The Little Ice Cream Shop by the Sea

For those of you who have followed me for a while now, you will know that I have a secret fetish: chocolate box romance novels. Reading through heavy texts from the classics to modern literature, my get away novel has to transport me to a place where I can relax in a world with enough drama to distract me from everyday life without taxing me with its heavy language and drawn out plot.

There are few contemporary romance writers that I enjoy as much as Lizzie Chantree. Her books are fun, uplifting and carry realistic characters that any reader can relate to within a setting that feels familiar and welcomes you in with open arms. Her style of writing fits the modern reader with its twists and suspense that keep us guessing whether the protagonist will end up with his or her love interest and live happily ever after.

Lizzie is releasing a new book called, The Little Ice Cream Shop by the Sea. I can’t wait to add it to my TBR (to be read) list.

Before I do, let’s find out more about her book and what inspired her to write The Little Ice Cream Shop by the Sea.

Tell us the basic premise of your novel.

The little ice cream shop by the sea is about a close family who run a seaside business buried in tradition, but a sudden incident throws them into turmoil and they all try to cope with the repercussions in their own way. The main character, Genie, doesn’t know why her family suddenly decides to sell the family business that she’s worked in since before she left school, but she’s determined that they won’t throw away her heritage so easily and fights to make them stay. 

The friendship between genie and pensioner Ada, who starts as a customer, becomes a lifeline for both women. Throw in some dashing locals who set their heart on helping Genie and a furious grandson who is out to protect his grandmother, and you have a sizzling story full of sunshine, secrets and finding love when you least expect it.

Lizzie’s book is available at a special price of 99p/99c for 7 days only, from launch day: 19/02/2021.

Now that we know more about her new book, let’s find out about the author herself.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

When I’m not writing, I love to paint huge canvases of colourful landscapes. I find painting really relaxing and I enjoy capturing a view, especially if it is by the sea.

What was your dream job when you were younger?

When I was younger I wanted to do a creative job, but I didn’t know which one. I studied in art, graphics and display and design. I also went on courses about business and social media. I always knew that the creative industry intrigued me and being surrounded by a family who run their own businesses gave me the courage to start my own company selling products I designed, when I was eighteen.

For more information on the best selling author, check out her bio below and links to her social media pages. Don’t forget, Lizzie’s book is on offer for the next seven days.

International bestselling author and award-winning inventor, 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 works as a business mentor and runs a popular networking hour on social media, where creatives can support to each other. She writes books full of friendship and laughter, that are about women with unusual and adventurous businesses, who are far stronger than they realise. She lives with her family on the coast in Essex. Visit her website at www.lizziechantree.com or follow her on Twitter @Lizzie_Chantreehttps.

To access Lizzie’s collection of books, click here.

Social media links:

https://lizziechantree.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LizzieChantree/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7391757.Lizzie_Chantree

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzie_chantree/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LizzieChantree/pins/

FB Groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/647115202160536/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lizzie-chantree

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzie-chantree-03006425/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnCop-RlAcGqggZG3JfE-Mw

Monday Coffee

Pull up a chair and grab your cup. It’s time to relax and find out how your week has been.

Last week was one of the busiest I’ve had in months, even though I don’t have a nine-to-five post anymore. Possibly working way past reasonable hours has meant me popping up in social media at odd times or answering emails when most decent folk are fast asleep! It has been worth it. Not only have I managed to sign up four schools to my Writers’ Club, I’ve re-edited Scat The Black Cat and given the cover and illustrations a face lift. There’s more news to follow about Scat’s projection into the spotlight, so watch this space.

What has been the greatest achievement of your week? Did you manage to complete a project or work on a life goal? I’d love to know, so do share your stories in the comments below.

This week, I’ve launched a new feature on my Instagram page (@eloise_writes) – I’ve started Book of the Week. This feature will help promote indie authors’ books and hopefully share new titles with my audience. If you have a new title that you’d like to be featured, send me a link to your book and I’ll do the rest. Unfortunately I can’t promise to read all the books I promote on a timely basis to produce reviews, but I will endeavour to get to as many as I can.

Later this week, I hope to share some ridiculous clips of my cats talking. Apparently, my cat Kiki realised that if he spoke to me, I would respond. So, when I walk into the room, he meows a greeting. If he requires feeding, he comes up to me and meows with a different pitch, length of meow and slight reverberation of his voice. The other cats have cottoned on to our conditioned response to his voice and have now copied him. If you don’t believe me, look out for the posts on my social media later this week.

Kiki watching the birds.

Well, my cup is empty and, to be honest, I fancy a take out! So, I’ll love and leave you for this week. Join me for a coffee catch up next week and don’t forget to send in your weekly input.

Have a great week.

El x

I need a hero!

If you enjoyed Space Dust’s Little One and Big Ox, take a look at Hairington’s hairy hero, Babylock!
Risking it all to save the dome, he’s not afraid to find a creature strong enough to fight the Knotsvillians!

