It’s publication day today - the first of four I’ll be celebrating this year (assuming all goes to plan!) Tomorrow Starts Today is the fifth book out of a planned nine in my Escape to the Lakes series and it’s Yvonne Kellerman who steps into the limelight and tells her story. Although it’s always the best reading experience to read a series in order, each of the books in this series work as standalones because each features a different main character.

*Tomorrow Starts Today* out in all formats now

Here’s the blurb to whet your appetite…

When she unexpectedly loses her husband, Yvonne Kellerman's world turns quiet and grey. Five years on, her days are filled with the gentle chatter of her loyal parrot, Trevor, and the comfort of her crafting table—but she can’t shake the feeling that life is slipping her by and Yvonne feels lost and lonelier than ever.

When she joins the local crafting club at Willowdale Village Hall, Yvonne expects nothing more than a few afternoons of sewing. Instead, amongst the other local crafters, she discovers friendship, laughter and a renewed appreciation for her gorgeous Lake District home. It’s a reminder that she isn’t alone and, with each new stitch, her confidence returns, and so does her belief that it's never too late for fresh starts and new beginnings.

When a familiar face from her past reappears, Yvonne finds herself standing at a crossroads: will she protect her heart, or embrace the chance to love—and truly live—again?

I loved writing Yvonne’s story. Age 59/60 (she has a birthday during the story), she’s the oldest protagonist in my books so far and it’s been interesting to see how many early reviewers have enjoyed reading about a main character in this age group.

I’d never planned for Yvonne to be part of the series. She’s mentioned in book three - The Best is Yet to Come - as she lives over the road from Emma’s dad (Emma being the main character in that story). I knew I wanted this book to feature Willowdale Village Hall and a craft club and suddenly Yvonne stepped forward out of the shadows and announced, ‘I love crafting’. Ooh, I love it when characters unexpectedly come to life in this way with stories to tell.

I’ve featured crafting in several of my books so it would be a fair assumption to think I’m a big crafter myself. I’m not. I’m what could be referred to as an extremely sporadic attempter. I love the idea of crafting but I’m not that good at it and I don’t really have the time around my writing commitments.

There’s a fabulous crafting studio in a village not too far from where I live in Scarborough called Ebberston Studios. I’ve attended several needlefelting workshops there - a skill which Tara has in Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café which I wanted to understand in order to write that book.

In Tomorrow Starts Today, Yvonne’s passion is patchwork quilting. There wasn’t a workshop dedicated to this at Ebberston but I contacted the sewing manager, Michelle, who runs a sewing Saturday where attendees can work on any project they want. It wouldn’t be possible to make a quilt in one day but I asked her if she could teach me some of the basic techniques and terminology and she was delighted to help.

I poddled off to Ebberston in August last year with my sewing machine (which I hadn’t used for about 20 years!), my sewing kit and some fat quarters (sections of fabric selected to look pretty together) from which I selected a pretty blue and white Laura Ashley set.

I had a lovely day in the company of Michelle and three other sewists. Two were making patchwork quilts and the third was making a beautiful dress.

We decided on a technique called ‘Log Cabin’ and Michelle showed me how to build this by cutting out strips, ironing them, and sewing them together. It isn’t a quick process, especially when trying to keep all the seams equal, but I found is really relaxing.

I actually got more done than I expected, creating a ‘square’ of patchwork quilting. Maybe it could be a placemat or something to put a vase of flowers on, but I think of it more as a sampler. I didn’t quite get the edging finished at the workshop. Maybe if we hadn’t paused to get an ice cream from the van which passed through the village I might have completed it. It’s January now and guess what? The edging is still in the pinned form waiting for me to finish it. Yep, told you I struggle for time!

I’m really proud of my patchwork quilting square. The patchwork aspect is the putting the pieces of material together and the quilting part is adding some padding and a backing to it and stitching across it. There are all sorts of designs you can do here but this is where you separate the experts from the amateurs. Those with a talent for this can stitch lines from one corner to another and each piece will perfectly line up. Mine were a tad off although you’d only spot if if you knew what you were looking for.

Thank you to Michelle, Claire and Kath at Ebberston for their help and to one of my readers based in the Netherlands, Inge, for her expertise on patchwork quilting which is a passion of hers..

I’d love to have a go at some more patchwork quilting but I need to write another book first. Maybe when that’s done…

Moving away from the crafting, there’s a special pet in this book in the form of Trevor, Yvonne’s African Grey parrot. If you follow me on the socials, you’ll know I can’t resist a Jellycat that relates some aspect of my books. Jellycat have a parrot called Budgeby Parrot. He looks nothing like Yvonne’s parrot - far too brightly coloured - but he does match the cover of Tomorrow Starts Today really well so, of course, I needed to make a little purchase!

Tomorrow Starts Today is off on a blog tour organised by Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources. It’s five days but twenty-five stops. I’m so grateful to Rachel and the fabulous bloggers/reviewers taking part and sharing their (hopefully positive) thoughts on this story.

Finally in this blog post, I’d like to thank all my lovely readers who have pre-ordered Tomorrow Starts Today in whatever format or have bought/borrowed it from Kindle Unlimited today. I’m so appreciative of the support. Apple Books readers propelled it straight into the top 5 in the overall paid chart which I’m delighted at. Kindle and Audible have a chart positions lag so I won’t get a full picture of publication day performance until tomorrow or even Saturday but fingers crossed for a good position.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one where it’s Publication Day for Tomorrow Starts Today

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