I was invited onto the Books by Your Bedside blog this week for an interview ahead of the publication of The Start of Something Wonderful, so thought I’d share the post here. I was asked some great questions 🙂
Jessica writes stories full of love, friendship, family and community. Originally they were all set in the fictional North Yorkshire seaside town of Whitsborough Bay, inspired by her home town of Scarborough, with elements of Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay further up the coast. She then added Hedgehog Hollow into the mix, which is a hedgehog rescue centre in the beautiful countryside of the Yorkshire Wolds. Her aunt has rescued sick and injured hedgehogs for over 45 years and so she always wanted to write a story set in a rescue centre, inspired by the work that she and the amazing volunteers around the country do.
In July 2023, Jessica added a third setting, moving across the country to Cumbria, in Derwent Water in the Lake District National Park. She has been holidaying in the Lakes since childhood. Her husband, 16-year-old daughter, and 7-year-old Sprocker Spaniel Ella, love Keswick and…
Most of my blog posts are really positive, sharing exciting news about new releases, blog tours, milestones reached and so on. The reason for all the positivity is because I love what I do, I’m so incredibly grateful that I have a devoted readership who support my writing and enable me to write full-time, and I want to share the successes with my blog readership to show that things can change if they’re struggling at the moment. I struggled for five years but found my publishing family with Boldwood Books who changed everything for me.
Occasionally, though, I write something which isn’t quite so shiny and happy because that’s the reality of the job I do. Much as I love it, there are downsides to being an author. Readers can make an author’s day with a kind review, a message about how much a story has resonated, and excitement every time a new book is released. But readers can also (whether intentionally or not) really hurt an author.
Negative reviews come with the territory. Like so much in life, reading is very personal and what is right up one reader’s street won’t be someone else’s cup of tea. Even if a reader loves a particular genre and reads voraciously within that genre, there will be sub-genres they don’t like and authors whose voice or style doesn’t work for them. Some readers don’t like books written in the present tense and others don’t like first person narratives. And even those who love a particular author might find a specific book or even a series by that author doesn’t work for them. And all of that is fine because, let’s face it, it would be a boring old world if we all liked exactly the same thing.
While I know I’ll never be able to please all of the people all of the time, negative reviews can still hurt. With tens of thousands of positive ones across my books, they don’t hurt as much as they used to but I wanted to talk about a word that appears in many of my reviews which I find such a struggle: predictable. I swear I’m coming out in hives just thinking about it. This word isn’t just confined to the negative reviews – it slithers its way into the positive ones too so can creep up on you unawares. It isn’t just in my reviews either and it isn’t restricted to my genre of romance.
If we look at what the dictionary says, predictable is defined in the following ways – certain to happen, able to be predicted, happening in a way where you know about it before it happens, obvious in advance that it will happen – and so on. When ‘predictable’ is used in a negative review for a book, it is clearly meant as a criticism. But what about when it is given in a positive review (which is a 4 or 5-star review on Amazon who classify a 3 as negative)? Is this an insult?
I spotted a very recent 4-star review for Chasing Dreams at Hedgehog Hollow, the fifth book in the series. The review was full of positive comments about how much the reader loves my writing and how much she values the escapism but the middle of the review states, “I find them [Jessica’s books] very predictable, maybe because I’ve read a lot of books in this genre, but you can often see how the storyline is going in the first few chapters. This one is no exception, but it didn’t stop me racing through it to make sure I’d guessed correctly!”
It was lovely of this reader to leave me a 4-star review and I am so very grateful that she has read and loved my books. What I’m about to say is not a dig at her or anyone else who has left a positive review for me or any other author in which they have mentioned the word ‘predictable’. It is simply an observation about how it feels from my perspective as an author, so here comes my reaction…
When I read this review, my heart sank. I didn’t see it as a 4-star review. I took in none of the positives flanking this and could only focus on this middle bit and, even though the reader tempered this by saying she’s a voracious reader of the genre (so will be aware of the recurring themes/tropes etc), and conveyed a sense of excitement about racing through to check the accuracy of her guesses, this is what my head translated: I find Jessica’s books predictable. All of them. I’ve read loads now and they’re all the same. I don’t know why I bother reading her books because there’s nothing original about them. I only bother turning the pages because I’m hoping for some amazing plot twist which never happens and I only keep going to the end to satisfy myself that I was right and could have plotted this book out myself.
