Tag: christmas

The one where I talk about my very own Christmas miracle

Jessica Redland Author6 Comments

SPOILER ALERT – This post relates to the real-life inspiration behind one of the key storylines in Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow so you might not want to read this if you haven’t read that book just yet…

Do you read the acknowledgements at the back of the book? I do. They’re mainly about the author thanking various people who have provided advice, support and encouragement in that particular book’s journey to publication, but they sometimes give details of the real-life inspiration behind elements of the storyline. I find that touching and fascinating so it’s something I always try to include in mine. If you’ve read the acknowledgements at the back of Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow, you’ll know that the story of Samantha’s baby coming into the world is my own. 

I met my husband Mark in 2003 and we married in September 2005. I was 33 and he was 35 at that point and we knew that our ages meant it was probably best not to delay starting a family, especially when we wanted three children, both being one of three ourselves.

Our baby was due on 4th January 2007 but a routine consultation with my midwife in early December 2006 saw me being referred straight to hospital with hypertension (high blood pressure) and suspected pre-eclampsia. I had an overnight stay for monitoring and was released only to be sent straight back as my BP soared even higher. The pre-eclampsia remained mild but the BP was cause for concern and I spent December in hospital on constant monitoring. It was awful. I was worried about what might happen to the baby, especially as I’d had a miscarriage prior to this pregnancy, and being stuck in hospital on your own for weeks is a lot of time to think and to fret.

There was a lot of talk about inducing the baby but I experienced several cancellations due to lack of staff or a full delivery suite. Each day was another opportunity for my baby to grow and gain strength, but also another day to fear something bad. Eventually it was my turn. I was taken to a separate ward, just like Samantha, and given a pessary but the first one didn’t work. Other mums came onto the ward after me and headed off to give birth before. When my editor Nia read the book, she made a comment that it was just like when Rachel in Friends is waiting to give birth and it really was like that. When would it be my turn?

The second pessary worked and, on the afternoon of 19th December, I was whisked off to the delivery suite with my husband, Mark, and labour started. Everything I describe in the book is what happened to me including the very scary moments… Ashleigh arrived into the world at 11.45pm at such speed that she shot across the bed and had to be caught. The heart monitor was tangled in her mass of dark hair. She wasn’t breathing. She was blue.

Mark and I felt so helpless, desperate to hear that first cry, fearful for the worst as our baby was rushed to the side (clip now free) and medical staff rubbed her with towels. We didn’t even know if we had a boy or girl at this point! Thankfully a cry filled the room and our daughter was handed over to us, wrapped in a towel, but it wasn’t over yet. She was unexpectedly tiny at 4lb 11oz. Nobody had picked up on that in the scans I’d had in hospital so it took them – and us – by surprise. She was only a fortnight early and they’d thought she’d be bigger. Although not premature, she needed to spend some time on the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) as she might need some additional help feeding. We’d have been discharged later that morning if she’d been 5lb or more.

I had a massive panic about our baby being taken away from us. All sorts of scary possibilities like her being switched, stolen, or falling ill filled my mind and I asked if Mark could go with her. That wasn’t a problem so I sent him off, begging him to make sure she was properly identified as ours. Mark returned assuring me that Ashleigh was fine and, after I’d finished with all the post-birth aspects, I was wheelchaired round to see her. It broke my heart to see our tiny little girl in a crib hooked up to wires with a tube up her nose. I’d wanted to breastfeed but it wasn’t possible. She was too small/tired/weak to latch on so she had to be fed by the tube up her nose which went direct into her stomach.

The days that followed were so difficult. I moved into a small private room along the corridor from the unit so I could be buzzed from the SCBU when Ashleigh woke up. I kept trying to her myself but it didn’t work. Some midwives helped. Some made me feel completely useless and inadequate. I spend a lot of the days that followed in tears, not able to pick up my baby, not able to feed her, not able to do anything I’d expected to do. I knew I was fortunate – there were premature babies in incubators on the ward who had more of a battle ahead of them than mine – but it was still really hard.

Christmas was rapidly approaching and I hadn’t expected to spend December in hospital. I hadn’t put the tree up, hadn’t done my Christmas shopping, wasn’t prepared at all. One of the kinder midwives suggested I take a day off – 23rd December I think it was – to go home for the day and do some Christmas prep and she’d do the tube feeds for me. I was so grateful for that but I didn’t enjoy my day, worried about Ashleigh. Like Samantha, my feet had swollen and only my flip-flops fit. It was winter and cold so my priority was to get into town and buy some bigger footwear. After a huge amount of effort, I managed to get my feet into some lace-up boots two sizes bigger than normal. I was drained and emotional. When I went to the shoe shop till wearing them, the assistant insisted I removed them so she could make sure I’d picked up a pair of the same size. I burst into tears. Thankfully the manager was nearby and she understood my emotional gibberish about just giving birth/swollen feet/exhaustion and she gently led me to a nearby chair and removed my shoes, checked them, then put them back on and laced them as though I was a toddler. I was so grateful for her kindness.

