I should be writing today but I’ve got the lurgy and am feeling sorry for myself so I’m having an admin day while I’m too fuzzy-headed to create. I swear I’ve cracked all my ribs from coughing so much!
Today’s post is just a quickie with some dates for your diary if you’re in the North Yorkshire/Teesside area or could be later this year. None of these events have tickets for sale just yet as it’s too early for that, so this is very much just a dates notification.
CROSSING THE TEES FESTIVAL
I’m thrilled to be involved in two events at the 2023 Crossing the Tees Festival which is a week of events run collaboratively by Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Darlington, and Redcar & Cleveland Library Services. You can check out their website here although the programme and tickets won’t appear until late April.
SETTINGS WORKSHOP
My first event is a workshop for writers/aspiring writers as follows:
Saturday 10th June 2023
10am-12pm
Guisborough Library
This interactive workshop will explore how to create a memorable setting for your writing which will leave readers wanting to come back for future visits. It is best suited to those wishing to write a novel or series rather than those writing short stories.
I was particularly excited when they confirmed the local of this workshop as I was raised in Guisborough and, in the days before the Internet, spent a lot of time in Guisborough Library conducting research for my school homework, as well as being a borrower of fiction.
ROMANCE AUTHOR PANEL
My second event is participating in a Romance Author Panel as follows:
Sunday 11th June 2023
2pm-3.30pm
Ormesby Library, Middlesborough
I’ll be joined on the panel by fellow Boldwood authors Jane Lovering and Lisa Hobman and we’re really looking forward to being interviewed by one of the library team.
RICHMOND WALKING AND BOOK FESTIVAL
This is a ten-day event with a range of book-related and walking activities. The programme for this festival won’t appear until the spring (at which point tickets will be available) but you can look at their website here.
Last year, I was excited to be secured as a speaker in what would have been my very first festival appearance. Unfortunately my slot clashed with the Queen’s funeral and needed to be cancelled but I’m so pleased to have been invited back this year.
Thursday 21st September 2023
11am-12pm
The Station, Richmond, North Yorkshire
I’ll post with further details when the programmes for both events are released.
Something a little bit different for the blog today…
Are you an aspiring writer?
Are you a writer who is looking to change the type of setting you use in your books?
Do you currently write in coastal or country settings but would like more guidance?
If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you might be interested in joining my one-month course all about writing a novel or a series in a coastal or country setting … something I might have a smidge of experience in doing myself!
I ran this course for the first time last year through the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) who run an RNA Learning programme. I loved running it, using my skills again from my former life as a trainer and coach, and the feedback was so good that I was thrilled to be invited back again this year.
Do I have to be a member of the RNA to take part?
No, anyone can take part. As you might expect, the cost is more for non-members but this is still way, way, way less than what you might expect to pay elsewhere. It’s £75 for members and £150 for non-members.
Do I need to be a romance writer?
No. I write contemporary women’s fiction under the overall umbrella of ‘romance’ so I will be drawing on my experience of this genre when giving examples. However, the learnings are transferrable across all genres. I have also drawn on the experiences of other author friends and not all of them are romance authors.
When is it?
The course runs across the duration of March 2023. Delegates will be given access to an online learning portal on the morning of 1st March and access will disappear late evening on 31st March. The portal can only be accessed during March but delegates will be able to download materials to refer to beyond that time.
How is the course structured?
The big emphasis is on flexible learning so it’s ideal for anyone who works and/or has family responsibilities. I’ve divided the learning into four units:
Before you start
Building your setting
The characters in your setting
Your plot and what happens next?
Each week will be a mixture of:
Pre-recorded training sessions (1-2 hours of input per subject)
Some exercises for you to do at home
Feedback given on those exercises, should you choose to share them in the portal (very much encouraged in order to get feedback but not mandatory if you prefer not to)
A 1-hour Zoom meeting (held on Monday evenings) which will be recorded for those unable to attend
Because the emphasis is on flexibility, you can choose when you watch the materials and undertake the exercises. The first week will be available when you enter the portal and all weeks will be available by the mid-month point. The reason I don’t upload everything right from the start is that I do want to encourage delegates to take some time to do the exercises rather than race through everything at once without doing any exercises or taking the time to reflect on the learnings.