I know that’s not what it says … but it feels like it to me as the author. And, despite being 4-star review and therefore positive, it floats in that dark cloud along with the 1-star and 2-star predictable accusations, a selection of which you’ll find below along with a couple of other insults about my writing abilities (or lack of them!):
“Waste of Time – Not her best work, too formulaic and predictable. Could not hold my interest. If her remaining books in the series are this poorly written I won’t be reading them” (1-star review for All You Need is Love)
“Written for children – Predictable and long and drawn out. Utterly disappointed” (1-star review for The Secret to Happiness)
“Light reading – This story has a predictable ending… Worth a free download. I wouldn’t pay to read this book though” (2-star review for Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes)
“Sweet but predictable story – This story was okay but pretty predictable and far too sweet and tame for me… There are 2 more books to read in this series but unless they are vastly different from this one I doubt I will bother with them” (2-star review for New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms)
They say that there are no original stories and I turn to a classic author to illustrate this point from way back. Mark Twain in Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review states, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”
This quote was published in 1906 so if Mark Twain had declared this 117 years ago, what hope is there for authors today to be completely original or, to put it another way, not to be predictable? And if Twain was thinking this back then, surely that wasn’t him sharing a lightbulb moment at the point where new ideas had run out, so how far back do we go? Could we argue that all modern plots have echoes of biblical stories? What about before then? Can we go right back to cave paintings?
Is predictable even a bad thing? In romance fiction, we talk a lot about romantic tropes. These are elements of a plot which drive the story forward. Readers recognise these and love them and the familiarity they bring. Some readers even have their favourite tropes e.g. enemies to lovers, fake relationship, second chance at love and so on and will immediately dive into a book which promises that trope. There’s been a lot of interest about in tropes on BookTok with books now specifically being marketed by their tropes. There will therefore always be an element of predictability in whatever trope the author is using. If they are using enemies to lovers, then guess what’s going to happen?
And if we strip a romance book back to basics, they’re about boy meets girl (or boy meets boy, girl meets girl, girl means shapeshifter… but that’s a different sub genre and a whole different conversation!) Of course the reader knows the couple are going to get together by the end of the book and get their HEA (happy ever after) or perhaps their HFN (happy for now) ending. That’s the whole point of the genre. There are slight variations. I personally write women’s fiction so my stories are about wider community, friendships and families and there isn’t always a romance story driving the plot. But where there is a romance, the reader knows the couple are going to get together but what is delicious and exciting is the journey they go on to get there. What barriers are in their way? What baggage are they carrying? What misunderstandings will unfold? Will a case of bad timing catch them out? When they do get together, having overcome all of this (or at least found a way to work through it), then we feel a sense of satisfaction as readers and have our “aww” warm and fuzzy moment. Isn’t that what readers want? It’s predictable but what would unpredictable look like? They never get together? One of them dies? One of them is abducted by aliens? There’s a wedding but they’re all massacred? (Hang on a moment, were those last two plots from 1980s US soap Dynasty?)
There will always be exceptions which work well, a classic of recent times being Me Before You by JoJo Moyes which didn’t have a HEA for the couple but, in the main, romance stories will follow the familiar conventions and that does include predictable elements. But I defy anyone to say that everything in the book is predictable and this is what upsets me. I take great pride in my work, carefully constructing the plots and sub plots so that my books are NOT predictable. Chasing Dreams in Hedgehog Hollow in particular presents a mystery and I’ve had feedback from a lot of readers that it isn’t predictable. Yes, readers will know that heroine Lauren is likely to get together with a certain character and I would be happy for readers to predict that because, let’s face it, that’s why that character is there. But her backstory is not predictable and neither are several other aspects so I struggle not to be insulted by a review which uses ‘predictable’ as a blanket term. The romance? Yes, because that’s the point. Everything else? No!