Back at hospital, all I wanted to do was get Ashleigh home for Christmas but nobody ever seemed to be around to give me an answer. There was a midwife who scared me – the ‘Brenda’ character in my story. She’d been extremely unhelpful when I asked her for some support breastfeeding and she was all about the snide comments and sneers. But that evening she was the only person available to ask whether there was any chance Ashleigh would be home for Christmas Day. She laughed at me. Who does that? So I cried again and can honestly say I’ve never felt so alone or vulnerable in my whole life.

We didn’t get our Christmas miracle. I woke up on Christmas morning in my single room and padded along the corridor to the SCBU where I dressed Ashleigh in a reindeer onesie and booties, like Samantha does in the book. They were too big but they were adorable, even if I didn’t feel very Christmassy at all.

I was ‘released’ on Christmas Day to go home for Christmas dinner. My parents had come to stay as we’d anticipated a lovely first Christmas at home with our baby. I don’t remember much about that day other than not being able to enjoy a moment of it, knowing I needed to get back to the hospital.

When we returned to the ward later that day, we finally had some good news. Ashleigh had woken up and demanded a feed so, if that continued during the night, we could take her home on Boxing Day. I was allowed to move into a special room on the SCBU with Ashleigh that night and I prayed it would be our last one. It was. She came home at lunchtime on Boxing Day but the difficulties didn’t end there. I still wanted to feed her myself but, with it being Christmas, there was no support available. The midwife from my local surgery did visit but she terrified me too. Each time I’d seen her before my hospital admission, she’d made comments about how old I was and how fat I was. When she’d first called the hospital to have me admitted, I was in the room with her at the surgery and she described me as ‘enormous’ over the phone, looking me up and down with disgust. I actually wasn’t enormous. Already a size 18 before expecting Ashleigh, I barely gained any weight during pregnancy, my body shape simply changing. She therefore wasn’t the empathetic carer I needed.

The next couple of years were the hardest of my life. I’m convinced I had post-natal depression but I was too afraid to open up to the scary midwife about what I was feeling for fear of judgement from her – old, fat mum can’t cope – so I battled it alone. The whole experience drained and traumatised me so much that I couldn’t face going through any of it again. Ashleigh doesn’t have siblings.

When I wrote Samantha’s story, I hadn’t intended to mirror my own experiences but it made sense to do so. They say write what you know. This was what I knew and I had directly felt every exhausting and heartbreaking moment of it. But, being fiction, I could also change a few things. Samantha was able to take her baby home on Christmas Day, and she got the support she needed to breastfeed Thomas in the end. As for whether baby Thomas gets any siblings, you’ll have to read Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow to find out.

It was Ashleigh’s sixteenth birthday at the start of the week so I’ve inevitably been reflecting on that difficult time sixteen years ago and it still hurts. I’ve blanked so much of it out but parts of it such as my local midwife calling me ‘enormous’ and the ‘Brenda’ I encountered on SCBU have definitely scarred me for life. If anyone else has experienced anything like this, I sent you hugs because it’s horrible.

To finish on a happy note and a spooky coincidence, when I was expecting Ashleigh my mum was going through a phase of knitting toys to raise funds for charity and she asked which one I’d like her to knit to celebrate Ashleigh’s birth. I was particularly drawn to a town crier so she knit that and my dad printed off Ashleigh’s birth announcement for the town crier carry. What’s the town crier? He’s a hedgehog!

I hadn’t finished writing my first book at this point and Hedgehog Hollow wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye but it was as though I knew! I’d actually forgotten about the town crier being a hedgehog until after I’d finished Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow. How wonderful that I’d incorporated Ashleigh’s birth story into my final hedgehog book and her birth announcement had been a hedgehog!


Wishing you a fabulous Christmas and hope some Christmas miracles come your way.


Big festive hugs
Jessica xx

The one with my very special bookish Christmas tree

Jessica Redland Author9 Comments

My favourite part of the lead-up to Christmas is putting the tree up. Or should I say trees plural because we have more than one! Our main tree is in the conservatory so we can see and appreciate it from the lounge (not quite enough room to fit it in the lounge). We have a very small table-top pink tree in the lounge which is officially my daughter’s but I also have a four foot one in the dining room. This is because I love seeing trees in front windows and the dining room is at the front of the house.

This summer, we had a bit of a shift around of rooms. The dining room and conservatory had both become dumping grounds and weren’t used so we cleared everything out, moved the dining table into the conservatory, and the dining room became my new office and I decided to do something a little special with the tree in the bay window, only decorating it with items relating to my writing journey and books.

MY WRITING JOURNEY

I spotted a light-up gonk in a garden centre with my name on so couldn’t resist adding that to the tree. I believe these are also available in branches of Clintons.

I bought some gorgeous book stack baubles from John Lewis several years ago and I have some gorgeous checked hearts which say ‘Love’ (shown) ‘Hugs’ and ‘Wish’ on them which are perfect for what I write about. There are several other heart-shaped baubles on my tree and a very special bauble which my amazing publisher Boldwood Books sent to all their authors this year. It’s handblown glass shipped from Israel, made by muslims and christians, and it sits alongside my ‘Make a Wish’ star because I made a wish to be a full-time author and Boldwood made that wish come true.

