Whitsborough Bay Blog Tour #Author interview with Jessica Redland

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.

You can follow Jessica here: Twitter  |  Facebook   |  Website and Blog

Book links:

New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms: https://amzn.to/2ZOc5wJ

Finding Hope at Lighthouse Cove: https://amzn.to/2T013le

Coming Home To Seashell Cottage: https://amzn.to/2SKhUt5

Thanks to Jessica Redland and Boldwood Books for the interview and a place on the tour.