The Boldwood authors are all part of a Facebook group where we ask questions and support each other and predictability has come up as a common bug-bear which crosses all genres. Author Jane Lovering made me laugh in one of the discussions, citing Basil Fawlty’s famous rant from the Fawlty Towers sitcom of the 1970s. Hotel owner Basil has taken a customer to her room and she has expressed disappointment with the view. Their exchange builds up to Basil exploding with, “Well may I ask what you expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain…” We wonder sometimes if this is what readers expect from our novels! And yet if we moved away from the predictable (familiar) tropes and structure and did something completely way off the mark, readers would very likely hate it.
Let me turn to another genre: crime. The predictable criticism is frequently levelled at authors of crime novels. Why? Is the book predictable because the detective or sleuth catches the murder/solves the mystery? That’s no different to saying that a romance is predictable because the boy and girl got together. The whole point is to solve it. Or is it predictable because the reader guessed who the killer was? But isn’t that the whole point of crime novels too? Isn’t part of the journey seeing if you can be the sleuth and put the clues together to solve the crime?
In the 1930s, several prolific British crime writers joined together to form the Detection Club. Members included Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Robert Knox and many others. They developed ‘Knox’s Commandments’ which were a set of guidelines around ensuring that the reader had a chance of solving the clues alongside the sleuth. These were considered to be fair-play ‘rules’ and some members like Christie adhered to them, skilfully peppering the clues for the reader. Others were less strict about this. The Detection Club is still in existence today although the members don’t necessarily follow these ‘rules’ anymore. However, most good crime writers would argue that it doesn’t make for good reading if some random person is introduced at the eleventh hour with no connection to any of the storyline so far and found guilty as the murderer. I think most readers would feel cheated if that happened. So some level of predictability exists and, with crime novels, the reader is surely trying to guess and their reward is if they were right. It doesn’t mean the book was too predictable. It simply means they happened to pull together those clues in the right way. Or they got lucky with their guess.
I absolutely love the TV series Vera based on the books by Ann Cleeves. We watch it as a family and try to guess whodunnit. We’re rarely correct or, if we do guess, our reasoning is wrong. But on the rare occasion we get it, it’s lucky. We’d pat ourselves on the back but we’d never, ever say, “Oh, that was predictable”. Because it wasn’t. The only things we can predict are that Vera is probably going to help herself to someone else’s food at some point, and that’s part of the fun too.
What do you think? As a reader, do you like books that are ‘predictable’? Perhaps ‘familiar’ should be a better word? If you’re an author, how do you feel when you see the word ‘predictable’ in a review? Can it be meant in a positive way? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
That’s my rant over for now. I’m off to write another predictable story 😉
Big hugs Jessica xx
(Or maybe I shouldn’t end it like that because that’s predictable too!)
Today – 12th March – is three years since the final book in the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series came out, freshly edited and re-released by Boldwood Books. As all the books in this series were released in quick succession over a two-month period, it’s really a celebration for all of them.
This rapid release was a game-changer for me as it helped build a readership with a thirst for the next part which was quickly satisfied. Making Wishes at Bay View was released on 14th January 2020 with both New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms and Finding Hope at Lighthouse Cove out on 20th February, concluding with Coming Home to Seashell Cottage on 12th March.
Less than two weeks later, the UK went into the first Covid lockdown. I don’t know about you, but it still feels like some strange dream looking back at that time. I find myself thinking, “Did that really happen?” Such peculiar times.
I’m convinced that going into lockdown massively helped the sale of this series because readers were seeking escapism and non-readers were turning to books for the same reason. New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms went into Prime reading in the May and shot up the Kindle chart, peaking at #14 and staying in the Top 100 for roughly four months. To this day, this remains my highest position in the UK chart across all my books. Still hoping one day for a UK Top 10. Pretty please!