WHITSBOROUGH BAY

I have a Christmas lighthouse (note the wreath on the door) and another lighthouse and anchor which aren’t strictly Christmas ornaments but look great on the tree.

What seaside resort wouldn’t be complete without a seagull? Yes, I know it’s not Christmassy either but I had it made a few years back by the amazing Emma of ChilliPepperbyEmma who has an Etsy which you can find here and it was begging to go on the tree. Sadly, Emma has had to take the decision to temporarily close her shop knowing she couldn’t fulfil Christmas orders due to postal strikes but do check out her designs all year round as she does all the seasons/occasions and they’re amazing.

All You Need is Love features an orange VW campervan called Thor and I have another of Emma’s designs representing that as well as a gorgeous yellow embellished one from Accessorize. You can find it here. I’m going to put links in for any ornaments available at the time of writing this but they may have sold out by the time you read this. I also have a red campervan although I can’t remember where I bought that as it wasn’t this year.

The heart with the beach huts isn’t strictly a tree decoration either but, as you don’t tend to see many nautical Christmas decorations around, I thought it looked pretty. This comes from a gorgeous gift shop called Pedrington’s Portal on the way down to the seafront in Scarborough. It’s run by two sisters and all the items are hand-sewn or hand-crafted by them.

In All You Need is Love, main character Jemma’s mum runs a specialist teddy bear shop on Castle Street called Bear With Me. There are therefore lots of teddy bears on my tree. I started collecting Me to You tree ornaments when I was in my twenties and bought my first home. They released four designs each year and I’d buy the collection but there were soon understandably repetitions on the themes so I stopped collecting. Some of the collection are on the tree this year along with a couple of soft versions of the grey bear – one dressed as gift and another as a snowman.

The Forever Friends bears you can see peeking through the branches were from when I ran my own teddy bear shop, Bear’s Pad, between 2003-2005.

The felt bears – the brown one with the Christmas pudding on its tummy and the white one dressed as a snowman – came from a teddy bear craft fair and the brown material one with ‘hugs’ in its tummy came from a shop in Northallerton full of locally-made crafts. Isn’t it cute?

I love my angel bear tree topper which I’ve had for years. You see the black bear tangled in fairy lights? That came back from my honeymoon in Canada in 2005 and is perfect for my bookish tree because, in Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes, Carly spots a teddy bear called Tangled who has become tangled in fairy lights in Bear With Me, and buys it for her clumsy sister.

The Starfish Café series is set just outside Whitsborough Bay and has a strong connection to the RNLI. I have three three decorations from the RNLI shop – a blue RNLI bauble, a penguin in his life vest, and Finley bear in his full RNLI kit. The penguin is particularly relevant to the first story in the series – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – so I also have another penguin on my tree. I won’t tell you why it’s relevant as that would be a big story spoiler and you’ll just have to read the book to find out!

To represent The Starfish Café and The Chocolate Pot on Castle Street (featured in Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café), I have some lovely cake and drinks-related decorations. The mugs of hot chocolate both came from garden centres. The plate with a cake on was a gift from my bestie, author Sharon Booth and I love it so much as we do love a bit of cake when we meet up and, as Sharon knows, a Victoria sponge is my favourite. This definitely looks good enough to eat and would be available in either café. I have a gingerbread man, as featured in Starry Skies, and a piece of Christmas cake too.

To go with the titles, I have stars and snowflakes. The embellished ones are from Accessorise but they appear to have sold out online. And, of course, I have the embellished cupcake which could be sold in either cafe and in Carly’s Cupcakes.

I do need a seal to add to my collection of decorations for The Starfish Cafe so will need to keep my eye out for one of those.

HEDGEHOG HOLLOW

I have more bears than anything else because I’ve been collecting bears for a lot of years, but hedgehogs aren’t far behind and I keep seeing new ones each year. I made some graphics last year showing off my hedgehog collection so far so I’m going to add those below.

I have felt hedgehogs from craft fairs or Etsy…

I have flat and round baubles. The sparkly round one was from M&S last year and I bought several of them so I could give some away when Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow was released this year. Do watch out on the Book and Tonic social media posts for stacks of fabulous competitions and giveaways as part of the #12DaysofHedgehogs…

I have several more realistic looking hedgehogs…

Some sparkly baubles…

I have some wooden ones. I particularly love the one on the right. It’s such a stunning picture and looks great on the tree…

I also have some more quirky looking hedgehogs, a couple of which have been gifts from friends. How crazy are those coloured ones?…

And it’s not just the tree that’s a hedgehog haven. I have several decorations not for the tree. The large sparkly one top left is another prize in the #12DaysofChristmas – although not that exact one, of course. I bought an extra one as a prize…

This year, I’ve had a few additions to the collection. The first one is from Accessorize too and the second is from Next. Duplicates of both are up for grabs as part of the #12DaysofChristmas.

