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/ lizziechantree / 6 Comments

Happy new week everyone. I’ve been feeling a bit low over the last week, trying to meet publishing deadlines and fulfil other commitments. There is a lot of Christmas cheer around, which is wonderful, with fairy lights adorning houses and Christmas carols playing on the radio, but our boiler is broken so our toes are a bit frosty right now. I think i’m missing working with my mum, who I haven’t hugged since March. Even though I work on my own a lot of the time, i’m feeling – as i’m sure is everyone else in the world – the loss of chats over a table with friends. This photo is from two years ago and is Christmas lunch with the lovely Chelmsford Romantic Novelists’ Association  members.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, with news of vaccines and possibilities that we may be able to be together again soon, so i’m trying to shake off the procrastination and find my usual enthusiasm. Writing these words onto paper helps me to focus on what I need to achieve this week. There are lots of exciting things on the horizon, with at least three new fiction books out next year, The little ice cream shop by the sea (out March 2021), Invisible Woman (out July 2021) and the third title will be revealed in the run up to launch day in May.

Romance reads from Lizzie Chantree

Romantic suspense reads from Lizzie Chantree

This week i’m taking part in the Chick Lit blog hop on Wednesday 9th Dec. I have some incredible prizes to give away via my Facebook page, including book themed socks, a beautiful notebook, a copy of bestselling book ‘Seven kinds of people you find in bookshops’ a copy of my own bestselling book, Finding Gina and a simply stunning set of 36 inspirational quote magnetic bookmarks. I’m also being interviewed for a Mumpreneur summit, details of which i’ll post later in the week or early next week.

I really appreciate your support of my writing and blog posts and hope you are all staying safe, well and that you’re managing to avoid procrastination – unlike me today!

If you could wish for one gift under the Christmas tree this year, what would it be?

 

Thursday Thoughts.

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments

A change from introducing a different author here today, I’m going to share some of my favourite photos from 2018. I launched two new books with my publisher last year and there are so many wonderful memories. I had no idea how special it would feel to hold  the first ever paperback of one of my books and to be a traditionally published author. I had two virtual and physical book launches, which I’d never done before and begun my Facebook Group, Lizzie’s Book Group, for writers, to share my experiences.

I also saw my books become international bestsellers and to reach the #1 Hot New realise spot on Amazon. I couldn’t have done any of that without the support of my readers or the writing community, who have shown me endless kindness and shared news of my work with their friends and family and on their blogs and websites.

I’m excited to have finished writing a new book and have begun my 7th novel, so I will keep you updated on what is happening in 2019 and beyond! Happy New Year everyone.

 

SEO and time saving tips for authors.

/ lizziechantree / 15 Comments

Hello everyone. I hope you had a relaxing weekend. For my Monday Marketing post today, I thought I’d offer some tips on something that can really save time for other bloggers and website owners who might be promoting your work, and hopefully improve SEO rankings on blog posts and website articles.

I found out years ago about the importance of naming your photos. I have blogged about this many times but it still happens a lot and it’s a simple thing to change. When people send me photos to appear on my blog, or social media feeds, they sometimes send them titled image001 image201 Book cover 4, picture in Spain etc! When Google search for content, they are always looking for something original, not only should you add your own content to posts to make them stand out and fly up the rankings, but the titles that you give your photos are so important. Not only do they register as the name of the photo and not another image001 or book cover 4, but they stand as an original image that you have given a name to. For example, I have called this photo, Lizzie Chantree author photo:

Featured Image -- 6554

This means that if I send this picture to someone to use on their website, they don’t have to spend hours trawling through photos to try and find the one I have sent them that they saved to their blog posts file, or other author files ages ago. They can simply search for photos with my name and all of the picture I have sent them will appear. If I am searching for a book cover an author has sent me earlier in the month that I have saved to an author file, I can easily spot the book’s name, but there might be over 100 book covers 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc. Simply naming your photos when you save them to your computer saves bloggers, website owners and anyone sharing your work a lot of time and energy and it also helps Google to recognise it. This means that they might be more likely to keep photos that aren’t clogging up their computers and confusing them with the same names and perhaps when they are uploading someone else’s photos to a blog post, they might think of you again as you are so easy to work with and provided professional content, that they can simply search for and find. Have an amazing week everyone!

Tweet by Lizzie Chantree 11.jpg

 

Life of Writers.