Three years on, the four books continue to sell steadily. All of them have exceeded 50k of sales with the bestseller, as you’d probably expect, being the first in the series although there are only 5,000 sales separating book 1 and book 4 which makes me so happy as it means that readers have typically gone on to read all four books rather than reading one and not going any further.
I have to pinch myself that the books I’ve written have managed to hit sales levels like this, especially after such a tricky start. I was originally with a publisher who struggled to make an impact and ceased trading after book 4 was released. The sales figures I had with them were:
Book 1 – 379 in 18 months (was a novella at the time but is now a full-length novel)
Book 2 – 1,316 in 18 months
Book 3 – 699 in 6 months
Book 4 – 72 in 3 months
Bit different, eh? I then released them as an indie author and sold very few so I still do a double take and count my blessings big time every time I get my sales figures. I’m eternally grateful to my amazing publisher, Boldwood Books, for completely turning things around for me.
The reviews/ratings never cease to amaze me and I am so thankful for readers who take the time to share the book love, whether that’s in review format or just a rating. It makes a massive difference to authors in making a book more visible, and the written reviews can be such a boost of encouragement when self-doubt sets in … which it frequently does for all authors I know!
Across Amazon and Audible, reviews/ratings have passed 21,000 (16.5k on Amazon and approaching 5k on Audible).
New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms will always be a very special book to me because it’s the first book I wrote. It was inspired by something that happened in my personal life which I thought would make a great premise for a story and got me writing. The main character, Sarah, needed two friends and as soon as they started to develop, I realised they had stories of their own to tell and a trilogy was born. Then my original publisher asked me to write a short story to give away for free before we released the first book. I’m not good at writing ‘short’ so a prequel novella came out. When I was an indie author, I felt there was more story to tell and wrote a sequel. The two were then combined to make one full-length novel.
Although Seaside Blooms is really special to me, my favourite book in the series is Coming Home to Seashell Cottage. It’s full of twists and turns and is also more emotional than the others in the series. While writing that book, I felt as though I’d truly found my voice and the type of author I wanted to be. I’m very proud of that book.
And, of course, the setting of Whitsborough Bay opened a flood of ideas and my twelfth book set in this fictional coastal town is out next month with plenty more still to come.
The first book after the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series celebrated a birthday yesterday too but I actually forgot about it because it was also my husband’s and dog’s birthdays so it had slipped my mind that there was also a book birthday. And, as I’ve mentioned the dog, here she is yesterday with one of her birthday gifts.
All You Need is Love was my first brand new indie release and, after a fresh edit through Boldwood, came out on 11th March 2021 so happy 2nd birthday to that story.
Although these books (using different titles) are officially older than this, I made a decision to use the Boldwood re-release dates for book birthday celebrations rather than the original release dates because those are the ones that had the impact. All the books floundered before Boldwood came along.
This is also a really special book to me and remains one of my favourites of all the books I’ve written. It was the first time I wrote a dual perspective story and I really loved the challenge of that. I’ve written another eight dual perspective stories since then and even one with three points of view – The Secret to Happiness.
If you’ve read any of these books, I hope you’ve enjoyed them. Do you have a personal favourite?
Thank you and enormous grateful hugs to Boldwood and all the amazing readers and listeners who have supported these books.
Jessica Redland is one of my favourite authors. Her books are so real that you feel you are in the settings and the characters are your friends. I was thrilled when she agreed to answer some questions for me. I hope you enjoy reading her answers as much as I did.
Which childhood books and authors were your favourites? Do you think they influenced you in wanting to become an author?
I was a massive Enid Blyton fan and particularly devoured the Faraway Tree series, Malory Towers and the Famous Five. I also read a couple of books by Sheila Lavelle called My Best Fiend and The Fiend Next Door. They’re amazing stories of Charlie and her best friend Angela who constantly gets her into trouble and is therefore more of an enemy than a friend, hence the use of ‘fiend’ in the title.