The two flat wooden ones were from Etsy, the one with the stick was a gift from my friend and author Eliza J Scott and the lovely silver one in the circle was a gift made by a reader…

But it isn’t just hedgehogs that are relevant to Hedgehog Hollow. Robins are a particularly important part of the story and I have several robins on my tree including a gorgeous Wrendale bauble to match my hedgehog one. I also have the robin below the tree which I needlefelted myself as shown in my last blog post, and this gorgeous sign on my bookshelves.

Fizz and Darcie are huge fans of unicorns so there has to be a unicorn on my tree, and Jonathan (main character Samantha’s dad) has an obsession with pigs in blankets with Christmas dinner so I have a couple of those too and a gorgeous crocheted one a lovely reader made for me. Thank you, Hazel. And I have some butterflies too for the butterflies in the wildflower meadow.

For those who have read Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow, you’ll recognise the happy mistletoe from Jellycat, available here.

BUMBLEBEE BARN

Healing Hearts at Bumblebee Barn isn’t out until 24th January but I had to get it on the tree now with these three amazing very different bees. Thank you to lovely author Jo Bartlett for the addition of the first one pictured.

And finally, the full tree and decorated shelves…

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my book-themed tree. I loved putting it together. Wishing you a fabulous Christmas.

Christmas hugs
Jessica xx

The one with the robin, the fairytales and all the snow

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

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.

Big snowy hugs
Jessica xx

The one where (nearly) all my Christmases come together

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

It’s November and even though we still have an autumnal event approaching with Bonfire Night on Saturday, it’s officially the approach to Christmas in my mind.

I love Christmas books. I love writing them. I love reading them. I love gazing at their gorgeousness on bookshelves and having that warm and fuzzy moment seeing all the snow, trees, gifts, and hugs in those white, blue and red covers. Awwww.

My Christmas on Castle Street series has just been released as an eBook Boxset which you can download for Kindle UK here. This contains all three of the books in the series:

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

There’s also some bonus content of book club questions/wonderings for each book and various blog posts I prepared picking up on something relevant to each book, and a couple about the overall series which give some additional insight into my inspiration, research and thoughts on Christmas on Castle Street.

The Boxset retails at £7.99 which is a small saving on buying the books individually at £2.99 each.

There is one Christmas book which isn’t included in the Boxset because it doesn’t belong to that series and that is my Christmas 2022 release: Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow. This is the final book in the six-book series and has just been reduced to 99p on eBook.

Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow is also available in Prime Reading, as is the first book – Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – so you can get them both for free if you’re a Prime Reading subscriber. And, if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can get ALL my books for free via that service.

Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow is also 99p at the moment for anyone not in Prime or KU.

Happy Christmas reading.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

Escape to Castle Street for the perfect uplifting, festive reads from top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland.

This boxset contains all 3 books in the Christmas on Castle Street series:
1. Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop
2. Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes
3. Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café

★ Also Bonus content included ★
– Book club questions for each book
– Blog posts for each book
– Christmas Lights on Castle Street blog post
– Hot Chocolate and Cake on Castle Street blog post

—–

Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop

When master chocolatier, Charlee, takes the leap to move to the picturesque seaside town of Whitsborough Bay, she is determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps and set up a chocolate shop.


Luckily, she finds the perfect location for Charlee’s Chocolates on beautiful Castle Street… Now she just has to refurbish it in time for Christmas!

With a useless boyfriend and countless DIY disasters, Charlee doesn’t know if she’ll make it in time. With no ‘traditional’ family to support her, she feels lost in her new surroundings and the secrets of the past are weighing her down.

But the warmth and festive spirit of the Whitsborough Bay community will surprise her, and when plumber, Matt, comes to the rescue, it might be that all of Charlee’s dreams could come true this Christmas, and she could learn what family really means…

Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes

It’s December on Castle Street; the fairy lights are twinkling, snow has settled and the festive season is in full swing.


For Carly, the owner of Carly’s Cupcakes, it’s the busiest time of year getting everyone’s Christmas treats ready on time. However with her clumsy sister, Bethany, as a co-worker, it’s proving a difficult task. They say you shouldn’t mix work with family. Maybe they have a point…

As Christmas approaches, Carly is also eagerly awaiting the return of her best friend to Whitsborough Bay. Liam has no idea he’s been the object of her affection since their schooldays. After years of pining after him, can Carly pluck up the courage to finally tell him how she really feels by 25th December?

Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café

Everyone is getting into the festive spirit on Castle Street – snow is falling, fairy lights are glistening and Christmas shopping is underway.


But for Tara Porter, owner of thriving cafe, The Chocolate Pot, this is the most difficult time of the year. From the outside, Tara is a successful businesswoman and pillar of the community. Behind closed doors, she is lonely.

With a lifetime of secrets weighing on her shoulders, she has retreated from all friends, family and romance, and shut her real self away from the world. Afterall, if you don’t let them in, they can’t hurt you. She’s learnt that the hard way.