Stream of Consciousness Saturday 2/16

Every Friday, Lindaghill runs a fantastic writing prompt called the Stream of Consciousness, which encourages writers to take the prompt and write whatever comes to mind.

Here is the prompt and my contribution:

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “yawn.” Write about the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word “yawn,” when you sit down to write your post. Enjoy!”

Mouth wide open, teeth shanked and unfurled for the world to see and admire. Soft, pink gums calling for nutrition his mum never gave him as he supped on cola and chips growing up. Now loose, that breath extinguished hope in something clean and fragrant, wilting smiles and growing frowns from the passengers squeezed into this hot sardine can on wheels. Gross! The lady with the crossed eyes watches in silent admiration. I can see it coming. The reflex. Yes, there it is! She struggles against it but soon enough her gaping mouth stretches wide, mimicking ‘sour breath’s’ earlier interaction with the world. More groans from her close companions as she too forgot to adhere to good oral hygiene. Now another, and another. The epidemic spread of muscular reflex when witnessing jaws expand and contract in their motion to release the tiredness or boredom trapped within our fleshy bags. Oh no! I’m tempted. Thank God I brushed my teeth! My lips press against my teeth in a faux smile as the yawn escapes the tiniest gap I can possibly allow without the air wheezing out. My face stretches into a comical grin which I can see reflected in the dirty class windows of our train carriage. I can’t hold it. The gap expands and my hand automatically goes up to block the offending gesture of boredom. Those that have succumbed to the temptation grin. Those still strong enough to resist slowly strain their faces as the process spreads. The yawn lives on.

Why not try your hand at this. Here are the rules to help you along.

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

Moofy and Flo

As a writer, the brick wall of procrastination and mind block is fatal to any projects awaiting completion. Here’s an example of one of my projects which have fallen under its deadly blocks of silence.

Easter Sticky Competition

After watching the scramble to prepare our school’s Easter Sticky Competition today, the memories of how the inspiration for Cecil the Bully came about flooded back to me with glorious giggles.

Snow Day

White flakes silence the world

Muffled in a blanket of cold

Heat cries in dismay.

Crunching footsteps

High pitched laughter

Flying balls find their hysterical targets.

Icy fingers purpling

Breath now heavy

Time to find the noise and warmth again.

Thistledown – Midsummer Bedlam 21 — The Crochet Circle

Another exciting instalment to share with you from Teagansbooks, and my faery, Blossom Stargazer, is trying to help find the missing faeries. Click on the links if you’d like to catch the story from the beginning.

Kennings At Monday Coffee

Have you ever heard of a Kennings poem?

Monday Coffee

Hello! I am so happy to see you back here in the coffee house. It is great to see the decor has changed: the new paintwork and art lifts the atmosphere as does the new furniture. Dibs on the bright pink patchwork sofa near the bookshelves housing our resident authors’ books. If you’ve ordered your beverage, why not join me on the sofa. Tonight, we have the singers from This Is Jinsy entertaining us.

The first two weeks of studying have passed swiftly and I am thoroughly enjoying it. My love of history is growing with every assignment and meeting the other students and my tutor have secured my confidence in the course. What have you been up to over the time I’ve been away? I have been trying to keep up with bloggers and authors, dipping in and out of their blog pages and FB. If I haven’t managed to visit you or say hi, please forgive me. You are definitely not forgotten – I will get to you as soon as I can.

With us sailing swiftly towards November, my Writer’s Club at school is brimming with excitement. We have spent the month of October preparing for our exciting new novels and I am happy to say we have new children attempting the great feat of writing their own stories over the next month. Many are now veterans and are so helpful in prompting the younger ones (my youngest member is 7!) and have such a mature attitude to the writing process. Many have won prizes over the past year through different competitions run by the Young Writers. The challenge this year is going to be to reach 5000 words which is a lot to ask for any junior child. I have great confidence in them all and wish them the best of luck. Unfortunately, this year I will not be competing as it will be too much with assignments, work and the clubs.  Don’t think I could push for more things to do. Plus, it will be my birthday month!

Are you planning on challenging yourself over the month of November? What genre story do you plan on writing? Does your mind stumble and you find yourself stuck with only one idea? Well, there have been so many good ideas floating around the net about how to write and Robyn Paterson has shared great formulas on crime fiction. The best advice I can offer, if you feel some trepidation, is to enjoy yourself. Pace yourself and try not to fall too far back on your word count each day. If you do, don’t worry. Find the time to make up the word count but don’t leave it to the last week or the last few days! Try to give yourself enough time to load your story and verify your word count at the end and hey presto – you’ll be a Nanowrimo champion!

Now, let’s sit back and enjoy the last song of the evening before we have to return to our normal lives. Thanks for joining me and I’ll catch up with you soon.