Today, I am delighted to be taking part in the Whitsborough Bay Blog Tour. Jessica Redland has written several books based in the imaginary setting of Whitsborough Bay and you can find my reviews of her books here. (Some are being re-issued under different titles) Searching for Steven | Bear with me | Callie's Christmas Wish | Raving about Rhys | Christmas at the Chocolate Pot Cafe | The Secret to Happiness
As part of the celebrations, I am thrilled to welcome Jessica along to the blog to talk about her writing life:
Welcome to Books, Life and Everything. Thank you so much for
agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing.
Thank you so much for inviting me. Great to be here☺
Would you
like to start by telling us a little about yourself and how you started as a
writer?
I’m a home-based HR Tutor by day and an author by night (or
whenever I can fit it in!) I live in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, with my
husband, our 13-year-old daughter and a sprocker spaniel called Ella.
At school, English was my favourite subject and I read a lot
but I never considered a career as a writer. I trained in Human Resources and
had a job at one point where I needed to produce reports. My manager used to
joke that my reports read more like stories and I should write a book. I liked
the idea of writing a book … but had no ideas what I’d write about. Then
something happened in my personal life which unexpectedly gave me the premise
for my debut novel. Once the idea was there, it was like a dam of creativity
burst open and I suddenly had loads of ideas. Just wish I had time to write
them all!
Several
of your books have been set in the fictional Whitsborough Bay. What was the
inspiration for this and is it based on anywhere you know?
It’s based predominantly on the North Yorkshire seaside town
of Scarborough, where I’ve lived for the past 16 years. It has elements of
Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay in it too, which are both up the coast from
Scarborough. The great thing about writing in a fictional version of my
hometown is that I have inspiration around me every day but I can make up parts
that don’t really exist to suit my plot needs.
If you
could choose to be a character from any of your books, who would you be and
why?
What a great question but also a difficult one. I put my
characters through the mill and I wouldn’t personally want to go through what
some of them have gone through! I’d probably pick Jemma from Bear With Me
because her love interest is inspired by Chris Hemsworth and I have a bit of a
thing for him!
What are
your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?
Because I have a day job, I always have to prioritise that.
It’s home-based and not quite full time so I try to stop marking assignments by
2pm and write, although it doesn’t always work like that. I therefore often
need to write on evenings and weekends or I’d never get any done. Our spare
bedroom at home is my office and I mainly write there but I have been known to
write in a café or the car while my daughter is at an out-of-school club.
Before
you start the first draft, have you worked out the storyline in detail or does
it evolve as you write?
I usually have a premise and have developed my characters
quite a bit. I have a starting point, an ending point and a rough idea of some
things that might happen to connect the two but I’m very much a pantser,
letting my characters drive me to the end although they’re cheeky little tykes
and often hijack the story completely. When I was writing my debut novel, New
Beginnings at Seaside Blooms, one character turned into a stalker. Most
unexpected and not appropriate for the story so I had to write him out. In The
Secret to Happiness, I intended for one character to be the “baddie” but they
weren’t impressed and turned out to be a very lovely person instead which
scuppered a fair bit of the plot.
You have
created quite a variety of characters now who all live in your Whitsborough Bay
books. Are there any you are planning to return to in future books?
Most of my books have one main female character but there
are exceptions like Bear With Me which is shared between a male and female
protagonist and The Secret to Happiness which has three female leads. Some of
these main characters make cameo appearances in other books. We first meet
Sarah in New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms and she’s a key character in the rest
of the ‘Welcome to Whitsborough Bay’ series but she reappears in nearly all of
the other books so, for those who are familiar with all my stories, it’s a
welcome return of an old friend.
I am planning a sequel to Christmas at the Chocolate Pot Cafe (which is being refreshed at the moment and will be re-released by
Boldwood Books as a much longer book later this year) so those characters will
definitely re-appear and I plan to write several more stories set on Castle
Street. All my Christmas books are on that street so those shop owners and
managers do tend to make appearances in other books. I love that I can
potentially show new phases in their lives such as marriage or children, taking
them beyond their HEA without necessarily writing a new book about them.
Finally,
what do you like to read when you are not writing?
I don’t get nearly enough time to read as I’d like but I’m
mainly reading books by other Boldwood authors at the moment. Lots of treats to
explore there. I’ve just finished The Keeper by Diane Saxon, which is fabulous
and, before that, it was #No Filter by Maxine Morrey which was equally fabulous
but a very different kind of book. I love reading books by Sharon Booth (a very
good friend of mine) and have always been a big fan of Jill Mansell.
Thank you for your fabulous questions and for featuring me
on your blog.
Jessica xx
Thanks so much, Jessica, I can't wait to read the sequel to Christmas at the Chocolate Pot Cafe and meeting up with Tara once again!
About the Author
Jessica
Redland is the author of nine novels including The Secret to Happiness, which
are all set around the fictional location of Whitsborough Bay. Inspired by her hometown of Scarborough she
writes uplifting women’s fiction which has garnered many devoted fans.
Book links:
Thanks to Jessica Redland and Boldwood Books for the interview and a place on the tour.
Thanks so much for a fabulous interview and for being part of my blog tour xx
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