But as the weight of her past becomes heavier and an unexpected new neighbour moves onto the street – threatening the future of her cafe – Tara begins to realise that maybe it’s time to finally let people back in and confront her history. It could just change her life forever…

The one with some really special Christmas gifts

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

I know I’ve just posted about New Year but I was just scrolling through my photos and realised that I took several for a blog post, then forgot to write a post, so let’s dip back to Christmas for a moment when the lights were twinkling on the tree (ok, they still are), the gifts were looking gorgeous in their wrapping, and the dog was stealing things she shouldn’t have. Oh wait, Ella does that EVERY day, not just at Christmas…

There wasn’t anything the hubby or I particularly wanted this year so we agreed to treat ourselves to a picture we’d fallen in love with on holiday in the summer and get a few bits and bobs. The hope was to get the picture framed and up on the wall for Christmas but, well, you know how it is!

I find it pretty much impossible to think of anything for him beyond the supply of socks he needs every year after putting holes in them throughout the preceding 12 months, a dark chocolate orange, and his annual Landscape Photographer of the Year book but he usually comes up trumps with a few special gifts for me and this year was no exception.

I love the ‘On Air’ sign so watch out for that in my next Facebook Live on publication day of A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow (6th January). The ‘I’m a Best Selling Author’ colouring book made me laugh. It’s full of positive affirmations about my brilliance ha ha ha! The book has unusual words in it and the fluffy socks are bears. Perfect.

The hedgehogs in the next pic are mittens and they’re so gorgeous and soft. I wore them when we had our wander down to the harbour and they kept me so warm and snug. The munchkin bought me the hedgehog stress ball which I’m sure will be very useful when pondering tricky plot points.

The necklace (shown larger below) is adorable. It’s a hedgehog but its tummy is made from Whitby jet which combines my two worlds of Hedgehog Hollow and Whitsborough Bay in one necklace (as Whitsborough Bay is based on a mix of Scarborough, Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay). What a gorgeous idea!

The lovely hedgehog notepad above was from my friend Liz (who also sent me some delicious mint chocolates) and there’s a Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow key ring from one of the fabulous admins, Marie, at The Friendly Book Community Facebook group (who also sent me a large bar of Galaxy – nom nom). I’ll post a bigger pic of that (the key ring, not the Galaxy!) further down as it’s fabulous. It was very unexpected and extremely kind.

Hubby also bought me the latest Westlife CD (I’m a bit old school and enjoy CDs for my favourites) and a lovely starfish necklace and heart one… although I admit I picked those myself when we visited York Christmas Markets.

The face masks were sent in a care package with some tea and coffee from Fiona, one of the lovely admins in Heidi Swain and Friends – A Facebook Book Club – which was very kind of her and the lovely friendship heart hanger is from my good friend, Write Romantic and Boldwood Buddy Jo Bartlett.

My bestie, Sharon Booth, and I always exchange Christmas gifts and she is so much better than me at buying them. This lovely selection were so fabulous that I have to up my game next year as mine for her weren’t anywhere near as good.

I’ve added a larger picture of the wooden shop below. Isn’t it gorgeous? In All You Need is Love, part of the story is centred around a specialist teddy bear shop on Castle Street called Bear With Me. Main character Jemma and her mum make artist bears under the brand name of Ju-Sea Bears for her mum and Ju-Sea Jem bears for the smaller ones Jemma makes. The shop was inspired by my own teddy bear shop called Bear’s Pad and Ju-Sea Bears was the brand I used for the handful of bears I made.

Sharon has been building up a collection of these wooden businesses for a new series she’s working on for release next year and I’ve been admiring the photos on her Insta account but nothing quite beats seeing one up close. They’re amazing. I may need to start a Castle Street collection!

A huge thank you to everyone for these gorgeous gifts. I feel you all know me so well as these are simply perfect.

Tomorrow I will place my first entry in my ‘Happy Jar’ from Sharon. Absolutely love that idea and, as I’m celebrating a very big birthday in 4 months’ time, I hope that I have a lot to celebrate in 2022.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one with 2 audiobook offers, 2 milestones & a trip to Whitby

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Five more sleeps until Christmas. Eek! Are you all sorted? We had a quick nip into town first thing, before it got busy, and bought the last of our gifts. I wrapped them as soon as I got back so I think we’re there now.

AUDIOBOOK OFFERS

If you’re an Audible UK subscriber and fancy something Christmassy to listen to while you’re wrapping the gifts or preparing the Christmas dinner, look no further because Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop is in their sale for £3 right now. It was a thrill to see the audiobooks storming straight into the Top 100 and almost getting into the Top 50, peaking (so far) at #51.

If you’d like something non-Christmassy to listen to, the third book in my ‘Welcome to Whitsborough Bay’ series, Finding Hope at Lighthouse Cove, is also £3 in the sale. It was meant to be on this offer a few weeks back but it didn’t get activated so they’ve added it in now. It also went straight into the Top 100, peaking (so far) at #65 which is so lovely to see.

It was also special to see them side by side in the two top positions in the audio Women’s Fiction chart…

These sales usually last a week but, because of Christmas, they’re on for a fortnight, ending on 3rd January 2022.

