The one with the offers, the event, and the auction

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022 Jessica Redland Author1 Comment

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.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

Children in Read for Children in Need Part 2

November 12, 2021 Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

At the start of this month, I posted about the Children in Read auction – an amazing auction of books and book-related items in aid of BBC’s Children in Need. You can read the post here.

At the time, I explained that I’d donated my Christmas on Castle Street trilogy as a lot. It had 7 bids and had already raised £25. I’m thrilled to report that, with still 8 days to go until bidding closes, an 8th bid has raised it to a whopping £45. Eek! Delighted with that.

It’s lot 594 and you can find the listing here.

I have since donated a second lot, this time to win a single signed paperback book – my latest release of Snowflakes Over the Starfish Café.

This is lot 740 and I’m thrilled to say that it already has a £20 bid on it. Woo hoo! You can find it directly here.

There are 745 lots available and they keep getting added. So far, a whopping £16,122 has been raised. You can find the full auction here. All the money goes directly to Children in Need.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow author videos and latest lots added @ChildrenInRead I recorded a video for Twitter after my last blog post which you can watch here.

A huge congratulations to Paddy Heron and the amazing team bringing all these lots to you and working tirelessly to raise as many book-related funds as they can for this brilliant cause.

Happy bidding!

Big hugs
Jessica xx

Children in Read for Children in Need

November 2, 2021November 2, 2021 Jessica Redland Author1 Comment

Children in Need is the BBC’s Corporate Charity whose “mission is to help ensure every child in the UK is safe, happy, secure and has the opportunities they need to reach their potential”. Every year in November, there’s an appeal show – 19th November this year – but there are various other activities which happen in the run-up such as the Countryfile Ramble.

For the past 7 years, the Children in Read campaign has run to raise valuable funds for this charity through an auction of lots provided by authors, illustrators and publishers.

You can find the full auction here.

At the time of writing this post, there are a whopping 740 lots available covering a huge variety of genres, and therefore catering to all tastes. £14,365 has already been raised but, with 18 days still to go, that will hopefully significantly increase.

There are books donated, limited editions, signed copies and a whole host more. Here’s a screen shot of the different filters you can search on…

I have donated lot 594 – a signed and dedicated set of the three ‘Christmas on Castle Street’ paperbacks – which you can access directly here. The series consists of:

Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop
Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes
Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café

My lot currently has 7 bids on it and is at £25 which is fabulous … but, as each book retails at £8.99, that’s less than these could be bought for if purchased separately outside the auction! Hopefully it will rise a little higher for the charity.

Over on Twitter you can find the appeal on @ChildrenInRead Please do bob on over and share the links all over the socials to help boost the bids on all these amazing lots. Could be fabulous for a spot of special Christmas shopping!

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one where I visited a bear house

October 1, 2019October 1, 2019 Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

I love bears. Bet you hadn’t noticed that! I was very excited, therefore, to hear that a bear house had been created at North Yorkshire’s Newby Hall (near Ripon) following the extremely generous donation by Gyles Brandreth and his wife, Michele, of their bear collection.

Attempts to visit it were thwarted twice. We planned to visit one Saturday only to discover online that it was closed for the winter. Our next attempt was summer last year when we turned up … only to discover that there was a massive traction engine rally in the grounds and the house was closed. So it was third time lucky last week.

This visit was a day out with my husband, Mark, to celebrate our 14^th wedding anniversary. We had a slow 2-hour journey stuck behind tractor after tractor but it was worth the trek because Newby Hall is a fabulous place and I’d highly recommend a visit (but next year because it’s now closed for the winter).

We went on a lovely walk through the woods first following a sculpture trail. Some of the sculptures were very recognisable like a gorgeous pair of pigs and others were more abstract. All were available for sale. My absolute favourite was Remington the dog (top right). He’s bronze and comes with a hefty price tag (forgot to take a photo but it was in the region of £5k!)

There was one that looked like a cracked paving slab resting against a stone. I’m sure this was very meaningful for those in the know and I’m sure there was a lot of planning and talent involved but… Yep, I clearly know nothing about art. At £820 it was one of the less expensive exhibits. Needless to say, I came home with photos and memories rather than purchases!

A guided tour around the house was fascinating. Newby Hall is a private residence so visitors can’t wander freely but the three tour guides were superb; very engaging and also funny. There were small collectible bears hiding in each room but, every time I pointed one out to Mark, the tour guides said, ‘They’re for the children’s tour.’ I beg to differ. It’s not only children who like bears!

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The Bear House itself was calling but so were the scones and cakes so we stopped for lunch first. My scone was still warm from the oven. Mmmm.

Then it was finally onto the bears. I loved The Bear House. There were some original famous bears in there including Fozzie Bear from The Muppet Show, Paddington, Sooty, and Super Ted. Apparently there are more than a thousand bears in Gyles and Michele’s collection and there’s no way they can display anywhere near that many so the display keeps changing … a fabulous excuse to keep visiting again!

As well as the famous bear sections, there were several themed displays including a wedding, a picnic and a royal balcony scene. I was curious as to whether the collection included any bears I have and was thrilled to spot one in the church scene. See that little fella with the lovely black jacket in the wedding scene? He’s a Hermann Teddy Original and I’ve got him! He was actually one of the first collectible bears I added to my hug.

There’s so much more to do at Newby Hall. With a miniature railway, boat rides and adventure playground, it’s a great day out for kids. The grounds are extensive and lovely to explore with a rock garden and a statue walk. There’s also an extensive dolls house collection which is fascinating but we were struggling for time by this point so didn’t linger for long in there. We did, however, rescue a bumble bee who’d got trapped inside. which made me very happy.

Some of the bears have been donated by famous people. There was one from Dame Judi Dench and another from Tony Blair. As an author, I particularly enjoyed meeting Barbara Cartland’s teddy bear, ‘The Prince of Love’. Well, what else would you call him?

Newby Hall has featured in TV and films extensively too. Many scenes in Victoria have been filmed there, a 2007 BBC adaptation of Mansfield Park was exclusively filmed there as was much of season one of Peaky Blinders. How exciting!

If you’d like to find out more about Newby Hall, you can find their website here.

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