... to my blog today. Hello Lizzie and thanks for being here.
LC Thank you for inviting me onto your blog today Angela. Hello everyone. My name is Lizzie Chantree and I’m a romance writer. I thought I’d talk about the locations of my books and what inspires my writing.
I have run my own businesses for years and I find that all of my stories revolve around people with unusual creative ideas and businesses. The main characters often have issues in some way and the setting of the books stem from the business idea they have. In my first book, Babe Driven, the owner of a ‘hot’ new chauffeur company realises that someone is trying to sabotage her business. She worries that the problem is within her own family, so she whisks her sister to an exotic island to keep her away from everyone else, while she works out what to do, or if she’s involved. It was so much fun to write about sandy beaches and exotic locations with yachts, cocktails and supercars, and some sexy band members who cause havoc for the main character of the book whilst she is trying to save her business.
My more recent novels have all been set in the UK. I travel quite a lot within the UK and I am always looking out for quirky little towns, as I adore historical buildings and exciting modern architecture. They have so much charm and character or a dramatic setting that they make the perfect starting point for a good story. I often write my books by hand in A4 lined notebooks, so it’s easy to wander around and take in details of the place I’m visiting. I use the excuse that I need to test out the local coffee shops so that I make time to sit and dream about new stories whilst drinking frothy coffee and eating huge slabs of cake. This doesn’t help my waistline, but it does make me very happy while I’m writing!
My latest book, If you love me, I’m yours, is set in a pretty little village, just outside of a bustling town. The village is far enough away to be serene, like many other pretty villages in the UK, but close enough to travel into town if you happened to be looking for more excitement. In this story, the drama finds itself in the centre of the quaint village when someone begins to leave beautiful artworks on park benches with little brown tags saying, If you love me I’m yours. The newspapers hear about the story and suddenly the locality is swarming with journalists looking for the amazing new talent. This interlinks the main characters from the town and village and brings the two worlds together in an exciting culmination of events. The book is full of friendship, laughter and lots of sizzling romance.
AW Thanks Lizzie and happy writing.
about the author... Award-winning inventor and author, Lizzie Chantree, started her own business at the age of 18 and became one of Fair Play London and The Patent Office’s British Female Inventors of the Year in 2000. She discovered her love of writing fiction when her children were little and now runs networking hours on social media, where creative businesses, writers, photographers and designers can offer advice and support to each other. She lives with her family on the coast in Essex.
about the book... Maud didn’t mind being boring, not really. She had a sensible job, clothes, and love life… if you counted an overbearing ex who had thanked her, rolled over and was snoring before she even realised he’d begun! She could tolerate not fulfilling her dreams if her parents would pay her one compliment about the only thing she was passionate about in life: her art.
Dot should have fit in with her flamboyant and slightly eccentric family of talented artists, but somehow, she was an anomaly who couldn’t paint. She tried hard to be part of their world by becoming an art agent extraordinaire, but she dreamed of finding her own voice.
Dot’s brother Nate, a smoulderingly sexy and famous artist, was adored by everyone. His creative talent left them in awe of his ability to capture such passion on canvas. Women worshipped him, and even Dot’s friend Maud flushed and bumped into things when he walked into a room, but a tragic event in his past had left him emotionally and physically scarred, and reluctant to face the world again.
Someone was leaving exquisite little paintings on park benches, with a tag saying, ‘If you love me, I’m yours’. The art was so fresh and cutting-edge, that it generated a media frenzy and a scramble to discover where the mystery artist could be hiding. The revelation of who the prodigious artist was interlinked Maud, Dot and Nate’s lives forever, but their worlds came crashing down.
Were bonds of friendship, love and loyalty strong enough to withstand fame, success and scandal?
You can get her book here
Thank you for inviting me onto your blog today Angela and for giving me the chance to chat about the locations and settings in my books!
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