California Dreamin' (Bouts of Random)

Hey kids.


Just a quick post today really.

I'm on the Left Coast for the first time in my life. Pretty excited. Although it is a mixed bag of excited as it is one of those situations best labeled as "it's complicated."  Extremely.  Complicated.


I'll spare you. But I'm determined to enjoy the week here.  Had a lovely evening with spouse....date night in Laguna Beach is hard to argue with.

Today I'm headed to Crystal Cove for a walk along the Pacific Coast.


Later I'm going to meet up with one of my Publishers face to face.  Can't wait!

Tomorrow we are "exploring" the area...with an eye towards, well, anyway. It's a long story.

So to recap:


I'm on Tour.  Ah the wonders of the Internet Machine, eh kids?  Today there is another review of Floor Time (and that reviewer is jonesin' for the sequel...).  There are some lovely prizes at stake here...
It's full of WOW! and "CAN'T WAIT TO READ MORE" words but got a B+.  Must be a pretty steep curve. But the words are nice!


Click here for the WHOLE tour (for more opportunities to win!)

I began the OMG Can you WRITE THAT annoyingly hyped up novel 50 Shades of Grey. I stopped reading it and I figured out why. First Person POV is my least favorite format for "adult novels" (I'm good with it for YA, seems more realistic). And this particular heroine crawled up in my nerves and laid a bristly egg. But, as we all know People ("mommies who love their porn" or whatever) Are Raving.  So don't let me stop you.  I love a well written, realistic BDSM (or D/s) novel. To my mind, this is Not That.

Oh crap. Tim Tebow needs to brush up his resume. Poor kid.  QUICK! somebody convince him to be a romance novel cover model!  






And I'm writing the fourth Realtor Book now.  Here is a taste (here and ONLY HERE....so spread the word.)
I'm telling Rob and Blake's story for this fourth installment, for those of you in the know on the characters in this popular series. Rob, if you recall, knew Jack in college. And they were quite the pair:

“Make it quick partner.” Jack yelled over the girl’s loud orgasmic squeals of ecstasy. Rob kissed her again, lifted her up and off him, then wandered into the bathroom to gather up the rest of his shit for their trip north. After a few minutes of wet kissing noises her caught a distinctly feminine sound of displeasure. He walked out, duffle bag over his shoulder.

“Later, babe,” He patted her ass as she re adjusted her skirt. “We’ll call ya.”

The girl stuck her tongue out at him, making him smile. Yeah, she knew the code. “We’ll call ya” from the Rob and Jack tag team meant “have a great life and thanks for your time.”

Jack chuckled and pulled on a pair of jeans draped over a nearby chair, gave the girl a whole hearted kiss of good bye.  “Dude,” He grabbed water bottles and fruit as they watched the girl wander out onto the street to her car. “You are gonna kill me.”

Rob smirked. “But you’ll die happy, won’t you, asshole?”

Jack roared with laughter and tossed the keys to his truck to Rob who caught them mid air. “Yeah. You speak the truth my friend.”

“Now, can we please go now that you’ve gotten off?”

“Me?” He tried to look shocked. But Rob flipped him off as they pounded down the narrow, smelly stairway to the garage beneath the building. By the time they pulled out onto the street and parked behind a beat up van, the sun was high in the sky. “God dammit,” Rob grumbled as he shoved his sunglasses up his nose. “I’m gonna miss a whole day of powder you dick.”

Jack downed an entire bottle of water before answering. “Hey,” he pointed towards the group gathered by the van. “Who the hell is that?” Rob glared at him a minute before peering out into the blinding sun-shot snow.

“Whatever,” Rob took in the familiar forms of their usual crew—four fraternity brothers, the female cousin of one of them, a friend of hers who’d been hanging out with them all lately, and… “Whoa.” He slipped the Ray bans down and took in the tall form of the strange woman seated in the back of the van. She had one foot propped on the bumper, a beer in one hand, the long black fall of her hair covering one sunglass covered eye. There was no disguising her perfect hourglass shape. A little taller and fuller than Jack’s type, Rob felt his scalp tingle at the sight of her. A new sensation and one he didn’t care for much.

“Holy Penthouse pet, man.” Jack slapped his shoulder. “This trip just looked up as far as I’m concerned.”

“Shut up,” Rob threw the truck into park and climbed out. Something felt strange to him. His usual restless antsiness buzzed between his ears. But the sight of that strange girl had set him off even further. Although he’d just come down what’s her name’s throat his cock had stirred back to life. Annoyed, he stayed behind the truck a minute.

“About time, dickheads.” A slight, redheaded girl, leapt up into Jack’s arms. He caught her and planted a kiss on her lips.

“It’s his fault Suzanne,” Rob nodded to the group. “I have beer. What’s your contribution?”

“Same. A couple of bottles Smirnoff, OJ, chips and salsa.”

“Asshole!” Jack shifted Suzanne to his back. “What food did we bring?”

“I got it handled Gordon. As usual. All you have to do is bring your swinging dick, preferably washed.” Rob rolled his eyes at the new girl who hadn’t moved from her perch. He felt her eyes on him, even behind her Oaklies. Unnerving. He forced himself to drag his eyes from the way her pale blue jeans hugged her hips, the way she put the brown bottle to her like it was a…”Can we fucking go now people? I arranged this god damned junket, let’s get on with it.” He watched Jack drop Suzanne back to the sidewalk.

“Who’s your friend?” He sauntered over to the hot new girl. Rob gritted his teeth, a sudden surge of jealousy making him dizzy. She looked up at him slowly.

“Oh that’s Christine.” Suzanne clamored in next to her. “Christine, that’s Rob and Jack.” She rummaged around in one of the three coolers and emerged with three beers, tossed one to Jack and one to Rob. Rob opened his, downed half then tipped the bottle to the vision still sitting motionless at the back end of the van. His heart pounded a little too hard for his taste when she slid her sunglasses down and appraised him up and down. 

Finally, My Louisville Cardinals are alive and well in the Men's NCAA b-ball tourney. Gotta head back to Michigan and withstand the slings and arrows of all my Michigan State Fans...GO CARDS!!!




Lastly, Liz's book recommendations for the winter and spring are:

Erotic Romance:  Crash Into You by Roni Loren




Mainstream: (it's a tie)

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
What Alice Forgot by Lianne Morriarty




YA:

 The ENTIRE Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness
The Knife of Never Letting Go--The Ask and the Answer--Monsters of Men
they've been optioned for a movie--you will see why.
And a book that defies categorization but has a "YA" label:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (if you can't stand to be emotionally ripped apart by a book, best avoid this one)


It's 5 a.m. here. I'm wide awake.
Yeah.
Later
Liz