Tuesday, September 25, 2012

THE GIRLY BOOK BLOG HOP!!!




VICKI THE KICK-BUTT SIDE KICK!


I’m supposed to tell you about myself, but isn’t a picture worth a thousand words. I’m a secondary character in BINDING ARBITRATION, but I’m Libby’s best friend and more of a sidekick. I call myself eccentric; you would call me weird. I’m a cross between an Egyptian goddess and a hippie, and you just never know which way the wind will blow my Clairol highlights. Ok, so, I was born in a VW van parked on a dirt road, outside a trailer park, in a small town in Southern Indiana. My parents were over-the-hill hippies, and they were too stoned to realize my mom, who was in her late forties, was pregnant with me. I was a real surprise. All my parent’s drugs and sexcapades made me a free spirit. I don’t sweat the small stuff. I appreciate every experience I’ve ever had. And I’m loyal to a fault.
 
Evageline Lilly as Libby
I met Libby, the heroine of BA, at Indiana University, and we became friends. Not to confuse you or anything, but I was not enrolled in college; I was a cutter. A cutter is what the preppy college kids call a townie. While I was traveling Live-a-Little-Lane all over campus, divine intervention sent me into Libby’s world to remind her there’s more to life than riding the Nose-to-the-Grindstone-Gravel-Road.
Josh Duhamel as Aidan 'Band-Aid' Palowski
 
I’m the one who encouraged her to get involved with Aidan ‘Band-Aid’ Palowski, the bad baseball boy. All I can say in my defense is that he had this smoking hot athletic body and I was confident that he had extensive training playing the field. I knew he knew his way around a boudoir as easily as he knew his way around the bases. Post-it note to self, give a dumb jock a condom before you send him to deflower your best friend! Unfortunately, their tryst lead to a complication that I felt just as responsible for as Libby did. So when she went to law school with a bun in the oven, I figured I better learn baking. I’m loyal remember. 

Did I mention that I studied to become a voodoo priestess? Or that I was a 911 operator? A phone sex worker? Second Post-it note to self, if your best friend is not a lawyer do not attempt to operate a 911 call center and phone sex line at the same time in the basement of a police station. And if the mayor calls with an emergency, don’t accidently tell him relief is on the way if he’d just rub one out. Just saying.
Cass
I fell in love with Libby’s baby, Cass, the moment he crinkled up his forehead at me in examination. By the time he was three years old and put me in glitter handcuffs I was completely under his spell. When Libby finished law school and got a big time criminal defense gig, I became her legal assistant. I met Rick, the Fed X guy, at our office.  He had me at, “Can you sign for this package?” We have a baby girl named Betty Poop. What? I named her after Libby, Elizabeth’s her real name and I have a birth certificate with a doula’s signature on it to prove it. Betty Poop is all huff and bluff just like Libby, and she’s also full of crap like her aunty too!
Life has had its heartache and pleasures for us, but there was one thorn that I had to surgically remove from Libby’s side: Vanessa Vanderhoff. She’s some sort of a Celebutante. In Chi-Town we call them slut-and-taunt. The only thing the two of us would ever have in common would be some grainy, gratuitous videos, but let’s not get into that here. Anyway, Vanessa Vanderbarbie was engaged to Band-Aid before he was pulled back into Libby’s world. When he broke it off, Vandy was having a hard time accepting that he belonged with Libby & Cass, so I did what any professionally trained Voodoo priestess would do. #1) I made a wax image of her Mercedes. #2) I put her graven image in the wax car (after I stuck two straight pins up her perfectly pristine nose, that three plastic surgeons had been paid enough money to feed a small village in Africa for a year to fix). #3) I melted the wheels off said wax car.
 
Two days later, the real Vanessa Vanderbarbie was involved in a high speed chase across L.A., where she took out two sidewalk cafes, a garbage truck, and a sewer line. Raw sewage, the newest form of karma or cosmetic intervention, coated Vanderbarbie and her tireless convertible in do-do. Now Vandy’s in a holding cell in the L.A. county jail infirmary, where she’s donning an orange jump suit, undergoing treatment for a serious sinus infection, and having a mental break down due to hair extension removal.
Do not mess with the voodoo power of Maman Voudoun a.k.a. Vicki Davis!


Don't forget to enter the rafflecopter for your chance to win a $25 iTunes GC that you can use to fill your iPod with music or your iPad with books! You can find out more about Libby & Aidan's journey in the full length novel BINDING ARBITRATION!

