Tag: Summer nights at the starfish cafe

The one where Bumblebee Barn goes into Prime Reading, SC3 is up for pre-order and HH6 is on a Kindle Daily Deal in Australia

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Hi everyone, hope you’re well and not too chilly if you’re in the UK surrounded by snow right now! In Scarborough (aka Whitsborough Bay), we had a white-over on Tuesday this week which cleared fairly quickly. This morning it was another white-over but even less snow which quickly turned to slush and went. My parents who are inland have it quite heavily, though. I was hoping to go across to see them today but the snow at their end has prevented that, especially as there’s a steep bank mid-way which is closed due to the weather. I’ll bob across next week instead.

I’ve had an extremely busy start to March. I had a submission deadline for book 20 – the first in my Lake District series – on Tuesday this week and I should have had plenty of time to write it but I lost a week early on due to illness. I suspect it was another Covid hit and it wiped me out which meant I was way behind so put in some exhausting hours catching up. I love the story, though, and am eagerly awaiting my editor’s feedback next week.

I’ve also started running a one-month online course so needed to record my training videos and get that all set up. I’m now pausing for breath and picking up the many balls I had to drop over the past few weeks.

One of these balls is letting you know that Healing Hearts at Bumblebee Barn went into into Prime Reading at the start of the month and will be there for at least 12 weeks.

It didn’t move up the charts much at first, but seems to have taken traction today and is loitering just outside the UK Kindle Top 100 so I’m hopeful of it dipping just inside again. Go on, little book, buzz on up that chart please!

If you haven’t already read it, here’s the blurb to entice you…

Welcome to Bumblebee Barn, home to wonderful animals, stunning views and spectacular sunsets – and resident young farmer, Barney.

While Barney loves his life at Bumblebee Barn – a farm that has been in his family for generations – he’s struggling to find someone to share it with. The early mornings quad biking through muddy fields and the long hours looking after the crops and animals are proving to be a deterrent to finding love.

So when his sister, Fizz – desperate for Barney to find his soulmate – sees an advert for Love on the Farm, a new reality TV show to help farmers find love, he has nothing to lose by applying. After all, he isn’t meeting anyone suitable down the traditional route and surely he won’t be picked anyway…?

Thrown into the chaos of reality TV, Barney could never have expected that his whole life would be turned upside down, with buried secrets to be uncovered and his heart on the line. With his family and friends rooting for him, could the magic of Bumblebee Barn heal his broken heart and help him find love on the farm?

Join top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for a brand new standalone novel of love, family and second chances.

Readers are loving Bumblebee Barn and I’m so chuffed that it went past the 1,000 reviews/ratings on Amazon at the start of the week so a huge thank you to everyone who has shared the book love.

In other news, it’s just under 4 weeks until my next release. My nineteenth book, Summer Nights at The Starfish Café is out on 6th April. It’s available for per-order on Kindle UK here and Kindle US here.

It has also gone up for pre-order on Audible. The full details aren’t there at the time of writing e.g. it hasn’t got a running time yet and it says the narrator is Kitty Kelly. That’s correct but Kitty is the guest narrator, telling Kerry’s story. Hollie’s chapters are still narrated by the amazing Lucy Brownhill who has narrated the other two audiobooks in the series – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café and Spring Tides at The Starfish Café.

You can find pre-order the Audible UK version here and the Audible US version here.

Can you read or listen to this book as a standalone? Yes, but I say that with significant hesitation. Kerry’s story is new although she did appear as a minor character in book 2. Hollie and Jake’s story starts in book 1 and develops across the series and I really don’t think you will get the full reading enjoyment if you start with book 3. A couple of the plot points in this third book don’t really make sense in isolation. Well, they do because I give the back story needed as a reminder to those who have had a gap between reading the books, but there’s a much richer reading experience to be had by starting at the beginning.

If you’re interested in a print version, the large print version and the hardback are up for pre-order at the moment. You can tell they’re special versions due to the price. The paperback will retail at £12.99 and may go up for pre-order or be available on the day. If anyone wants a signed copy, please do comment or contact me on social media as I have stock which will be £14 including p&p in the UK.

Here’s what this book is all about…

Welcome back to The Starfish Café for a glorious summer, but with a few dark clouds on the horizon…

A new beginning…

As her summer wedding to Jake approaches, Hollie is excited for their new beginning as a family. But when some unexpected news threatens the future she and Jake had hoped for, Hollie will need to find the strength to overcome heartache once more.

A fragile heart….

Single mum, Kerry, loves her job at The Starfish Café, but behind the brave smiles and laughter with customers there is a sadness deep within. So when someone from her past re-appears in her life, Kerry can either hide away or face her demons and try to finally move on from her heartbreak.

A summer to remember…

For Hollie and Kerry it promises to be an emotional rollercoaster of a summer, but the community at The Starfish Café will always be there to help them through – after all, with courage nothing is impossible…

Join top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for a wonderful summer at the seaside, full of love, friendship and community spirit.

