Wish upon a star

Six days before Christmas a family crisis brings Stella back from London to the Scottish Borders – and to Ross, the man she left fifteen months earlier.

This time three years ago I was on tour with Stella’s Christmas Wish – well, virtually on tour, doing the rounds with some lovely book bloggers. Here’s what some of them had to say:

Daydreamersthoughts

I fell in love with the characters and actually wished they were real … I loved reading about them and the way their lives intertwined … I really, really, want there to be a sequel …

Shazsbookblog

Later on as we discover the truth I thought the reasons for Maddie's absence were heartfelt and brought a lovely tone and atmosphere to the story.

Bookmoodreviews

Stella quickly became a very sympathetic character for me.

Books of all Kinds 

The beauty of Scotland comes alive in this story, and the characters are so engaging and really make you care about them.

A Bookaholic Swede 

 ... I enjoyed reading this book and if you are looking for a Christmas read I recommend this one.
 

Portobello Book Blog
a delightful, warm-hearted Christmas read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Stella's Christmas Wish is published as an e-book by Black&White and is available from Amazon for a mere 99p, less than the cost of a chocolate snowman. It's also available in large-print in libraries.

Stella's Christmas Wish

Stella’s Christmas Wish is set in Edinburgh and ….

… On her right-hand side a train glided into Waverley Station. Down in Princes Street Gardens water had been flooded in and frozen to make a skating rink and it was busy both with competent skaters and people holding on to each other, laughing if they fell over. That was a comic Christmas-card scene – but the wider picture showed the dull winter green of the gardens; stalls selling food and mulled wine; the wheel – Edinburgh’s equivalent of the London Eye over the Christmas period.

 … the beautiful Scottish Borders

The Eildon Hills were white on the top, like a snow queen’s tablecloth. It was said that fairies lived there and that long ago the Queen of the Fairies enticed a Borders man called Thomas the Rhymer away to fairyland. When he returned years later – thinking he’d been gone only a few days – he had the ability to see into the future. Alice read Stella and Maddie that story one winter when they were little and for years they imagined that their Christmas-tree fairy had come from that fairyland in the hills.

Wherever you are I hope your Christmas wishes come true.

Stella's Christmas Wish – publication day

katewritesandreads interviews … Kate Blackadder

katewritesandreads: So – today’s the day! Publication of your first full-length novel, Stella’s Christmas Wish.

Kate Blackadder: Yes! It’s a day I’ve dreamed of since I used to scribble stories in old school jotters.

katewritesandreads: Can you tell us something about Stella herself?

KB: She’s a financial whizz; for the last fifteen months she’s been a high-flyer in a City of London office. She enjoys her job but she’s a home-loving girl too  – and home is far from London, in Melrose in the Scottish Borders.

katewritesandreads: Is she anything like you?

KB: Not at all – except that I spent six years in London, the first few months in a blur of homesickness.

katewritesandreads: Aw. But Stella has no option but to stick it out, does she?

KB: That’s right. And she misses her younger sister, Maddie, and Alice, the granny who brought them up, so much – but she doesn’t want to go home to Melrose because she’ll bump into her ex-boyfriend Ross and she doesn’t know how she’d handle that. They parted on very bad terms. So she and Alice and Maddie planned to spend Christmas in Maddie’s flat in Edinburgh.

katewritesandreads: And then … ?

KB: That plan falls through, big time. Six days before Christmas Alice is taken to hospital. Maddie has gone away and it seems that Alice is the only one who knows where and why – but she’s unconscious and can’t tell Stella anything.

katewritesandreads: A mystery … and is Stella on her own with all this going on?

KB: Ross’s grandfather, Gray, has always been a big part of Stella’s life. He tries to help.

katewritesandreads: I guess Stella’s not feeling very Christmassy?

KB: She’s not, but as she walks around Edinburgh she sees the huge glittering tree on the Mound, and the skating rink with all the stalls round it, the big wheel and the German market – not to mention the shop windows and the carol singers … 

katewritesandreads: Christmas is hard to avoid, isn’t it?

KB: <nods> And when she does, reluctantly, go down to Melrose, the Border hills are all snowy, like a Christmas card scene, and she ends up decorating the tree in her granny’s house which brings back all sorts of memories for her. So she can’t help feeling a little of the magic of Christmas despite everything going wrong for her.

katewritesandreads: So what does she wish for?

KB: I will leave readers to find that out for themselves, if you don’t mind. I’m off to have a celebratory glass of fizz.

katewritesandreads: Enjoy the rest of publication day.

KB: Thank you. Cheers! And, lovely people, if you read Stella's Christmas Wish it would be much appreciated if you could take the time to leave a review online. 

May all your Christmas wishes be granted.

Stella’s Christmas Wish is published by Black & White Publishing today, 3 November 2016 (99p).

Find out more about my writing here and here.