Celebrating 200 years of the RNLI and news for The Starfish Café series
Today – 4th March 2024 – the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) is celebrating two hundred years. I prepared a blog post for my publisher, Boldwood Books, briefly outlining how the RNLI was formed and giving some key links to their website. You can read the my blog post here but do check out some of the links in it to the RNLI's website where there are some fascinating posts, videos and podcasts.
The Starfish Café series shines a light on the amazing work undertaken by the RNLI and it has been a privilege to spend time at Scarborough Lifeboat Station to research the operations of the lifeboat station and the work of the crew.
I've interviewed several volunteers, observed a training session and posed with my books …
I've met their mascot Stormy Stan (who features in the series) …
I've made a financial donation and dropped off signed copies of the series to raise funds in a raffle …
And I've purchased lots of merchandise from the RNLI shop …
And a few other nautical items which fit so perfectly with the series. Any excuse! …
It was a beautiful day in Scarborough (aka Whitsborough Bay) today and hubby took a few pics for me while on his walk with our dog, Ella. The harbour and lifeboat station were looking mighty fine in the sun …
I love The Starfish Café series. It's probably my favourite series I've completed so far. Thankfully readers have loved it too and the combined series so far has sold over 168,500 copies with book 1 – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – selling nearly 93,000 copies alone.
That particular book has been in The Works and was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year in 2022 (Christmas/Festive Holiday category) which was such an honour. And it was translated into Serbian last year (although I think that version might be out this winter as I haven't received my paperback of the translated version yet).
Onto my news about the series, if you haven't already read the three books in The Starfish Café series, you might be interested to know that they'll be released as a box set later this month. This is an eBook box set only and comes with some additional bonus content.
And, finally, I'm offering a signed copy of book 3 in the series – Summer Nights at The Starfish Café – and a fabulous bundle of goodies, many of which I bought from the RNLI's shop, helping support their incredible work. You need to be signed up to my newsletter to have a chance to win. You can do so here. A newsletter will be issued in the next few days with a form to enter the competition so existing subscribers can also take part. The T&Cs for the competition can be found here.
I'll finish with a thank you to all the amazing crew at the RNLI, the lifeguards, and the volunteers who help run the shops, fundraise, and raise awareness. What they all do is amazing but the lifeboat crew in particular are heroes in my eyes. These are volunteers who put their own lives at risk to help those in difficulties. That's just phenomenal and must take incredible courage but, as Sir William Hillary said, “With courage, nothing is impossible". And the lifeboat crew couldn't do what they do without the amazing support of a team back at base planning and supporting each launch.
Congratulations on 200 years, RNLI, and here's to the next 100.
Big celebratory hugs
Jessica xx