Thank you to all the lovely listeners who have bought them during the Audible sale so far. Please do spread the word!

MILESTONES

I’ve had a couple more reviews/ratings milestones on Amazon in the past few days. Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop has hit the 1,000 mark and Coming Home to Seashell Cottage, the fourth and final book in the ‘Welcome to Whitsborough Bay’ series has hit 1,500.

An enormous thank you to anyone who has helped them get to these amazing milestones. I have to still pinch myself to see my books having so many reviews.

A TRIP TO WHITBY

And, finally, we had a lovely trip up the coast to Whitby yesterday. I was concerned it might be a little busy as there are lots of delightful gift shops, ideal for Christmas gifts, but it was actually fairly deserted. The weather probably didn’t help as it was cold, misty and damp as you can probably tell from the photos.

There’s a fabulous heritage trail with amazing wire sculptures depicting the fishing industry in Whitby. Hubby snapped these couple of pics. I love how you can see iconic images in the background like the lighthouse on the one on the left and St Mary’s Church (near Whitby Abbey) in the one on the right. There were several other sculptures and hopefully we’ll return soon and go round them all.

There’s s a lifeboat station at Whitby and, on the other side of the river, an RNLI shop where the lifeboat station used to be. I couldn’t resist a few purchases, especially when Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café strongly features the RNLI in its storyline.

The quote on the tote bag and the wooden box – the call from Sir William Hillary, founder of the RNLI in 1823 to form a national institution to save lives at sea – appears at the start of the book and is a recurring theme throughout. I love it so much.

There’s a branch of The Works there so we popped in to see if they had any of my books in. Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café appeared to have sold through but the hedgehogs were there. I definitely don’t think they’ll sell through quickly this side of Christmas when readers of this genre are after their festive reads, but hopefully they’ll fly off the shelves in the New Year.

On the Abbey side of the river, there are two lovely discount bookshops on the same street almost opposite each other, one having a range of books, jigsaws and toys – Good Reads Whitby – and the other focusing purely on Whitby with Whitby-based books, merchandise, photographs etc.

Whenever we see an independent bookshop, I like to go inside to see whether there are any of my books or books by Boldwood Buddies. This is because, when there’s a print run from The Works, more books than they need are printed to make the low cost of selling them financially viable. The excess are bought by a third party and distributed round the UK to indie bookshops, garden centres, post offices, local supermarkets etc., and others go abroad, particularly to Canada to an online retailer/bookstore called Indigo.

We paused to look in the window and how delighted was I to see Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café in there! What a treat!

Inside, there were loads of Boldwood Buddies which is always so exciting to see. And two more of my books! There were copies of Making Wishes at Bay View and The Secret to Happiness.

So if you live in or near Whitby and didn’t get a chance to pick up these books while they were in The Works, now’s your chance!

Big Christmassy hugs
Jessica xx

The one where I visited Nunnington Hall

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

Those who follow me on Instagram will already have seen a few photos but I wanted to share them here. Last Friday, I met up with author Eliza J Scott for a wander around Nunnington Hall in North Yorkshire. It’s not too far from the pretty market town of Helmsley and was a good meet-up location for both of us.

Eliza has visited before but I haven’t. It’s owned by the National Trust and you can find more details about it on their website here. The friendly guide in the entrance hall advised us that it is constructed of three different parts added over 450 years and was actually lived in as recently as the 1970s.

I’ve developed a love for visiting grand properties dressed for Christmas. There’s something extra special about seeing them dressed with wreaths and swags and trees, all gently lit by fairy lights.

Nunnington Hall didn’t disappoint with it’s first impressions. Isn’t it lovely? And that entrance is so inviting.

The grand hall had the most amazing fire blazing in it – perfect for a chilly day – but the lovely guide was standing by it so I don’t have a picture of it. I do have a picture of the lovely Christmas tree, though. Look at all those lovely gifts!

The rooms were dressed in different themes. If I’ve remembered this correctly a week on, it was Victorian, Georgian, 1950s and 1980s although I’m not 100% sure which was the Victorian v Georgian (or was it Edwardian). Don’t think I’ll secure a job there as a tour guide!

The low winter sun was streaming through the windows so it was tricky to get pictures but hopefully you’ll be able to get a feel for the feast set up. The costumes were really interesting as I’d always known that people were shorter back then but I stood next to the dress and the mannequin was much shorter than me and I’m only 5′ 2″!

In one of the bedrooms, there was the most delightful scene. The children from a local primary school had made Christmas trees from paper cones and there were fairy lights weaved between them and moving lights projected onto the ceiling. You really can’t get the feel from my photos but, believe me, it was beautiful.

One of the things I really love seeing when I visit stately homes are writing desks and I can never resist taking a photo of one and wondering if I’d have written books at such a desk if I’d lived in that era.

There was a lovely children’s bedroom. Look at those teddy bears. Awww!

I didn’t take photos of the 1980s living room but it was fun seeing the sorts of childhood toys I remembered like Sindys and the various games popular in that era. The Christmas tree was decked out with tinsel and baubles that reminded me of growing up too and there was a buffet table with some 1980s classic foods. Memories!