And my final offer for today is on Kindle Australia where the final book in the Hedgehog Hollow series – Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow – is on a Kindle daily deal. This is on Saturday 11th March and, as it’s already Saturday in Australia, this offer has now kicked in. Readers can pick it up for the bargain price of $1.19 on SATURDAY ONLY. You can find it here.

With it being the final book of six, you can probably guess what I’m going to say here? NOT a standalone book. Yes, you can pick it up and read it as it’s a complete story but there are so many characters who have been building up across the entire series and so many threads tying together that I wouldn’t. I really would encourage readers to go back to the start and enjoy the whole journey. But, you might want to add this to your Kindle while it’s on the daily deal and add the others to it later.

The blurb if you haven’t read this one yet…

It’s the countdown to Christmas at Hedgehog Hollow Wildlife Rescue Centre, and everyone is gearing up for a festive season to remember…

It should be the most wonderful time of the year for Samantha and Josh as they prepare for the arrival of their first baby. But life at Hedgehog Hollow rarely goes to plan and the pair are faced with adversaries, old and new, and unexpected challenges to overcome.

Fizz’s job at the heart of the rescue centre is a dream come true but her personal life is more like a nightmare. With her love life a disaster and her past about to dramatically catch up with her, she needs the love and support of her Hedgehog Hollow family more than ever.

As the snow falls over Hedgehog Hollow, will Samantha and Fizz find the Christmas miracle they need to overcome their heartache and find happiness?

Top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland welcomes you back to Hedgehog Hollow this Christmas for the final time in this series for a heartfelt story of love, family, friendship – and hedgehogs of course!

That’s it from me for now. Wishing you a fabulous weekend. It’s my husband’s birthday tomorrow and also our dog’s but, due to the weather, we’re having a quiet day at home rather than attempting to go out and about, with a Chinese takeaway for tea and a family film.

Big 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

An amazing visit to Scarborough Lifeboat Station

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

Anyone who has read my latest release, Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café, will be aware that there is a very strong connection to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) in the story. It isn’t mentioned in the blurb because it’s all part of how the story unfolds and explaining the connection would give spoilers.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I originally had the idea for this book back in 2017 and had planned to release it as a Christmas novella that year. I visited Scarborough’s lifeboat station over the summer to undertake some vital research but, when I started writing the story, it soon became apparent it was much bigger than a novella so I parked it and returned to it this year.

A photo opportunity with some of the crew before they changed for launch

I am in awe of the amazing work that all the staff and volunteers at the RNLI undertake. Living on the coast, I am very much aware of the danger of the sea and how quickly things can change. The town has been affected by many tragedies over the years, some of which have inspired aspects of this book.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Scarborough Lifeboat Station as a special guest. Covid-based restrictions are gradually easing but the stations aren’t yet open again to the public, so I was very honoured to have a special invite and the chance to meet some crew, bombard the Lifeboat Chairman – a lovely man called Colin – with a million questions, and watch a launch.

Me with the ILB. Check out my starfish-themed Popsy dress to match my book!

Actually, I got to watch three launches. It was their training evening and the ALB – the Shannon-class All Weather lifeboat (the big one) was going out to see to practice anchoring. The ILB – the D-class inshore lifeboat (the little one) was out for practicing capsizing and righting the craft. Scarborough’s ILB is brand new so they also had its predecessor in the water and it was that boat they were capsizing, not wanting to risk damaging the brand new one.

It started raining shortly after I arrived and it was absolutely bucketing it down by the time the ALB and ILB were launched so I watched from inside, hence some blurry pics a bit later as I took them through a rain-battered window! The fabulous side-on ones are from my husband who was waiting for me on the pier.

The Shannon-class ALB being pushed by the tractor ready for launch
The shore crew are there to ensure a safe launch and to keep the public back – although that wasn’t so much of an issue in the torrential rain!
The kit room before the crew arrived

The boats and equipment they have are seriously impressive. There’s a large tractor (right below) and trailer for the ALB and a smaller version for the ILB (left below) and there are crew whose specific role it is to drive the tractors.

The ALB pre-launch beside the old ILB
All 3 boats and the door open to the ramp
The ramp. At high tide, this will be partially under water
The tractor returning to the beach after launching the ALB
The ILB being taken down the ramp with the ALB in the background
Both ILBs in the water ready for the capsizing practice

I’ve selected Scarborough Lifeboat Station as my charity for this year and will be making a donation in the New Year to thank the crew for their help and support and the amazing work they do to save lives at sea.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the photos. Apologies for the grey grainy ones but I firmly blame the weather for those! A huge thank you to all the crew at Scarborough Lifeboat Station for this amazing opportunity which has given me loads of inspiration for the second book in the series, Summer Nights at The Starfish Café, out on 5th April 2022 and available for pre-order now.

I’ve delayed posting this as I was hoping that our local paper would be running an article but there’ve been two editions since my visit and nothing has appeared so far. Hopefully it will still be covered at a later date but I didn’t want to not share the photos in case it doesn’t, especially when I was granted special permission to visit the lifeboat station for this photo opportunity.

For more information about the RNLI, please click here.

Big hugs
Jessica xx