Life of Writers

The healing power of romance.

/ lizziechantree / 24 Comments

Hi everyone. How are you all? I hope 2022 has started off with some happiness.

There was an article in the media recently, about how forgettable romance books are and it hit a nerve with me. A few weeks before Christmas I was told I needed a biopsy and another procedure and I spent New Year’s Eve attending an anaesthetist appointment. I didn’t tell many people, as I didn’t want to worry them, or spoil their festivities. Isolating during such a busy time of year wasn’t much fun, but having these reads beside me helped my mental health.   I chose books by Heidi Swain, Katie Fforde and Mary Jayne Baker and all three caught my imagination, kept me turning page after page and eased a stressful situation.

I tried my best to enjoy every minute of the festive season, but worry simmered under the surface each day. I found it difficult to concentrate on writing my own romance novels, but turned to reading the books of other authors, to distract my mind with their beautiful stories and to give me moments of peace.  I even sat and read them as I was waiting to go into theatre, to help ease my nerves! These are books I will never forget. The NHS were absolutely incredible and I’m happy to say that my results are clear, which I’m very thankful for.

Romance novels make us happy and help us through hard times. The stories give us time to step away from worries and travel to places we’ve never been to before. They offer us comfort when we feel down and let us know we are not alone.  I have recently spoken to others who have also found solace from romance books before surgery. Any book of any genre, that brings enjoyment to our lives, is just as worthy as the next.

I’m very proud to have been writing romance books for about ten years now and the community of writers and readers I’ve met along the way, are something really special.  I write books to make people smile and if a story I’ve written, feels like a hug to the reader, then I’m happy. It doesn’t make the story or genre, any less important, if people enjoy it. Even if someone else doesn’t.

‘We can’t make everyone happy, we’re not pizza.’

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.

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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