I enjoyed the 1950s bedroom and all the lovely gifts.

There were some art and craft exhibitions displayed in some rooms and I was in awe of how creative some people are.

When we’d finished our tour round the house, we retired to the tearooms and had the most delicious warm turkey & stuffing bap. It was served with rocket and homemade coleslaw and, tell you what, I’m still craving it a week later. It was absolutely delicious. And I couldn’t resist a hot chocolate and a piece of Victoria sponge too, although I completely forgot to take photos in my eagerness to eat!

We walked off our lunch in the gardens where there was a different view of the house in the late afternoon sunshine.

There were some activities for children set up and I couldn’t resist taking this photo of an adorable hedgehog illustration on one of them. I was also fascinated to spot one of the groundskeepers cutting down mistletoe from one of the trees. I’ve actually never seen mistletoe growing in the wild myself and the trees were covered in it. I took a photo but it hasn’t come out that well. You can just make out the clumps top right, bottom left and in the middle.

All too soon, it was time to leave but, on the way out, we spotted some more activities and couldn’t resist a go on the welly wanging! With a throw of a pair of wellington boots, I managed to knock over all the skittles which was pretty surprising considering I’ve never done that before. Eliza managed all but one so we both uncovered an unexpected ‘talent’. Who knew?!

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one where I travelled to Narnia

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

When I was little, one of my favourite books was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. I read it stacks of times and was completely captivated by the idea of four evacuees entering the land of Narnia through a wardrobe. So magical! I was therefore very excited that this year’s theme for Christmas at Castle Howard was ‘Christmas in Narnia.’

Each year, Castle Howard – a gorgeous stately home between Scarborough and York – is dressed for Christmas and it’s seriously impressive.

Castle Howard in the summer

In 2019, when we had no idea that a global pandemic was about to change the world beyond recognition, I visited with my bestie and fellow author Sharon Booth. The theme was ‘Masquerade’ and you can read about it/see my photos in a blog post I wrote at the time here. On the back of that, I knew Narnia would be pretty special.

Castle Howard last night

We were originally booked to go to ‘Christmas in Narnia’ a few Saturdays back but Storm Arwen hit and Castle Howard made the decision to close for safety. There are so many trees in the grounds that there was too great a risk with the high winds. Worried that we couldn’t go, I panicked and re-booked pretty much the only slots available – an after-school visit last night – but received an email later saying to bear with them as they would be squeezing in some extra slots for those who’d had theirs cancelled so we could probably have done a weekend after all.

The imagination and attention to detail that goes into creating these Christmas themes is quite astonishing. There’s actually a Channel 4 series running at the moment called ‘Christmas at…’ which documents how various stately homes transform for Christmas. It started with the ‘real Downton Abbey’ – Highclere Castle, then Warwick Castle and, spookily enough, Castle Howard was aired last night. My in-laws mentioned this when we collected the dog from theirs … and I promptly forgot. I need to watch it on catch-up.

Visitors need to book and there are 15-minute time slots to keep a steady flow moving through the house. Some whizz through and others pause to take in all the detail and there are no staff moving you on; the flow happens naturally.

Four of the bedrooms were dressed for each of the four siblings, Susan, Lucy, Edmund and Peter. Susan’s room was clamorous, Lucy’s full of toys, Edmund’s as a ‘war camp’ and Peter’s grand and representing courage.

Lady Georgiana’s Bedroom aka Susan’s Room
Lady Georgiana’s Dressing Room aka Lucy’s Room (photo credit Mark Heslington)
Castle Howard Dressing Room aka Edmund’s Room (photo credit Mark Heslington)
Castle Howard Bedroom aka Peter’s Room

I absolutely loved the move down the old passageways with all the snowy-looking flowers, candles and lights.

Antique Passage through Narnia (photo credit Mark Heslington)

Then we reached the wardrobe of fur coats through which Lucy first enters Narnia, and the lamppost where she meets Mr Tumnus. Note the fawn’s red scarf tied around it – lovely detail – and his packages on the ground.

We soon arrived in the Great Hall with the most enormous Christmas tree – 28 feet high – which is frozen in time awaiting Christmas returning to Narnia. Wouldn’t have liked the job of dressing that!

As we passed through the Great Hall, we reached the Garden Hall where the White Witch is on her sleigh and there’s a box of Turkish Delight waiting to tempt Edmund.

(photo credit Mark Heslington)

The Music Room was an imagining of Mr Tumnus’s home where Lucy enjoys tea with the fawn. There was so much to look at here and I loved the detail of the undecorated trees symbolising the forest coming into his home (although they’re not in my photo).

The next room had even more detail. The Crimson Dining Room showed the woodland animals celebrating as they sensed victory for good over evil. There were animals everywhere and toadstools under the table. Absolutely gorgeous.

(photo credit Mark Heslington)
Look who I spotted at the table!

