This week we’re welcoming Christina Jones, author of Christmas at Sandcastle Cottage.
Thanks for popping by to visit us.
Thank you so much for inviting me – it’s lovely to be here.
Please can you tell us what inspired you to write Christmas at Sandcastle Cottage?
I was invited to write a festive long-short-story/novella by my publisher, Accent Press, as a fore-runner to a new full-length rom-com series for them… I jumped at it! That’s great news!
What was the inspiration behind this book?
I always used to write Christmas short stories for the womags and I loved doing them because you could create this warm and fuzzy old-fashioned festive world… and as the last couple of years in my real life have been pretty difficult, I thought it would be lovely to recreate the cosy Christmases of my childhood before growing up got in the way. However, to make Christmas at Sandcastle Cottage real, I had to give my characters some pretty tricky hoops to jump through before they got to all the jingle bells and mistletoe… Debs has already pre-ordered Christmas at Sandcastle Cottage for her Christmas book list.
You’re traditionally published, what are your favourite aspects of being traditionally published and what would you change about it?
I’m currently with Accent Press. I’ve been traditionally published for 20+ years by 3 different publishing houses. There are ups and downs as with all businesses, but I do enjoy having a good back-up team to work on edits, promotions etc with me. Also I’m a) lazy and b) easily distracted, so I find it useful to have someone shouting at me when my deadline is looming and I’m still playing on Facebook. I’ve also self-published 3 anthologies of short stories which was an enjoyable experience.
Can you tell us a little about your route to publication?
I had my first short story published in Romeo magazine when I was 14. I went on to write short stories for Romeo, Jackie, Blue Jeans and many other teenage magazines for years. I also did a lot of their pop group interviews in the early days… my first commission was to interview The Stones backstage at a concert while I was still at school…. I will never, ever forget it… After the teenage years, I carried on writing stories for most of the womags… then I won the Romantic Novelists New Writer Award with my novella Dancing in the Moonlight. From that award ceremony I gained an agent, and I wrote Going the Distance, my first full-length novel, which was bought by Orion – and was a WH Smith Fresh Talent winner – and I’ve been writing novels ever since… I’ve been very lucky. That is truly inspirational!
What have you learnt that you wished you’d known when you started writing and what would be your biggest tip for a new writer?
When I started writing there was no internet, no online network, very little information – I didn’t know anyone else who wrote – I had no idea how you were supposed to submit/approach publishers/publications – I just wrote things and sent them. It was all very hit and miss – but it worked. Mostly. I’m glad I didn’t have the barrage of information, or the obvious competition that we all know about now with social media – I have very little confidence and I’d have assumed everyone was a far better writer/better connected/more knowledgeable than me and I’d have given up! And advice for new writers… seriously: read a lot – read anything and everything, without reading you will never be a writer, write from your heart, don’t follow trends – write the story you want to tell and only you can write. Great advice!
Bio
Christina Jones, the only child of a schoolteacher and a circus clown, has been writing all her life. As well as writing romantic comedy novels, she also contributes short stories and articles to many national magazines and newspapers.
She has won several awards for her writing: Dancing in the Moonlight won the Romantic Novelist’s association New Writer’s Award; Going the Distance was a WH Smith Fresh Talent Winner; Nothing to Lose, was shortlisted and runner-up for the Thumping Good Read Award with film and television rights sold; Heaven Sent was shortlisted in The Melissa Nathan Comedy Romance Awards and won a Category Award; Love Potions won the Pure Passion Award; The Way to a Woman’s Heart was short-listed for the Rom-Com of the Year; and An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding won The Reviewer’s Choice Award.
Christina has written 21 romantic comedy novels:
Dancing in the Moonlight; Going the Distance; Running the Risk; Stealing
the Show; Jumping to Conclusions; Tickled Pink; Nothing to Lose;
Walking on Air; Lavender Lane; Honeysuckle House; Forever Autumn;
Summer of Love; Hubble Bubble; Seeing Stars; Love Potions; Happy
Birthday; Heaven Sent; Moonshine; The Way A Woman’s Heart; Never
Can Say Goodbye and An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding.
She has also written and/or contributed to 12 e-book-only novellas/short stories/compilations:
Those Lazy, Hazy Crazy Days; Mitzi’s Midwinter Wedding; Bucolic Frolics; Happy Ever After; Snippets; Shiver; Holiday Fling; Wishing on a Star; Chicklit Lovers Vol One; Chicklit Lovers Vol Three; the Milton St John Box-Set; and the co-authored 1960s memoir Only One Woman.
All Christina Jones’ novels are currently available, either in paperback or e-book format, and after years of travelling, she now lives in rural Oxfordshire with her husband and several rescued cats.
Book Blurb
A heart-warming seasonal novella by bestselling author, Christina Jones
As with so many things in Kitty Appleby’s life, falling in love with Sandcastle Cottage, on a bitterly cold day was a monumental mistake. She hadn’t even needed to rent a cottage, or move to the seaside village of Firefly Common. Kitty had a home and a boyfriend and a job and a life in lively noisy bustling Reading.
Or so she thought…
But three weeks before Christmas, with the snow forecast to be thundering in from Siberia, Kitty suddenly had none of these things. Sandcastle Cottage was her only salvation. And as Kitty and her increasing band of waifs and strays moved dejectedly into the house in Firefly Common, she simply hoped someone had remembered to cancel Christmas…
Links
Facebook Pages: https://www.facebook.com/christina.jones1671
My Facebook author page: @ChristinaJonesAuthor
Christmas at Sandcastle Cottage is published this Saturday, 17th November 2018
Buy your copy HERE!
