Author Profile: Elizabeth Marx
Author Name: Elizabeth Marx Website: http://www.elizabethmarxbooks.com/ Bio: Windy City writer Elizabeth Marx brings cosmopolitan flair to her fiction, which is a blend of romance and…
Interview with Elizabeth Marx
Why did you want to write Binding Arbitration?
I was writing another novel, a historical fiction book, and I hit a wall where I didn’t know where to take the story next. I had just visited Indiana University for a baseball reunion weekend and an idea started to weave its way into my mind about a cutter, what they call townies on IU’s campus, and a big time jock. I started asking myself what would happen if they fell in love and he went to the big time and she was much more than a townie. Once I started writing the contemporary it flowed very smoothly, probably because I felt I knew the characters and settings so well. I decided to put the other historical novel on the backburner, I’ve never finished it, but I went back to it recently and am thinking I’ll rework it into a fantasy trilogy.
What is the hardest part about writing for you?
Right now the hardest part is finding the time to write. I launched four books at about the same time, so I’m doing all I can to promote them. My website is also in the works and should launch this month and that’s a lot of work, finding the right images, making sure you have all the right content. Writing itself usually flows pretty well for me, if I get stuck its usually because I’m somewhere I don’t want to be in the story, in Binding at one point I stopped for two week because I just couldn’t bring myself to do something that I knew I had to do. Luckily, all my characters live in my head, or unluckily in this case because Cass kicked me and said, “You just gotta do it.” And I said, “I’ve gotta do it, got it.”
What is the most rewarding part of being published?
Recently someone reviewed Binding Arbitration and in her review she said she had a very special connection to it. When I emailed her, she told me her personal story which paralleled Libby’s journey in some respects and she told me how touched she was by the story. Most of my reviews say they laughed and they cried reading this book, which means to me as author that I succeeded in getting you to know Aidan and Libby, because would you cry over a perfect stranger’s story? It might make you sad but you wouldn’t want to cry. I guess what I’m saying is I like knowing I can touch you with my words.
Are you currently working on another novel?
I’m always working on a novel. The second book in the Chicago series, which doesn’t have a title yet, is about an interior designer and a race car driver. They both come from prestigious backgrounds, but one of them gave a baby up for adoption and the other one was given up for adoption. Both of them have preconceived ideas about the other and they love to rub checkered flags in each other’s faces, the problem is that a checkered flag means caution, and these two don’t catch on until they’ve passed the finish line. It features a magical black cat; Santana is willing to sacrifice its nine lives to keep them together. I’m about four chapters into the book.
I have a paranormal romance that’s almost complete, it’s about a vampire who has been yearning for something for 600 years—it’s not blood that Sebastian Pearce wants more than anything the human world has to offer—the House of Imperials needs a breeder.
Do you have a writing routine you try to stick too?
I’m trying to develop a new routine where I write a few days a week all day and then do marketing a few days a week all day. So far I haven’t gotten a lot written other than guest posts and interviews, but once my web site goes up I hope to go to the back and forth routine.
How important do you think blogs and/or social media are to authors?
I think blogs are very important, especially to Indie authors. They give authors a platform where they can display their work. Unfortunately, the time of the bookstore is rapidly coming to an end. I don’t relish the day, because I love hanging out in bookstores and libraries but authors will need places to promote their books and blogs and social media are the place to accomplish this.
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
I believe that authors are born not made. I think it’s a talent, and like any other talent, the more you practice it the better you will become. I believe a good education supports your talent. Then an author needs lots of life experiences. I think a good writer is naturally curious about many things and very observant, they have the ability to arrange disjointed ideas into stories and make them believable to readers.
Samantha, thanks so much for taking the time to interview me, it was a pleasure.
Elizabeth Marx
http://www.elizabethmarxbooks.com
Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx
I received my copy of Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx via CLP Blog Tours. I was curious about the book because it is set in one of my favorite cities to visit – Chicago! It’s clear from reading and from chatting with Marx that she knows her around the city, and it was really fun to take away little tidbits throughout the book. The main character is Libby Tucker, an attorney and single mom whose son, Cass, is suffering from cancer. It seems the only man who can help save his life is his biological father – who Libby has not remained in touch with. Desperate to save her son, Libby contacts Banford Aidan Palowski, the man who left Libby and Cass behind to go on to pro baseball. Once Libby and Cass are reunited with Aidan, the true journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and strength will be begin.
I thought Binding Arbitration was a pretty powerful book. I will say that I don’t think being classified as chick lit is quite correct. I was expecting a lighter read, probably pretty humorous, and it’s really not. The story of Libby and Cass and what they are dealing with is very deep, and I cried numerous times throughout the book out of sadness. I thought it was an emotional story but there were a lot of lessons to be learned throughout the pages. I did think it got to be a bit too long, there were a few times where I thought it could have ended but the story kept going, but overall, I really enjoyed the book and the journey I went on with the characters. Just be prepared with some tissues when you read!