Today is Valentine’s Day and I have a special Valentine’s Day wish this year. It’s not a wish for me personally but one for the genre in which I write and it’s a two part wish.
My first part is that I would wish for everyone who reads and loves this genre to declare it loudly and proudly. Many already do. They champion romance from the rooftops, they share their love for romantic books with anyone who will listen, and they (quite rightly) unashamedly immerse themselves in the genre for which I thank you so much. But there are those who see romantic fiction as a ‘guilty pleasure’. Please don’t! There is nothing whatsoever to feel guilty about when reading a genre that brings so much joy. Just see it quite simply for what it is – an absolute pleasure.
My second part is that I wish for those who haven’t tried this genre – possibly because of preconceived ideas as to what they’re getting or a negative experience with a book that wasn’t for them many moons ago – to give it a try. Because they might just be very surprised.
The romance genre is so incredibly diverse and there’s something in here for absolutely everyone. Whether you want to laugh until your sides hurt, immerse yourself in the world of billionaires, make an erotic connection with a shapeshifter or find hope and belief from a character going through the same life challenges as you, this is your genre.
Romance books, love stories, women’s fiction or whatever label you want to use are essentially stories of relationships – of love, friendship, family and community – and are therefore something we can all relate to.
What I find odd is that this genre is disregarded by so many yet stories which explore relationships are not unique to romance fiction. Pick up any book from any genre and, at its heart, it will be a book about relationships. Even in a gangland crime book, you’ll find love, friendship, family and community in among the drugs and violence. Our relationships are what make us human. Sometimes they’re amazing but quite often they can be messy, complicated and even toxic and romantic fiction explores this. It explores real life.
I’m immensely proud of what I write but I have, sadly, experienced looks of disgust and expressions of disinterest when I’ve shared my genre. ‘Urgh,’ said someone I met in a bookshop when signing copies of my latest release, ‘I can’t stand romance.’ I had the same reaction in a library when helping to promote my audio provider’s library app. I don’t understand this reaction. There are genres that don’t personally interest me as a reader, but I’d never be so dismissive or disrespectful of those who write them. I’d know the same care, attention, thought, research and effort has gone into writing them as has gone into writing mine.
Writing a book isn’t easy. I can’t compare genres because I’ve only ever written romance but I do stacks of research for every book I write and I feel every emotion my characters experience. As my books tend to be emotional ones, I go through a stack of tissues and paracetamol with each one, and it takes it out of me emotionally as well as mentally. I do this because it makes a difference to my readers. They connect to the characters because they feel what they’re feeling … because I felt it when I wrote it. Every time I read a review or receive a message from a reader thanking me for covering a particular subject which has personally resonated with them, lifted them, given them hope, it’s encouragement to keep going. This genre is wanted, needed and it genuinely makes a difference to readers. It can even change lives.
Romance fiction is about life. It’s about everything we experience every day. It’s escapism. It takes readers away from all that is bad in the world. It doesn’t avoid the bad stuff but it shows that there is hope. I couldn’t be more proud to write it and to read it.
A movement has started calling out the snobbery which dismisses romance books as somehow inferior using the hashtag #RespectRomFic It was started by Sara-Jade Virtue, Brand Development Director at Simon & Schuster UK and is championed by publishers and the Romantic Novelists’ Association. It’s gaining increasing momentum with support from so many who love this genre. We’re not saying it’s for everyone but why dismiss something you haven’t tried? You might discover that this is the genre you’ve been missing all your life!
I’m soooooo late with this post but better late than never.
The blog tour for my latest release Healing Hearts at Bumblebee Barnwas a whopper with 48 stops scheduled across 16 days. There were a couple of no-shows but I was thrilled with the 46 lovely reviews.