 

Through the corridors of the Windy City’s criminal courts, single mother Libby Tucker knows exactly how far she’ll go to save her cancer-stricken son’s life. The undefeated defense attorney is prepared to take her fight all the way to the majors.
Circumstances force Libby to plead her case at the cleats of celebrity baseball player Banford Aidan Palowski, the man who discarded her at their college graduation. Libby has worked her backside bare for everything she’s attained, while Aidan has been indulged since he slid through the birth canal and landed in a pile of Gold Coast money. But helping Libby and living up to his biological duty could jeopardize the only thing the jock worships: his baseball career.
If baseball imitates life, Aidan admits his appears to be silver-plated peanuts, until an unexpected confrontation with the most spectacular prize that’s ever poured from a caramel corn box blindsides him. When he learns about his son’s desperate need, it pricks open the wound he’s carried since he abandoned Libby and the child.
All Libby wants is a little anonymous DNA, but Aidan has a magical umpire in his head who knows Libby’s a fateball right to the heart. When a six-year-old sage and a hippy priestess step onto the field, there’s more to settle between Libby and Aidan than heartache, redemption, and forgiveness.

"Marx's romance is full of twists and turns, some expected, and some not, with an emotionally complex central conflict, lively (though at time infuriating) characters and a carefully drawn Chicago setting." ~Kirkus Reviews

"...equal parts heart-tugging and steamy--strictly for romance enthusiasts." ~Kirkus Reviews

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006423DPW
 
 
 Or read the prequel CUTTERS VS JOCKS it's FREE!!!!

 
On the idyllic campus of Indiana University, Little-Libby-Nobody runs into Band-Aid, All-American-Athlete, and fireworks explode. Libby and Aidan spiral into a collision course of love at first sight versus lust you can’t fight. As the game plays out and their affection grows, they soon realize that labels like cutters and jocks can’t keep them apart.
 
But when Libby and Aidan find themselves in trouble they have to confront the reality of where they each fit in the others’ world. Libby believes superstar jocks don’t take cutters to Rose Well House, in the center of campus, at midnight and pledge their undying devotion beneath its sparkling dome. And Band-Aid imagines there’s no place for a pregnant, small-town waitress in his bull-pen or the major leagues. What happens when worthy opponents refuse to play their hearts out?
 
 
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, September 24, 2012

WELCOME AUTUMN

 
 
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.
Emily Dickinson
 
 
The first official weekend of fall has come and with it all the traditions that make the season, there was football and homecoming and a visit to the pumpkin patch and even a campfire with Smores.
 
 
This is our truckload of pumpkins. I can't reveal how many we obtained, but we definitely got our monies worth in Wisconsin where they sell them by the truckload.
 
Now what to do with these gourds of many colors...


 
 

                                                                        
 
And so our fall landscape started to take shape.
 
 
 
And this is our fall welcome, from our home to yours.
 
 
 

And yes, we are home to a Wildcat or two, here's her homecoming picture she's the one in blue.
 
 
May the abundant blessings of fall touch your family too!
Elizabeth Marx


Monday, September 10, 2012

BINDING ARBITRATION--BLOG TOUR

 
 
Here's the schedule for upcoming blog tour. I hope you'll join me and check out the giveaways!
 
 


Sept. 13th- http://abitofdash.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt/Giveaway)
Sept. 14th- http://chaoticbookcorner.blogspot.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Sept. 15th- http://the-avidreader.blogspot.com/ (Interview/Giveaway)
Sept. 16th- http://archiestandwoodsreviewsandwritings.blogspot.com/       
                          (Review/Giveaway)
Sept. 17th- http://kaidansseduction.blogspot.com/ (Review)
Sept. 18th- http://www.snifferwalk.org/ (Excerpt)
Sept. 19th- http://iamindeed.wordpress.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Sept. 20th- http://sugarbeatsbooks.com/ (Interview)
Sept. 21st- http://www.beachbumreads.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Sept. 22nd- http://lauries-interviews.blogspot.com/ (Interview/Giveaway)
Sept. 23rd- http://bibliophilesthoughtsonbooks.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt)
Sept. 24th- http://vampiriquedezire.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt/Giveaway)
Sept. 25th- http://herdingcats-burningsoup.blogspot.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Sept. 26th- http://www.nightlyreading.wordpress.com/ (Excerpt)
Sept. 27th- http://triciakristufek.com/ (GuestPost/Giveaway)
Sept. 28th- http://www.stitchreadcook.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Sept. 29th- http://theebookreviewers.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt/Giveaway)
Sept. 30th- http://writingcrazyme.blogspot.com/ (Review)
Oct. 1st- http://communitybookstop.blogspot.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Oct. 2nd- http://junipergrove.net/ (Excerpt/Giveaway)
Oct. 3rd- http://www.crossroadreviews.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Oct. 4th- http://daydrmzzz.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt/Giveaway)
Oct. 5th- http://blackhippiechick.wordpress.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Oct. 6th- http://www.myseryniti.wordpress.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Oct. 7th- http://mylife-in-stories.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt)
Oct. 8th- http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.blogspot.com/ (GuestPost)
Oct. 9th- http://bookbriefs.blogspot.com/ (Excerpt/Giveaway)
Oct. 10th- http://www.bunnysreview.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Oct. 11th- http://www.crazyfourbooks.blogspot.com/ (Review/Giveaway)
Oct. 12th- http://simplyinfatuated.wordpress.com/ (Interview/Giveaway)
Oct. 13th- http://amysbookworld.blogspot.com/ (Review/Giveaway)

