of publicists, I had my first live, local book signing in November. Nicola's Books is one of 2 independent book stores left in Ann Arbor, and is the bigger one, about the size of a "mall Walden books" and if you don't know what that is you may just be too young to read my books. We had a GREAT time, met fans who travelled from far flung locales like Illinois and even Toronto, Canada. I got the news that weekend that my books had been requested by the Ann Arbor Library system too which was way cool in a way that even surprised me. I dovetailed my two worlds in December, by hosting a women's networking event in my brewery's new rental hall where I signed my books along with several other Michigan based lady scribblers.
And the Number 1 thing that rocked about 2012:
Finding a publisher who gets me, my voice and is dedicated to pushing me hard both creatively and professionally to reach the goals I've set for myself. I have a couple of fairly lofty projects in the pipeline for 2013, including a couple of mainstream fiction novels I want to at least start while continuing to write sexy romance novels that piss people off and get me more fans.
But 2012 was the year of Jack Gordon--the year the Stewart Realty series FINALLY (finally, thank you god and sonny Jesus) saw the light of day and turned me from "just another" into "something new." While I am befuddled more than a little by the trends in this genre thanks to a certain best selling phenomenon I honestly tried to read but simply could not, I think 2013 is gonna bring even more great stuff to my very own "Romance For Real Life" list of books PLUS some very new and potentially controversial new novels.
THANK YOU TRI-DESTINY PUBLISHING. I thank you. Jack and Sara thank you. As do Craig, Suzanne, Beth, Matthew, Brandis, Mo, Rafe, Rob, Lila, Ryan, Grace, Henri, Lori, Eli, Garrett, Nick, Ian, Hannah, Evan, Julie, Brandis 2, Blair, Gabe, Lillian, Kate, Parker, Nico, Metin, Alicia and many soon to be named others. We may not be the biggest but we work our flipping hardest to be the very best. Thanks for giving me this chance.
Yes. They are taking submissions.
Happy New Year One and All!
All the books pictured above are available, many in ebook and print on my Amazon Author page.
Watch for the "WHAT'S COMING FROM LIZ IN 2013" POST NEXT WEEK!
JOIN MY ROMANCE FOR REAL LIFE FACEBOOK GROUP TO GET ALL SORTS OF EXCLUSIVE EXCERPTS, DELETED SCENES FROM THE STEWART SERIES AND INSIGHTS INTO WHAT'S COMING SOON....
Liz
My latest release HEALING HEARTS launches the Challenge Series, new from Decadent Publishing!
I WILL AWARD ONE FREE LIZ BOOK TO ONE LUCKY RANDOMLY CHOSEN COMMENTER WHO ANSWERS THIS QUESTION: What was your first Liz Crowe book and which one was your favorite? All other comments welcome, but keep the flaming to yourself. thanks.
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