It was lovely to see familiar faces but also great to see some new readers for my books and hear their thoughts on my writing as a new-to-them author. This was overwhelmingly positive with only one new reviewer giving it a lower rating because she doesn’t enjoy slow-burn romances and this particular story happens to be a slow-burn but not all books are going to be for everyone and I’m delighted that most loved this new story and new setting.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the blog tour, to the fabulous Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for organising it, and for anyone who commented/shared the review posts.
I’ve shared a selection of quotes below, trying to pick on a range of different points. Thank you for all the book love.
Welcome to our next Monday Merry Meet where we celebrate author’s who write romantic fiction. We’re excited to chat to Jessica Redland who has written many bestseller novels based in our beloved North Yorkshire and the Wolds.
Grab a cuppa and relax for five minutes while you discover what she has to say about her books, writing, the romance genre and of course, spells.
Monday Merry Meets: Jessica Redland
Love from Vincent
Willow: Welcome Jessica, have a seat. We’re thrilled to have you this month to celebrate romance books to coincide with Valentine’s Day. While the Enchanted Bookshelf has oodles of fantasy and paranormal books, Rosa’s Box of Romance is full of romantic novels, including yours. Talking of romance, I apologise if Vincent, our Maine coon, is extra affectionate. The catnip we’ve used in some of our love potions has made him high. Amber has cast a no stick spell…
November and early December have passed me by in a blur. I started writing Summer Nights at The Starfish Café on 4th November and submitted it to my editor on 5th December but over two thirds of that were written in the last ten days. I returned from a few days away in York with some of my author friends, panicking that I’d written just shy of 30k words so, considering my novels are usually about 100k words, I had a long way to go in a very short space of time. Eek!
Somehow I pulled it out of the bag and wrote a whopping 68,569 words during that last ten days. Unfortunately, I had to cancel going to a family event which fell on Saturday 3rd Dec as I absolutely needed that time (over 8k words were written that day). With 10,141 words written on the Sunday and 10,662 on the Monday, I finally submitted at 10.30pm with an apology email to my poor editor that the story was there but the manuscript was a mess. It’s the first time ever that I haven’t been able to go back through and do any editing. I hate submitting sub-standard work but I’ve been playing catch-up all year and after a few tough edits and illness and this book was a victim of that.
I now have the edits back and thankfully my editor loves the story so it’s a case of developing the two main characters a bit more, smoothing out the action, clarifying a few points here and there… basically a huge amount of work but nothing I didn’t expect. I’m hoping to get some good in-roads into that before Christmas. The magic happens in the editing stage, turning a good story into a great book.
Despite the intensity of the writing, I have managed to get out and about a bit as well. I’ve already written a blog post about my few days away in York but, before that, I went on a crafting workshop. Quite a few of the characters I write about have some impressive creative skills – chocolatier, cake decorator, crafter – so you’d be forgiven for thinking I’m a creative myself and put a little of me into those characters. I wish I was but my creative talents relate to writing and I’m more of a trier with varying degrees of success with any other types of craft.
A few years ago, I made a needlefelted stag at a one-day workshop with local crafting studio Ebberston Studios (Ebberston being a village between Scarborough and Pickering). I was really proud of it so, when I saw them advertising a robin workshop this year, I had to sign up, especially as robins have a special relevance for me in my Hedgehog Hollow series.
I’m really pleased with the result. What do you think? Here’s how he started and how he finished. I did, of course, need to wear a ‘Rudy’ robin dress from Poppy Clothing for the occasion which you can find here although, if you search on ‘robin’, you’ll find it comes in two different dress designs.
I’ve signed up for a wet felting workshop in February to make some hearts. Really looking forward to having a go at a different craft.
Last Thursday, hubby and I picked up our daughter after school and went to Castle Howard to see their ‘Into the Woods – A Fairytale Christmas’ event. This is the third time I’ve visited this stately home decorated at Christmas. Each year there’s a theme and a trail to follow round the house. The first year I went during the day but we had to go on an evening last year after our weekend booking got canceled due to a horrendous storm. It was lovely on the evening as the lights showed better, it was quieter and it had a lovely atmosphere.