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments

Happy new week everyone. Today for my Monday post, I’d like to introduce you to a website that is really informative for writers. I’m going to be judging a writing competition for them in the new year, but I thought that you all might like to know more about the site and how helpful it could be for anyone’s writing journey, as a place to find advice and support.

dreamstime_s_12726801.jpg

Over to Life of Writers:

Hi

I’m the founder of LifeOfWriters.com and I’m very happy to be here today on Lizzie Chantree’s blog to let you all know a little about LifeOfWriters.com and how aspiring writers – published authors can benefit from the site.

One of the main goals with the site is to meet other writers and share the journey of writing and having their work published. There are several ways to connect with others, like on the different kinds of forums, where you can help others by answering their questions or ask questions yourself. Another way to connect is to join the monthly free writing contest. According to the subject you write maximum 1500 words. One of the criteria for each contest is that you read the other submitted stories and give them constructive feedback. Every contest is judged by a published author who will select the top three. This is an exciting way where you can connect with other writers but also get your writing out there.

On the site it is also possible to write a book review, so have you read a book recently then head over to the book review part and let us know how it was. At the same time, you can catch up on the latest book reviews and be inspired for your next read.

LifeOfWriters.com also has a blog. This is one of the areas we are most proud of. On the blog, there are 2-3 times a month posts from published authors. It might be as an interview, where we get to know all about their writing life, how do they spend their day writing, what is their best writing advice and so on. It is greatly inspiring. It can also be a guest post from an author or someone related to writing where they let us know about their job and how a writer can benefit from their experience.

 

I hope this post has intrigued some of you to pop over and have a look, you might even want to join the writing contest? Just register for a free account to get started.

Most important is- Keep writing.

Kind regards

Founder of LifeOfWriters.com

Powerful words.

/ lizziechantree / 4 Comments

I hope you have all had a great weekend. I read an interesting article on Saturday about finding insights from inspirational quotes. It was explaining how we can look at the words used in popular quotes and to try and work out what is so powerful about them. Why do they make an impact and what do they mean to us?

Logic meme by Lizzie Chantree

We can turn this around and ask the same question of our own writing. Do our words convey the message we want them to? Are our readers going to feel an emotional attachment to our stories from what we have written? It’s a top tip when sitting back and reconsidering everything during the editing stage. Are you making the impression you want to? If not, what can you do to really make your story work?

Happy writing!

 

IYLMIY 6.15

 

Self-confidence meme by Lizzie Chantree 7.30

 

If you love me, I’m yours. A romantic comedy by Lizzie Chantree.

Marketing. That scary word!

/ lizziechantree / 2 Comments

Happy weekend everyone! Thank you to fellow author Natalie Ducey for her amazing support. Today I have been invited onto her blog to talk about drinking too much tea and  how much the word marketing used to terrify me!

You can check out the whole blog post here: Natalie’s Post.

Meet my writing partner, Pepper. Tea photo via Booklovers photos on Pinterest.

 

 

Ninja School Mum blog tour!

/ lizziechantree / 10 Comments

Today is the start of my first ever blog tour for my latest book, Ninja School mum. A big thank you to today’s host, author Michelle Abbott for her support and wonderful post.

Check out Michelle’s blog post here:

http://michelle-abbott.weebly.com/blog/launch-of-ninja-school-mum-by-lizzie-chantree

I am currently organising the paperback launch for this book and have set up a Facebook page that explains my whole journey of planning my first ebook launch online, which is on the 30th Jan, to my paperback launch and organising my own blog tour. If you are planning an event for your own writing, there might be some tips from what I have learnt there. Anyone is welcome to join. Enjoy!

Twitter Ad NSM 3

Click photo for book link.

 

Meet Award Winning Author Heidi Catherine!

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments

About Heidi Catherine:

Heidi Catherine is a writer with a weakness for stories that encourage readers to see the world in a new light. Her debut novel, The Soulweaver, explores the possibility of loving the same souls over many lifetimes. This novel is the winner of Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald Pro award and will be released by Crooked Cat Books on 19 January 2018.

Not being able to decide if she prefers living in Melbourne or the Mornington Peninsula, Heidi shares her time between both places. She is similarly pulled in opposing directions by her two sons and two dogs, remaining thankful she only has one husband.

Heidi loves to hear from readers and can be found at www.heidicatherine.com


The Soulweaver by Heidi Catherine

The Soulweaver Blurb

She’s loved and lost him a hundred times across a thousand years. She can’t bear to lose him again.