The Turquoise Drawing Room depicted the mermaids singing to celebrate the crowning of the new kings and queens of Narnia
The Museum Room becomes the Professor’s study

When we visited the Masquerade decorations, the Long Gallery was packed full of figures and bridges and a ‘river’ but it was more understated this time with the colours of the Northern Lights now that Aslan is back and triumphant. Before we meet the great lion himself…

(photo credit Mark Heslington)
(photo credit Mark Heslington)
Christmas has returned to Narnia (photo credit Mark Heslington)

In the courtyard near the visitor’s entrance, there was a fire pit. Hubby had a coffee and the munchkin and I had a couple of giant marshmallows to toast. They were absolutely amazing.

I really enjoyed our evening. I’d loved to have lingered in some of the rooms for even longer to catch all the detail and I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with next year as the two times I’ve attended have been brilliant.

Hope you enjoyed the pics as much as I enjoyed my marshmallow!

Big lion hugs
Jessica xx

The one with all the amazing deals on my festive reads

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It’s two weeks today until Christmas Day! Eek! I am unbelievably disorganised this year. I had an unusually busy diary in November and an editing deadline and it has completely knocked everything out for me. The trees are up but there are still boxes everywhere still which need clearing today. I’ve had a couple of fairly unsuccessful shopping trips so still have some gifts to buy. My daughter’s birthday is 6 days before Christmas so we need double the ideas for gifts from us, both sets of grandparents, my brothers and my husband’s sisters. I met up with my side of the family last weekend and was organised enough to take their Christmas cards with me but I haven’t written any others. I think it’s going to need to be a busy Christmassy catching-up weekend for me.

Speaking of Christmas, there are some fabulous deals on my four festive books right now. Three of these books are in a series although each works as a standalone book:

  1. Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop (formerly Charlee and the Chocolate Shop)
  2. Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes
  3. Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café (formerly Christmas at the Chocolate Pot Café)

These are part of a series called ‘Christmas on Castle Street’ but it’s really only a series connected by the fact that they’re all set at Christmas in businesses on Castle Street. However, this is the order they’re written in and the businesses and characters get mentioned in subsequent books so there are some small spoilers if you read books 2 and 3 out of order but nothing much if you read book 1 out of order.

My latest release – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – is the start of a brand new series but is a complete story with no cliffhangers. It mentions Christmas and it has chapters set on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but this is more of a seasonal book than a Christmas one and has a very different feel to the other two.

In the UK, these books are on various deals which should keep them all at 99p throughout December. They are this price on Kindle and Apple Books and three of them are 99p on Kobo but Starry Skies is £2.99 on Kobo at the time of writing this.

In the USA, there are offers on three of the four reads on Kindle. At the time of writing this, Starry Skies was $3.99 but prices do sometimes change as Amazon price matches. Apple Books currently has different deals. Starry Skies and Christmas Wishes are both $0.99, with the Starfish Café and Carly’s Cupcakes at $1.99.

In Canada, there are some fabulous Kindle offers on all four books. The current Apple Books offers are the same as shown below for three of them. The only exception is that Starfish Café is currently $1.99 on Apple.

And finally to Australia, there are also great deals to be had. All four of these books are currently $1.99 on Apple Books Australia.

So loads of amazing deals to be had in all these territories although do bear in mind that prices can change, particularly on Amazon as they frequently price-match other sites.

Happy festive reading!

If you’ve already read these but have friends/family members/colleagues/neighbours who you think will enjoy them, please do spread the word!

Right, best get into Christmas mode and try to get organised!

Big festive hugs
Jessica xx

Thank you to everyone involved in the blog tour for Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop

Jessica Redland Author1 Comment

The blog tour for Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop drew to a close yesterday, With 48 stops scheduled over 16 days, it was another epic one.

An enormous THANK YOU to Rachel Gilbey from Rachel’s Random Resources for organising the tour and to all the amazing reviewers/bloggers who took part, generously giving their time to read the story, compose their review, and share it on the socials.

I’m delighted to report that this was another really positive tour. Yay!

There were a couple of no-postings and I hope those reviewers are doing okay as I noticed they haven’t posted anything for a little while. Sending hugs if they’re poorly or having a difficult time just now. There was also a promotion post only post which meant 45 reviews were shared. 

Not everyone gives a rating on their posts, but I do manage to track some down when the review is also shared on Amazon around the same time. The 35 ratings shared (or sleuthed by me) were all positive with 22 x 5-star, 3 x 4.5-star, and 10 x 4-star. It’s such a thrill when every single rating is a positive one.

It was a delight to read reviews from those who’ve read several or even all of my books, noting how much they loved being back on Castle Street and among friends. For those who were new to my work, there were several comments about checking out past and/or future books which is fabulous.

There were a couple of reviewers who had read this book in its original incarnation of Charlee and the Chocolate Shop and I was delighted to read that they loved the revised (and expanded) version even more.

Some reviews were so lovely that they made me quite tearful. It’s such an honour to have such prolific readers say so many wonderful things about my writing and my abilities as an author. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I do firmly believe that recommendations are the best way for an author to succeed so I appreciate every single one of these kind reviews. You are all superstars.

Wishing you all the best.

Big hugs
Jessica xx