This year was a little disappointing. I really liked the installation. There was some amazing detail as always although I will admit it perhaps wasn’t quite as impressive as Narnia last year. There’s a corridor you go along, for example, which was full of Christmas trees as though walking through a forest. Last year, in Narnia, there was an atmosphere in this corridor with wind whistling and moving lights which was lacking for this year which was a shame, although realistically Narnia is so magical and perfect for Christmas that it was always going to be a tough act to follow.
The part that disappointed me was therefore not the installation itself but what happened afterwards. Last time, we came out into the courtyard, explored the gift shop, hubby had a coffee and the daughter and I toasted giant marshmallows over a fire pit. It was lovely. This year, we came out and the gift shop and cafe were closed and the fire pit had been extinguished! We felt like we were being rushed out of the place and it put a dampener on the visit. Hubby and daughter have said they won’t return next year as it took us longer to drive there than we actually spent there which isn’t right. So I either give it a miss next year or go on my own. What a shame. Anyway, here’s some pics from it. They’re not amazing as you can’t use flash but hopefully they give you a feel for what it was like. Spot the hedgehog!
On Saturday, the daughter and I went to Northallerton to meet with my side of the family for a pub lunch. We nipped across early so we could go to Strikes, the local garden centre, and I was thrilled to spot my books in there.
They were in The Works too. I always look for books by friends when I visit The Works and it’s a special moment if we’ve been positioned alongside mine, just like they were here. Jo Bartlett, Helen Rolfe and I are all with the same publisher, Boldwood Books, and we started out our journey together a decade ago as a collective called The Write Romantics so it’s lovely to share shelf space with them.
I posed with a nutcracker outside a lovely furniture/gift shop and the tree was in the coffee lounge of the hotel. Love all the elves on it.
I’ve had a meet-up with authors Sharon Booth and Eliza J Scott too – always a good excuse for a yummy hot chocolate. Eliza and I were both wearing the same Christmas jumper and were meant to get a photo of us together but completely forgot. I did take a pic of the drink, though. I’ve also been enjoying my Lindt advent calendar. Mmmm.
Finally for this post, we’ve had snow in Scarborough. Lots of it! It came down on Wednesday night/Thursday morning with a good covering but, when we went to Castle Howard that evening, we were surprised to see it ended not that far outside Scarborough and there was none inland. It’s been so cold here that the snow has never gone and we’ve had more. We’re probably only talking a couple of inches but, because what was already there hadn’t melted, it’s very icy out there.
It’s causing chaos with lots of things being cancelled and moved around. I’ve just had a phone call this morning cancelling my optician appointment for the second time, both because the snow is stopping the optician getting in. I’ve also had my hairdresser needing to shift next week’s appointment to this evening because her son’s nativity has been moved to next week due to the snow, clashing with my original appointment. It’s all fun! However, as I write this, the rain has started. This will either wash the snow away … or leave more ice. Eek!
The super talented photographer hubby has taken advantage of the snow and captured some amazing photos in Wykeham Forest just outside Scarborough. If you want to follow him on Instagram, you can see his full range of pics – @MarkHeslington – but here are a couple of the ones that made me smile as a certain dog photobombed them! Let’s play spot the sprocker!
He also got these gorgeous photos of Whitsborough Bay (aka Scarborough) this morning after dropping our daughter off at school. So pretty although I feel sooo cold looking at them. He said it was -3 when he got out of the car. Brr!
I’d say I’d rather stay inside where it’s warm but that would be a lie. I’m nithered! I’ve got a long-sleeved T-shirt, a Christmas jumper and a fleecy oodie on, leggings and a long skirt and I’m still chilly. Might need another blast of the heater.
I’ll be back again before Christmas as I have a post about my Christmas decorations to do but bye for now. Stay safe, stay warm and hope the last nine days of prep go well.
Jessica Redlandwas born in Teesside but now lives on the stunning North Yorkshire Coast which inspired the creation of the fictional seaside town of Whitsborough Bay where she sets all her books.