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Cover Reveal PURE & SINFUL by Killian McRae

 
Coming soon, a new book by Killian McRae...
 


PURE & SINFUL

Statistician Riona Dade knows all about probabilities. Still, even she'd tell you the chances of discovering you’re a witch, being appointed to the demon-slaying trio known as the Pure Souls, and finding yourself sinfully attracted to a catholic priest who uses amen and other four-lettered words with equal enthusiasm are pretty slim. Also learning your ex was once Hell’s first-round draft pick, and realizing you're a prize catch for Satan’s soul-damning quota leaves a girl feeling like she just won the lottery while being struck by lightning while riding a unicorn across Atlantis.

Trying to keep her mind off role playing the Thornbirds with Father Angeletti, Riona leads the Pure Souls against a maniacal menagerie of Mephistopheles’s minions plaguing greater Boston. Giving in to lust is a direct flight to damnation for both her and the priest, leading Riona to distract herself by striking up a romance with her new, foxy neighbor, Lucy. But she can't shake her attraction to Marcello, and as the tension between them grows thicker than a lumberjack’s beard, temptation may become too difficult to resist.

How long can they deny the pull growing between them, knowing there will be Hell to pay?


EXCERPT

As Dee sauntered away, Riona focused on the priest’s expression. Marc wasn’t in his collar and coat today, but always carried the air of the clergyman within to some degree, like he wore his collar on the inside.

“How did you end up here?”

She took in the rugged cut of his jaw, the stubble that showed he hadn’t shaved in a day or two. He wasn’t bad looking by any measure, and he probably could have been quite the heartbreaker if he wasn’t a man of God. His eyes weren’t brown, they were black, and glistened like onyx pendants. A firm jaw and supple lips were likely often employed more for battling the fires of Hell than fanning the flames of lust. Nevertheless,  the tools were there to be used, if he so desired. For a man of the cloth, he sure cut that cloth fine.  The priest rose to what she considered the perfect height, had a body not too muscular, but hardly milk toasty, and a swagger in his walk that would make a lady think he could move his body in all the ways the good Lord intended.

If only his collar and his personality weren’t pressed with double starch.

“Paolo’s is the best pizza in town. Trust me on that, I’m Italian.” Sarcasm wasn’t his most attractive trait, but it was one of the most prominent.

“Don’t deflect the question,” Riona commanded with a click of her tongue. “I mean being one of the Pure Souls. I know how you found me…”

“… secured in a straitjacket and pending shipment to a cushy psychiatric facility?”

She crossed her arms and grimaced, wondering suddenly if the hex she’d learned to give demons jock itch would work on humans. “Look, you walk through the steel wall of a meat locker and try to explain it to the police in a way that doesn’t get you 5150’ed, and then you can talk. But, I mean, a priest? Isn’t the Catholic Church, you know, kind of not kosher with the whole magical powers and battling goblins thing?”

“Technically, the Catholic Church isn’t kosher with anything,” he returned.

“Kosher’s a Jewish thing, not that I think the people of the book are anymore approving of mortal combat with the spawn of Hell. I was born into it. Magic is a birthright, you know. It shows up in my family every couple of generations. Just like being a priest — like my father before me, and his father before him.”

The official release date is September 19

www.killianmcrae.com
blog: authorkillianmcrae.blogspot.com
twitter: @killianmcrae
facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/authorkillianmcrae

Current giveaway on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/32090-pure-sinful

Happy reading!
Elizabeth Marx

Saturday, September 1, 2012

LABOR DAY GIVEAWAY


AUTOGRAPHED BOOK & GIFT CARD

Please read the instructions below the cover in this image to win!