Lin’s dreams are haunted by faces of people she’s never met. Unable to shake the feeling she’s lived before, she’s drawn to Reinier—a stranger whose soul is heartbreakingly familiar from a time gone by.

Reinier helps Lin unravel the mystery of her past life as Hannah, a girl who sacrificed herself for her true love, Matthew. As Lin falls hopelessly in love with Reinier, her memories of her life as Hannah sharpen and she finds herself unable to let go of Matthew.

With her heart torn in two, Lin must decide whether she should stand by Reinier’s side or track down Matthew and fight for his love. What she doesn’t know is that her decision will ripple across our troubled planet, affecting far more lives than just her own.

Winner of Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald Pro award, The Soulweaver is a story that will change the way you see the world.

 

Here are five fun things you may not know about me, by Heidi Catherine!

1. I am a vegetarian who used to work in a delicatessen. You’d think that coming home with shoes filled with chicken blood might have been what tipped me over the vegetarian edge, but almost 20 years passed between me leaving work at the deli and deciding to no longer eat meat. My decision also had nothing to do with the tray of ham I threw at my boss’s feet when I resigned… I promise.
2. When I was growing up, my father was a forensic scientist with the police. My sister and I were strictly forbidden to look in his briefcase, which of course meant that we looked in it every chance we got. Until one day we found a jar with a human finger floating in it (nail polish perfectly intact). Scarred for life!
3. I recently had a Soul Reading, where I was told that in my past lives I’ve been a trapped miner, a dancer and a famous male actor in black and white movies. Apparently I was a very dapper and had a lovely moustache. Those were the days…
4. In my early 20s I was talked into doing a bungy jump. I was so petrified that I refused to jump so the guy working there picked me up by my hands and dropped me straight over the edge. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever done.
5. In celebration of signing my first publishing deal, I got a tattoo on the inside of my left wrist that says ‘BELIEVE’. A few minutes before the tattoo artist began he confessed to me that he’s dyslexic. Not exactly what I wanted to hear!

The Emerald Pro award is an annual competition run by Romance Writers of Australia for the best unpublished manuscript written by a published author. 

 
The Soulweaver won first place in the Emerald Pro awards in 2015. 
 
 
Emerald Pro judges’ comments:

‘This entry had me transfixed from the very first sentence and the intrigue continued throughout the whole book. Amazingly well written, fantastic use of poetic language, unusual story line that made sense even though it transposed time and characters. Thought it was wonderful.’

`I would describe it as really beautiful, clever and interesting story about love (not just romantic) and connections.’

‘The story, it’s amazing! Loved it! I love the concept and the storyline.’

‘The writing is beautiful, and I think this story has been very carefully crafted for the target readership. I think it will really appeal to young female readers (and older ones too).’

‘This was a very compelling novel opening. I shivered a few times while reading it— always the sign of a good story, I think! I thought the plot was well structured and well paced. The tone of the opening drew me in, and the writing was expressive without being overly flowery. The supernatural part of the story was also dealt with beautifully.’

‘The opening lines are very powerful and would definitely grab the intended audience. There was a feeling of intense emotion straightaway and I was captivated by what might have happened.’ 

 

Book Title: The Soulweaver

Author: Heidi Catherine

Release date: 19 January 2018

Available for Sale at: TBC

ISBN: TBC

Retail Price: TBC

Publisher website: www.crookedcatbooks.com

Author website: www.heidicatherine.com

Author Twitter: www.twitter.com/heidicatherine

Author Facebook: www.facebook.com/heidicatherineauthor

A fresh start.

/ lizziechantree / 4 Comments

Lizzie Chantree blog dancing

Happy 2018 everyone! It’s a new year and time for a fresh start. I had an exciting 2017, but still want to try new ideas and have a good clean out of anything that doesn’t belong in my life now.

I am going to try to be more efficient with my time, so that I have space to be creative and have some fun! I believe that getting a balance will help me do more when I am at work or play. Being fully present in all that I do is beneficial too. If I am worrying about something else while I am seeing friends, in a meeting or at work, then the task at hand is wasted. I might as well be in the place I am worrying about.

Taking time out to truly nurture your inner-self, can bring fresh ideas, a zest for life and a whole lot of new energy to the workplace. I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know how I get on:)

Have you started the year with a New Year resolution and have you broken it yet?

 

Don’t forget to grab your pre-order copy of Ninja School Mum as the release date is fast approaching! viewBook.at/NinjaSchoolMum