Today is my chance to welcome you all to the RRBC book and blog block party!

This month, The Rave Reviews Book Club, or RRBC, has decided to throw a book and blog party. I hope that by now you have visited many other blogs in the party and some of you may have already won prizes! Anyone is eligible to win a prize. You don’t have to be part of the book club to win. To be in with a chance of winning some great prizes, leave a comment on my blog page today (15/08/2016) and RRBC will select the winners. Winners will be notified on my blog and via email. To see everyones comments today, click on the comment box at the top of this blog page.

My Prizes today: 

1st prize: A £20 or $25 Amazon voucher.

A week of tweet support from my Twitter account @Lizzie_Chantree (Writers: You don’t need a Twitter account as I can still promote your books/blogs/websites etc.) If you don’t have a book to promote, but do have a Twitter account or a business, I can promote your account/business, to hopefully find some new followers or customers.

The first prize winner will also gain a mention on my networking hour #creativebizhour and on my Instagram page. We have over 17.3M timeline views and 22K RT’s in 1 hour some weeks on #creativebizhour and we are often trending.

Prize 2: A £15 or $20 Amazon voucher and a day of tweet support from my Twitter account @Lizzie_Chantree.

Prize 3: A £10 or $15 Amazon voucher and a day of tweet support from my Twitter account @Lizzie_Chantree.

Let’s party! 

I am looking forward to introducing you to my work, but realise you have probably seen a lot of blogs and discovered some great books already on this tour. I can only hope you are still full of energy and are ready for another party!

Before I became an author, I started my career by inventing things, (picture a mad inventor with pencils sticking out of her hair!) so I thought I would introduce you to my first invention and tell you about some writing related innovations that I have found, just for fun.

My first invention is called Runaway Spray. Runaway Spray is an instant ‘ladder’ or ‘run’ stop spray for stockings and tights. It is the size of a lipstick, not tested on animals and easy to add to any handbag. I invented this product when I was 17 and had such an amazing time learning all about patents, product design and wholesale and retail for the high street. Not book related, but very handy all the same! Great for looking smart at a book signing. I often refer to the business skills I learnt from this time in my life in my novels, as they all involve creative businesses. Babe Driven is a successful chauffeur company with stunningly gorgeous women drivers, company espionage and sizzling beaches. Love’s Child has a warehouse centre for delinquent children as the main setting, run by an ex-boxer who is hiding a secret that can affect the whole of humanity. Finally, Finding Gina has an fledgling events business and a cosy coffee shop, run by a vain young woman with ‘issues’. Gina is someone who is just passing through the town, but her arrival affects everyone.

Back to extreme inventiveness! Here are some gadgets that have been inspired by writers. In 1973, Martin Cooper made the first public cell phone call from a hand held device. Afterwards he acknowledged that he had been inspired by the script of Star Trek, to develop the technology. Rockets, satellites and tablet computers all started in the minds of creative authors, who helped innovators to discover new product ideas. I didn’t get my inventive idea from a book, but from an orange and a lilo, that’s another story altogether!

Some inventions have sprung from the imaginations of creative writers who have no expertise in design, but have an imagination that can think beyond the here and now. These writers, in turn, inspired those with the technical knowledge, to create actual products from science fiction novels.

Script writers bought us voice-controlled robots like R2-D2 in Star Wars and voice responsive computer, Hal, in A Space Odyssey. In the 1950-60’s Bell Labs designed it’s first computer which recognised digits. IBM then developed a machine that could recognise 16 words. By the turn of the century, consumer electronics were starting to use this technology. Apple worked with specialists to develop the Siri software. A Space Odyssey also had astronauts looking at rectangular screens, which look remarkably like iPads. Writer Arthur C Clarke described touchscreen computers as ‘news pads’, which could also be similar to e-readers.

Comic book hero Dick Tracy by Chester Gould, was able to talk to his parter via a 2 way radio watch. Did this evolve into the modern smartwatches?

In 1998, Mark Twain wrote a short story and described a phone system to share information over the world wide network.

In 1887, novelist Edward Bellamy mentioned a credit card in his book, Looking backward. He used the term ‘credit card’ as a means of paying for a citizens dividend from the government.

Do you think you might have dreamt up a new innovation that could benefit the world, in your last book, poem, or blog, without realising it? I found it really interesting to discover that inventors and authors had such a connection!

Introducing my books:

Babe Driven

Driving straight out of trouble and into paradise! 

Harriet’s crazily successful business idea is under serious threat, and the danger seems to be coming from inside her own family. She whisks her sister and her friends away to an exotic location to try and work out whose side they are on. It’s time to start damage limitation.

When the girls arrive at the glorious villa owned by Harriet’s maverick business partner Nikki, they find a gorgeous band and their sexy lead singer Max staying next door, out to entice their new neighbours into all kinds of trouble.

This isn’t a holiday for Harriet and she can’t afford to be distracted. She has to sell her business idea to the powerful resort owner, the elusive Mr Grant, while she is there, or she may not have a business to go back to. Harriet will have to choose between family and friends, business or pleasure. For someone who stays out of the limelight, even though her new company is the hottest ticket in town, she’s going to have to avoid the front pages of every newspaper if she wants to survive the ride!

Book links:    Amazon.co.uk        Amazon.com

Review: 5 stars

Babe Driven, book trailer, click here.

 Love’s Child 

Power, deceit and betrayal, all in the name of love! 

Jemima Trent is desperate to have a designer baby to keep up with her socialite friends, reconnect with her work-obsessed husband, Lucas, and regain some respect from her domineering father, but the number of women able to conceive each year is in decline and no one seems to know why.

Dr Cole believes that the answer can be found in a warehouse full of delinquent teenagers, where David Love and his beautiful girlfriend Tilly, have been hitting the headlines for turning youngsters’ lives around. Dr Cole’s violent and callous employer will stop at nothing to discover the reason behind their success and why girls at the warehouse are able to fall pregnant.

Jemima finally tries to step out of her father’s shadow, but discovers they are more alike than she could ever imagine. David and Tilly race to protect a secret they have held for years, that could have a bearing on family life for generations to come. An action packed love story, with powerful men and formidable women.

Lies, deceit and betrayal, all in the name of love!

Book links:   Amazon.co.uk     Amazon.com

Review:   5 stars

Love’s Child book trailer, click here.

 Finding Gina

Can a sprinkling of stardust overcome a past full of demons?

Gina had traversed the breadth of the country in her little campervan to try and find everyone on her grandmother’s list, before her father drunk himself into an early grave. She lent down and pulled the battered and worn journal from her bag and opened it to the latest page. The neatly written names were etched onto her heart and she was determined to visit every single one and compensate them in some way. Her family’s debt had to be repaid.

Toby, heir to Bluebell Manor, couldn’t believe his luck when a flame haired beauty arrived at his door. Just when he thought all hope was lost! Looking for somewhere to stay for the night, Gina’s decision to turn left on a country lane, might have greater consequences than she could ever realise.

Lewis read another provincial story about a ‘guardian angel’ who had been helping families across the country and his reporter’s nose began to itch. He was sure that if he could track down the girl they were talking about, he would unearth an even bigger story. He just had to work out how to locate her and then find out what it was that she was running from!

Finding Gina book trailer, click here.

Don’t forget to continue the party with the next hosts! 

Today:

Dreamless Roads/Jan Hawke

Sparta Reconsidered/Helena Schrader

The rest of the tour:

https://ravereviewsbynonniejules.wordpress.com/back-to-school-book-blog-block-party-line-up/

Images: Istock

Book cover design: Lizzie Chantree

Be the first to know when my next book is available! Follow me on social media for updates.

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