[Rating: 4]
On Tour: Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx
Elizabeth will be on tour March 12-April 2 with her novel Binding Arbitration Through the corridors of the Windy City’s criminal courts, single mother, Libby…
Future Tour: Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx
Elizabeth will be on tour March 12-April 2 with her novel Binding Arbitration Through the corridors of the Windy City’s criminal courts, single mother, Libby…
Free Book: Cutters vs. Jocks by Elizbeth Marx
Elizabeth Marx is making Cutters vs. Jocks FREE for a limited time! Be sure to check out this novella that is the prequel to Binding…
Blog Tour Sign Up: Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx
Elizabeth will be on tour in March with her her novel Binding Arbitration, which took third place in the 19th Annual Duel on the Delta…
In My Mailbox: Week of November 27
In My Mailbox: Week of November 27
Title: Princess of Park Avenue
Author: Daniella Brodsky
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Anyone can see Lorraine Machuchi is no ordinary Brooklyn girl. Anyone except for Lorraine, that is. She’s been too busy obsessing over Tommy Lupo to notice. Living day to day on his confusing midnight phone calls and big-haired memories of their relationship in the early nineties, she’s given up any opportunity of leaving Brooklyn. And though she never saw the home she loves as a failure, there’re a lot of folks she’s pissed off by staying put—her mother, her dead grandmother’s ghost, not to mention the old Italian ladies who shake their heads at her in the pork store. And what’s worse, the very guy she tossed everything away for just told her he’ll never wind up with her—a girl who’s not going anywhere.
…Okay, so you might disapprove of her motive—changing for a guy. But then you probably haven’t seen Tommy with three shirt buttons undone. Besides, when Lorraine crosses the bridge to Manhattan she begins to realize she’s got a lot to offer. She starts coloring hair at a swank salon where they actually appreciate a little talent, even if you have to bend some rules to use it. She gets a fabulous Park Avenue sublet, even if it does involve chasing around a dog/horse named Pooh-Pooh. She meets a guy who’s actually…perfect, even if she might be too hung up on Mr. Wrong to notice. She’s asked to become the newest member of the Princesses, an elite group of Park Avenue’s most powerful socialites, even if the reasoning behind it might be a little fishy. Sure, their $400 cashmere sweaters, charity balls for poor girls with small boobs, and ‘sexy’ yoga are a bit over-the-top, but a Brooklyn girl can learn a lot by discovering her own inner princess…
Title: Binding Arbitration
Author: Elizabeth Marx
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Libby pleads her case at the cleats of celebrity baseball player, Banford Aidan Palowski, the man who discarded her at college graduation, begging him to live up to his biological duty. Libby’s worked her backside bare for everything she’s attained, while Band-Aid has been indulged since he slid through the birth canal and landed in a pile of Gold Coast money. But helping her might 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. Libby reveals his son desperately needs him and it pricks open the wound he’s carried since he abandoned her.
All Libby wants is a little anonymous DNA, but Band-Aid 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 then heartache, redemption, and forgiveness.
Title: The Queen Gene
Author: Jennifer Coburn
Received: From Jennifer Coburn
Synopsis: If It s Not One Thing, It s Your Mother. “You are so lucky to have a mother like Anjoli.” — That s what all my friends say. But really, my friends weren t there when I was eight and my theatre-savvy, drama queen of a mother said she didn t want to take me to the Central Park Zoo because the animals didn t put on a good show. My mother is like a vapor: when she enters a room, she occupies every bit of space. Don t get me wrong — I adore my mom…from a distance. It s just, well, what can you say about a woman who takes her teacup Chihuahua to every new age healer in Manhattan, who has a living-beauty will so her eyebrows will still look great if she s in a coma, and who tells my cousin Kimmy that the sperm bank has too many rules and suggests a new lipstick and a train ride to Princeton instead?
To top it off, she calls me ten times a day to say, “Darling, I m in crisis!” What, like I m not? In addition to mothering my mother, I m also trying to keep my marriage hot with a two-year-old under foot — babysitting the artists in residence at my Berkshires artists colony, which seems to be the Bermuda Triangle of creativity but a breeding ground for seriously insane — resisting an attraction to a man so sexy he could give your eyeballs an orgasm — and trying to rid my 100-year-old home of mischievous ghosts. Yeah, sort of got my hands full. The way I see it, I ve got two choices: go completely mad, or start living my own life on my own terms, starting with my mother. I m just not sure which option is crazier…
Title: A Summer in Europe
Author: Marilyn Brant
Received: From Kensington Publishing/Unsolicited
Synopsis: On her thirtieth birthday, Gwendolyn Reese receives an unexpected present from her widowed Aunt Bea: a grand tour of Europe in the company of Bea’s Sudoku and Mah-jongg Club. The prospect isn’t entirely appealing. But when the gift she is expecting — an engagement ring from her boyfriend — doesn’t materialize, Gwen decides to go. At first, Gwen approaches the trip as if it’s the math homework she assigns her students, diligently checking monuments off her must-see list. But amid the bougainvillea and stunning vistas of southern Italy, something changes. Gwen begins to live in the moment: skipping down stone staircases in Capri, running her fingers over a glacier in view of the Matterhorn, racing through the Louvre, and taste-testing pastries at a Marseilles cafe. Revelling in every new experience — especially her attraction to a charismatic British physics professor — Gwen discovers that the ancient wonders around her are nothing compared to the renaissance unfolding within…
