Contact: Desireé Jones, Publicist
Phone: 615.749.6290
Email: djones@abingdonpress.com

Nashville, Tenn. – June 28, 2011 – Football great Eddie George and his celebrity wife, singer Tamara Johnson-George, known for her multi-platinum R&B group SWV, have signed a book deal with Abingdon Press. Their book Married for Real: Building a Loving, Powerful Life Together, which explores the principles that have helped them build a strong, fulfilling relationship and helps others to implement those very principles, will release in February 2012.

In Married for Real: Building a Loving, Powerful Life Together, Eddie and Tamara will mentor and guide readers to a more successful marriage. Using their own personal stories as examples, each chapter illustrates a typical situation that every couple faces, including: money, sex, power, spending quality time together, faithfulness and getting over hurts from former relationships. For each situation Eddie and Tamara give their individual perspective and then, together, address how that situation can deepen your relationship and help you grow as a couple. The principles illustrated in this book have helped them build a strong, fulfilling relationship; they can help you too.

Of the book, Eddie and Tamara say, “Are we relationship experts? No. Do we have degrees in psychology or counseling? No again. But we believe we have something worth saying. We each bring a lifetime of relationship experience to this book, and we have thirteen years of togetherness that have taught us what it takes to make a relationship work. Could we have benefited from a book like this? Absolutely! That’s one of the big reasons we want to do it. We know how important it is to hear from real people who’ve been through good and bad and come out the other end united—and smiling!”

Eddie George’s NFL career included four Pro Bowl appearances, first-team All-Pro selection in 2000, two Super Bowl touchdowns and more than 10,000 yards rushing. He is the all-time leading rusher in Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans franchise history. In addition, Eddie won the Heisman Trophy while at Ohio State University. Eddie was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011. His companies include EGX Lifestyle, working to help people develop healthy lives, and EDGE, the planning and design firm helping create healthy communities. Eddie finds his work with charities very rewarding, donating his time and money to various organizations, including his own non-profit organization, Visions with Infinite Possibilities (V.I.P). He holds an Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. For more on Eddie visit www.eddiegeorge.com.               

Tamara “Taj” Johnson-George is a singer, actress and author. Best known as one-third of the multi-platinum selling R&B group Sisters With Voices (SWV), the Grammy-nominated singer co-wrote a number of SWV songs, including “Right Here,” “It’s About Time,” and the Top 5 hit “You’re the One.” Tamara is also known for having competed on the CBS hit reality show SURVIVOR in the 2009 season "Survivor 18: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands," on which she was voted a fan favorite. In July, 2008, she published her first book Player HateHer:  How to Avoid The Beat Down and Live in a Drama Free World (Amistad/Harper Collins), which she co-wrote with her best friend Katrina Chambers. Tamara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing from Belmont University. For more on Tamara visit www.tajgeorge.com.

The couple married in 2004. They have two children.

Married for Real is written with Rob Simbeck of Nashville, Tennessee. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Guideposts, Rolling Stone, Country Weekly and many others.

Abingdon Press, a publishing imprint for The United Methodist Publishing House, has a distinguished record in religious publishing for a broad ecumenical audience. Abingdon Press Christian Living publishes titles that will encourage, inform, enlighten and entertain, all while inspiring readers to a closer walk with Christ. Abingdon Press also publishes resources for church leaders, scholars, and students engaged in leading congregations and theological education, and inspirational books and study materials.

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