She lives with her husband, daughter, Sprocker Spaniel and is a self-confessed stationery addict. She loves chocolate, although it doesn’t love her, 80s music, collectible teddy bears and lighthouses.
Her dream is to be able to write full-time one day but, until then, she has a day job as an HR Tutor and tries to balance her time – usually unsuccessfully – between that and writing.
What inspire you to write a book?
All sorts of things. Ideas come from so many places. The first book I wrote was inspired by a real event that happened to me. Another was inspired by my experience of setting up and running my own shop. I have one where the…
During March, I’m running a training course through RNA Learning (Romantic Novelists’ Association). I’m really looking forward to running it as it’s an opportunity to use my former day-job skills as a trainer/tutor (something I did for 25 years before becoming a full-time author in 2020) as well as sharing my experiences to help other authors in their writing journey.
Participants need to have signed up by the end of February and, as that’s tomorrow, there isn’t long left so I thought I’d give a bit more detail about what to expect. Please do share if you know anyone who might be interested but they will need to act fast!
The course is: Writing a novel or series in a coastal or country setting
I have a fair bit of experience of doing that!
How will the course work?
It’s all run via a training platform called Moodle
There’s a mix of pre-recorded training sessions, live Zooms and Moodle Discussion Forums
Participants are encouraged to work one week at a time but, by mid-March, all 4 training sessions will be released to allow for working at their own pace
How is the course structured?
4 x 1-hour (roughly) pre-recorded training sessions accessed via Dropbox. These will include information, personal experiences, the experiences of 19 other successful authors, tips, quick exercises during the session and post-session work
Live Zoom sessions every week (recorded and uploaded for those not available at the time) to discuss that week’s training session and for any questions to be raised. I’m happy to answer questions on any aspect of writing … although I can’t guarantee I’ll always know the answer!
There’s a Discussion Forum on Moodle for each of the 4 weeks where participants share their post-session work for feedback and ask questions. I’ll check this and respond every 2-3 days
There’s an optional bonus practical exercise
Recommended reading list
What will the course cover?
The training course is all about writing a novel or series in a coastal or country setting so all the learning relates to that but it’s about so much more than just the setting. A good setting will become a character in itself.
We’ll explore the following:
What is a setting and why is it so important?
Why are coastal and country settings so popular in romantic fiction?
Real v fictional settings (the positives and challenges of each)
Town or village – the opportunities and restrictions
Coast or country – key considerations
Naming your fictional setting
Which comes first – character or setting?
What does your setting look like?
What does your setting offer the residents?
Where specifically is your story set?
Mapping it out
Using the senses to bring your setting to life
Creating your protagonist(s) including why are they in your setting and how do they feel about it?
Character tropes (around setting)
Creating your antagonist(s)
Your other main characters
Setting clichés
What’s your premise and does it really lend itself to a coastal or country setting?
Plots that work well in these settings
Exploration on themes
Passing of time and seasons
Do you have a series on your hands?
Plotter v pantser
Other considerations
As you can see, there’s oodles of fabulous learning to be had on this course.
Is it only for absolute beginners?
Definitely not. This course will suit beginners who are at the start of their writing journey through to those who may have written several books already. Perhaps you want to build on what you’re already doing or perhaps you’ve written books but not in these settings before so this is a fresh start.
I’ll gauge the level of experience at the start of the workshop and tailor my sessions according to this, which is one of the reasons they’re not all available immediately.
How much does it cost?
If you’re an RNA member, it’s £75 for the course. If you’re not a member, it’s £150.
For more detail about all RNA Learning Courses, please click here.
And to join my course and pay via Eventbrite, please click here before end of Monday 28th February 2022. You’ll need to click on the green ‘Tickets’ button to make that purchase.
This will be a course packed full of anecdotes from myself and other authors about how we’ve created and built our worlds. It will be informative and fun and I really hope you can join us.
Jessica Redland Author 