Book blog

Anne Coates. Top Author Of The Week.

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This week’s TOP AUTHOR POST welcomes brilliant writer, Anne Coates. Inspired by her mother who taught her to read before she went to school and by the Deputy Head at her secondary school in Harlow, Essex who encouraged her hunger for reading by granting her free access to the books not yet in the school library – she feels still grateful for this, in her eyes, amazing privilege.

During her career, she worked for publishers, as a journalist, writer, editor, and translator. The birth of her daughter, Olivia inspired her to write non-fiction books, such as ‘Your Only Child’ (Bloomsbury, 1996), books about applying to and surviving university (NeedtoKnow, 2013), but also short stories, tales with a twist, and stories exploring relationships, published in in various women’s magazines including Bella and Candis.

After working on Woman’s Weekly and Woman & Home, Anne went freelance and found herself interviewing all types of people from those working on gas rigs to prostitutes and some of their situations made her think “What if…” And so, investigative journalist Hannah Weybridge was born…

The Hannah Weybridge series is published by Urbane Publications. Anne lives with three demanding cats, enjoys reading, and is missing going to the theatre and cinema, wining and dining and time with her family and friends.

Meet Anne:

It only took one tap dancing class (and some coaching from my mother who had been a dancer) to realise that I would never be a Ginger Rogers but being a journalist and writing fiction has allowed  me to explore all manner of careers and situations with far less embarrassment. During lockdown I have found returning to the 90s when my Hannah Weybridge series is set has been a relief and once again much of the action my WIP takes place in Waterloo – where my mother was born and some of my expended family lived. I can’t wait to walk those streets again and absorb the personal as well as public history. For me writing has been a way to reconnect and rediscover something we’ll all hopefully be doing more of soon.

Where to find Anne’s social media pages:Author Website: www.annecoatesauthor.com
FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AnneCoatesAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anne_Coates1

 

Dulwich library is the scene of a suspicious death, followed swiftly by another in Manchester, the victims linked by nothing other than their Australian nationality. Police dismiss the idea of a serial killer, but journalist Hannah Weybridge isn’t convinced. She is drawn into an investigation in which more Australian men are killed as they try to trace their British families. Her research reveals past horrors and present sadness, and loss linked to children who went missing after the Second World War. Have those children returned now?

Once again Hannah finds herself embroiled in a deadly mystery, a mystery complicated by the murder of Harry Peters; brother of Lucy, one of the residents of Cardboard City she had become friendly with. It soon becomes clear Lucy is protecting secrets of her own – what is Lucy’s link to the murders and can Hannah discover the truth before the killer strikes again?

Paperback: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/perdition-s-child/9781912666676

Ebook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perditions-Child-Hannah-Weybridge-thriller-ebook/dp/B082VKNBL3

Secrets from a book launch.

/ lizziechantree / 5 Comments

Happy new week everyone.  How are you? It’s been a hectic few days here, as my latest romance book, The little ice cream shop by the sea, launched. It’s been fun as I’ve been chatting online about ice cream, people’s favourite flavours and about how many of us wish we could be beside the sea and bathed in sunshine right now. The next best thing is a book full of laughter and romance by the sea!

Some of the interesting flavour combinations that have come up, are Pistachio, honeycomb, fig, lavender, coconut, peanut butter, banana caramel, or dark chocolate. Also some sorbets with alcohol, like Prosecco and cranberry or blackberry. You can join in that chat here on Twitter. My favourite combination is coffee and lemon!

 

It’s very strange  holding a book launch during lockdown. This is the second one I’ve done now, and I have been overwhelmed by the support of my network. This book has reached #1 in more than one category and is now an international bestseller, so I can’t thank you enough for reading, sharing social pages and telling your friends and family about it.  I’ve had people who have never seen my books before, share posts about it with friends too, which I’m very thankful for.  It’s wonderful to meet new readers.

A few things I did for my launch, in case it can help any other authors, are listed here:

  1. I planned my launch weeks ahead of time and scheduled in some social media posts and graphics, so that I had time to chat to readers all day.
  2. I posted photos of my genre and topic and engaged readers in chat about it. The topic I decided on was food, as my book is set in a beachside restaurant. This was a lot of fun as I’m almost as obsessed with food, as I am with books!
  3. I asked other authors and book bloggers if they would mind hosting my book on launch day. (Booking a tour with a professional service in advance is a great idea too. I didn’t do that this time, but often do).
  4. I posted similar book graphics to Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and ran a prize giveaway.
  5. I engaged in chat on launch day in book groups.
  6. I scheduled a newsletter to my subscriber list and ran a unique giveaway just for my subscribers.

I hope this helps and that if you have downloaded the book or bought a paperback, that the story fills your days with sunshine.  Genie, Ada and Cal were a lot of fun to write about and I’m now thinking about the possibility of writing a sequel.

Have an amazing week everyone.

Monday motivation.

/ lizziechantree / 4 Comments

Morning coffee meme by Lizzie Chantree.png

Hello everyone. I hope you had an amazing weekend. I have just finished my first chick lit author blog hop. It had 417 comments and well over 600 engagements and people are still commenting, on one single post. Phew! It took a lot of time, commitment and effort, but I met lots of new readers, some of whom have already downloaded the summer read, Babe Driven, from the FaceBook hop and I would definitely recommend for other authors to give it a try. I can’t wait to chat to the people I met there about my books and to let them know about my new manuscripts.

I really enjoyed the gifs people posted. I asked the question: What would you do if the world’s hottest rock stars moved into the villa next door and invited you to a party, as Babe Driven is set on exotic island and full of exciting celebrities who are out to cause mischief. The resulting posts were hilarious and my husband kept asking my why I was giggling at my phone every day. The way everyone jumped in with good humour and the fact that they were open to learning about a different author that they might not have heard of before made it even more fun.

I hope that all of the new subscribers to this blog enjoy it and I look forward to chatting to you here.

Babe Driven beach meme