If you can’t make Monday evenings for the Zooms, please don’t be put off. It would be impossible to find a day that suits everyone which is why they’re recorded and available for catching up. They’re an opportunity to ask questions about the materials and exercises as well as asking me any general questions about writing. If I can help, I will! I have some small bitesize presentations that I can run too. If anyone has questions they’d want to pose in the Zoom but aren’t able to attend, they can ask them in the portal and I’ll answer them in the Zoom.
What have previous delegates said about this course?
I was blown away with the phenomenal feedback last year and here are a few of the feedback comments received:
“Jessica went above and beyond in her content and I am extremely grateful for all the hard work she must have put in”
“It exceeded my expectations”
“Jessica has given me so much knowledge about the writing process that I feel in a much better position now to develop my novel”
“Jessica’s feedback was excellent and inspiring”
“All the learning materials were very helpful giving many different insights into various aspects of writing a novel or series in a coastal or country setting. The breadth and range of the coverage was brilliant and the exercises really made me think about how to develop and write my novel. Jessica’s feedback on the exercises was given quickly so that Icould make the most of it and her feedback was knowledgable, kind, constructive and thoughtful. In a nutshell the learning materials and Jessica’s feedback and her response to questions was really excellent”
“The discussion forums were great -it was daunting at first to put your work up but it was a great confidence builder”
“The weekly training sessions – prerecorded ones – were very easy to take info from and put it into the homework. The homework was a gamechanger – if we were not challenged to put what we learnt into action, I would not of got as much out of the course”
“Jessica is a gem. She was helpful, encouraging and lifted my confidence”
“Best tutor I’ve ever experienced”
“Jessica’s willingness to share her own experiences,good and bad,made it more realistic than making it look like ‘this is easy, everybody can do it'”
“On the 1st of March I Started this course with no clue about writing and where to begin – I now have a plan of a novel with a setting, specicic setting, characters, plot and possible material for a series. I am as proud as punch”
I’m interested! What do I do now?
There’s some really helpful information about the RNA Learning Workshops on their website here.
You can specifically click in for more about my course here. You can also book your space through Eventbrite from this page.
If this isn’t for you but you know somebody who might be interested, please do pass them the details. Thank you.
Good morning and welcome to a new week and a new season. It’s autumn! Yay! Autumn is my favourite month. I love the cooler weather, the changing colours, the mix of glorious sunshine and cool crisp days, and the approach of Christmas.
I have lots of news so I thought I’d pull it all together in one blog post so I’d better crack on with it…
THE OFFERS
There are some amazing price reductions on two of the eBooks in the Hedgehog Hollow series right now and some of these are available internationally but, as with any offer, there’s a limited time so do take advantage asap to avoid missing out.
Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – book 1 in the series – is on the following offers for Kindle:
UK – 99p
Australia – $1.89
USA – $1.99
This book is also in Global Prime Reading so anyone participating in the Prime programme can access it for FREE. It just went in last week and will remain in Prime Reading for at least 12 weeks so we’re pretty much talking the rest of the year.
Chasing Dreams at Hedgehog Hollow – book 5 in the series – is on the following offers for Kindle:
UK – 99p
Australia – $1.89
Canada – $0.99
If you are on Kobo, Apple Books or any other eReader, please do check as I believe the Chasing Dreams offers will apply and the Finding Love ones may well too.
THE EVENT
Tonight (Monday 26th September), I have a Facebook Live with my fabulous editor Nia Beynon. To celebrate the release of Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow – the final book in the series – we’ll be talking all about the whole series and I’ll be reading from Christmas Miracles.
We have some questions lined up and would love to answer questions from readers who join us. The Live will start at 6pm GMT over on the Book and Tonic Facebook page. You can set yourself a notification here.
I really hope you can join us to celebrate the final release. If you’re unable to join us live, the link above will also take you to the video afterwards. If you can’t join in but you have a question you’d love me to answer in the Live, please DM me on my Jessica Redland Romance Author Facebook page before 5pm today and we’ll squeeze it in.
THE AUCTION
I’m delighted to be taking part in the Children in Read Auction again this year which raises money for the BBC’s Children in Need appeal 2022. You can find the full auction here where there are currently a whopping 517 lots of reading/writing-related prizes to suit all ages and tastes. New lots are being added all the time and the amount bid so far is already approaching £10,000.
