I'm excited to have author Liz Crowe joining us today!
In Europe (And in South America and Africa as well) “soccer” is the primary sport played—from streets and sidewalks, to back yards and professional fields. Hands down it is the most popular sport despite the popularity of baseball in Central America, and rugby or cricket in the United Kingdom.
It’s a simple concept and takes minimal equipment. In sort of the same way that “basketball” was invented as a response to the expensive sport of “American football” in Indiana and Kentucky which, for the most part, did not have schools with the resources to field a football team, soccer’s rise in popularity early in poorer countries makes sense. You need a ball (and I have seen “balls” made of everything from leather to duct tape so essentially you need a “round sphere to kick around that will roll”). And something to kick it over (a line in sand, or a stick) or into (a bucket, a trash bin, or just pre-designated space). You can play alone and work on your “juggling” (the process of keeping the ball aloft using your feet and knees only) or your goal scoring, or you can play with 2 people. And of course you can play just about any “small sided” or “full sided” game. The pro game is played with 11 players on each team, including a goal keeper.
The rise of soccer players as super celebrities in some countries also makes sense. These guys are, for the most part, attractive, competitive, outgoing and in many cases as rich as any super NBA or NFL Star in the States. Since there are no NBA, NFL, MLB or hockey stars to fawn over, soccer stars fill the gap nicely for folks looking to latch onto someone who has worked very very (very) hard to achieve the sort of status enjoyed by players like Christiano Renaldo, Gerard Pique, Wayne Rooney, Clint Dempsey and many others. The popularity of fan sites like “kickette.com” and others do their part to show soccer playing men as the ultimate romance heroes.
Their “WAGs” (wives and girlfriends) are always big news too—most of them are (like they are in the states) models or actresses or socialites of some sort or another.
I wrote the Black Jack Gentlemen series with an eye on all of these things but translating them to an “American MLS expansion” concept. Each book focuses on a specific player or coach or staff member. I hope to have a couple more books in this series for next year as well.
During the Duration of the World Cup of Soccer (June 12-July 13, 2014) You can get
RED CARD (the Black Jacks coach’s story) for FREE!
MAN ON (the Black Jacks washed up European player meets fresh faced American whipper snapper who is in the throes of denying his sexuality) for just .99
SHUT OUT (about a tough, yet deeply troubled and unhappy Black Jacks goal keeper who gets and denies a concussion and the consequences of that choice on his part) for just .99
And my Decadent Publishing 1NightStand novella CAUGHT OFFSIDE, about an internationally famous player who blows out his knee (or has it blown out for him) DURING the World Cup who meets the love of his life in, of all places, Las Vegas is also only .99
Here are some handy buy links:
(the Black Jack Gentlemen will also be on Kobo, ITunes and Smashwords in a few days)
Black Jacks links
Caught Offside Links
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/118255
About the Author...
Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe lives Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.
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.
thanks for playing along!
ReplyDeleteThose are some wonderful books! You must get them today if you haven't!
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