I’ve submitted two lots. My first is lot 444 which is all about ‘first in a series’ and is available to UK bidders only. It can be found here. This is a really special lot because the successful bidder will win signed copies of the first book in each of my four series (listed below) and the opportunity to name a character in my fifth series which starts in the summer 2023.
The first in series books are:
Making Wishes at Bay View – book 1 in the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series
Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop – book 1 in the Christmas on Castle Street series
Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – book 1 in The Starfish Café series
Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – book 1 in the Hedgehog Hollow series
The retail value of these books combined is just shy of £43 and it currently has 12 bids on it which have reached £39. As I say, the books will be signed but can be dedicated on request.
What I think will really appeal about this lot is the opportunity to name a character in my brand new series set in the Lake District, the first book of which will be out next summer. This will be an important character but not one of the main two characters as I’ve already named them. It can be a male or female character and a reader could see their name in the book, the name of a loved one or perhaps a name they’ve created. My only stipulations are that it needs to be pronounceable and sensible – no Character McCharacters, no swear words and no innuendos. I also can’t accept a character name I’ve already used for obvious reasons.
My second lot is lot 445 which can be found here. There are currently no bids on it – eek! – but hopefully that will change soon. This is a one-hour Zoom conversation with me and this is offered internationally.
My suggestion is that this may suit either an aspiring writer looking for some advice and guidance on an aspect of writing. As I write contemporary women’s fiction, that’s where my expertise lies but I tutor workshops on writing a series and about creating locations and this is transferrable across all genres.
Alternatively a reader might be interested in talking about the books and asking me questions full of spoilers which would be discouraged in an open forum.
That’s all my news for now. Wishing you a fabulous week.
Hello there and hope you’ve survived this hot week if you’re UK-based. We can’t cope with the heat over here, can we?
It’s Glastonbury this weekend so it feels very appropriate to be talking about festivals right now. Except this is a different kind of festival…
Tickets went on sale today for the Richmond Walking & Book Festival and I’m a speaker. Yay! I was so excited when I contacted the festival organisers earlier this year to see whether they might be interested and they came back saying they’d nearly finalised their programme but there was a slot available if I wanted it. I certainly did!
Richmond – the one in North Yorkshire rather than the London one – is a very special place to me because I opened and ran a teddy bear shop there between 2003-2005. I started learning my craft and writing my debut novel during quiet days in the shop. And there were LOTS of those, especially in the winter… or if it rained… or if it was really warm… or if it was a Wednesday… I think you get the picture!
The details are:
Monday 19th September 2022
11am-12noon
The Station, Richmond
Cost: £8 (with concessions for those in full-time education or on income assessment benefits, and accompanying carers)
The festival runs from 16th-25th September and there are loads of amazing walking events to suit all abilities and some fabulous guest speakers talking about fiction and non-fiction works. You can view the full programme here. Do scroll through all three pages to see the full range of what’s on offer.
If you’d like to know more about the origins of this festival, the website home page is here.
Thank you so much to James Gravenor, Judith Clark and the committee for welcoming me onto the programme and to author Marrisse Whittaker for suggesting I make contact in the first place. Marrisse is speaking on the final day of the festival and her talk sounds fascinating.
I’m really nervous now – not about speaking but about not selling any tickets so praying there will be people interested!
Please spread the word, particularly if you have friends or family in the Richmond/Yorkshire Dales area or even further afield who’d make a day of it/a long weekend of it or even go for the duration of the festival.
Today is the publication day for the second book in the fabulous Cornish Midwives series by Jo Bartlett: A Summer Wedding for the Cornish Midwife. Huge congratulations, Jo.
The first book in the series – The Cornish Midwife – is Jo’s first release with Boldwood Books and is performing exceptionally well, still sitting high in the Kindle Top 100 two and a half months on from release, having racked up a Top 10 position. So exciting!
Book 2 looks set to follow. At the time of writing, it’s already #8 in the Apple UK Romance category chart and just outside the Top 300 overall Kindle chart but will rise as the day goes on as it’s usually later in the day when a book gets its highest publication day position on Kindle.
The series – which is planned at seven books – tells the story of the midwives based at the community midwifery unit in the fictional Cornish village of Port Agnes and the books are lovely, warm stories about love, friendship, family and community in a stunning setting. I’ve put blurbs and links below my signature.
I’ve read both and absolutely loved them. This is a quote from me about the first:
‘I love second chance stories. I love returning home stories. So a book combining both is an absolute winner for me. The Cornish Midwife is simply gorgeous. Stunning setting, wonderful characters, and oozing with warmth. A triumph from Jo Bartlett and a cracking start to what promises to be a fabulous series’
I don’t normally celebrate publication days of other authors on my blog (as I’d never get any writing done if I did!) but there’s a special reason for this one. It’s because Jo and I have a joint event planned today…
I’m very excited to be ‘in conversation’ with Jo tonight on a Facebook Live. The session will be hosted on Book and Tonic’s Facebook page which you can find here and will start at 6pm GMT this evening (Thursday 1st July) and last up to an hour.
I’ll be asking Jo questions about her writing journey and the series itself but it will be more of a conversation than an interview so I’ll be sharing some snippets too.
I’m really looking forward to this as, not only are Jo and I publishing buddies, we’re friends in real life. As to how we know each other, all will be revealed during our conversation so I hope you can join us.
We’ll be inviting questions from the ‘audience’ during the Facebook Live and anyone who asks a question then will be put into a draw to win a copy of the paperback of A Summer Wedding for the Cornish Midwife.
If you can’t attend live, then you will be able to catch up on the recording on Book and Tonic’s Facebook page, although wouldn’t be able to ask questions/go into the draw.
We’ll be reuniting on Monday 6th September where the roles will be reversed and Jo will be question-master, helping me celebrate the publication of Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café. The book itself is out on 31st August but we’re waiting until after the distraction of the school holidays to host the Live.
Really hope you can join us tonight. Happy publication day to Jo!
Big hugs Jessica xx
THE CORNISH MIDWIFE
A fresh start…
Midwife Ella Mehenick left the small Cornish town of Port Agnes for London and never looked back. But when her seemingly perfect life crashes down around her, there’s only one place she can heal her battered heart – the place she once called home.
A new arrival…
Ella is quickly welcomed into the small community midwife team and loves her new job caring for mums and their precious babies – it’s what she does best! But being back also means facing ex-flame Dan Ferguson…the first man to break her heart.
A second chance at love?
Dan is still as gorgeous as ever, but he’s never forgiven Ella for leaving. And now she’s back it’s clear that there is unfinished business between them. As Ella settles into her new/old life, she can’t stop the memories of how she once loved Dan so completely – and maybe never stopped.
Maybe coming home to Cornwall is Ella’s chance to love again…
Meet The Cornish Midwives of Port Agnes- where community, friendship and love are always delivered.
An uplifting and escapist read, perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Jessica Redland and Holly Martin!
This book was previously published as Return to Port Agnes.
You can buy it here on Kindle UK but it’s also available as an eBook for Apple and Kobo, as a physical audio, for download, to stream on Spotify and as paperback, hardback and large print formats. It’s also available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
A SUMMER WEDDING FOR THE CORNISH MIDWIFE
It’s wedding day in Port Agnes!
The venue is booked, the dress is picked, and Senior Midwife Anna Jones only has to say ‘I Do!’ to the man she loves! Theirs might have been a whirlwind romance, but Brae Penrose is everything Anna dreamed her husband would be and she can’t wait to start a new life with him…and if they are lucky, maybe even a family of their own.
But as the big day approaches disaster strikes, and their perfect day looks destined not to happen at all. Anna’s certain it’s a sign to slow things down.
The other midwives won’t hear of Anna and Brae postponing their big day, but can they and the community of Port Agnes pull together to make sure the Penrose summer wedding goes off without a hitch?
Meet The Cornish Midwives of Port Agnes- where community, friendship and love are always delivered.
An uplifting and escapist read, perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Jessica Redland and Holly Martin!
This book was previously published as Christmas with the Cornish Midwives.
You can buy it here on Kindle UK but it’s also available as an eBook for Apple and Kobo, as a physical audio, for download, to stream on Spotify and as paperback, hardback and large print formats. It’s also available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Jessica Redland Author 