Today I am so pleased to welcome Anna Martin to Joyfully Jay. Anna has come to talk to us about her latest release, Let It Sew. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Thank you so much to Jay for hosting me today! I’ve come along to talk about my new holiday story, called Let It Sew.

Before I get started, just a quick note – can I say how ridiculously excited I get every time I see a holiday story with a pun in the title?! I was grinning for ages after I saw Jodi Payne’s A Whole Latke Love. It’s a super cute story too, you should all definitely check it out.

Let It Sew is set in a sleepy village on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England. Little Wetherill is home to Harry Britton, who’s a Year One teacher (to children aged five and six, for my international friends), and Edward Saunders, who runs a tailor and alterations shop. The setting was no accident; I grew up in the south-west of England, and we spent many summers on the Devon and Cornwall coasts.

The story captures what I think is a familiar feeling around the holidays—that last minute panic when something goes wrong and you don’t know how to fix it. Harry finds himself with only one night to get all the costumes for his class Nativity play re-made after they were accidentally destroyed. After trying everyone he can think of, he stumbles across Edward, who makes beautiful, bespoke men’s suits—definitely not costumes for children.

The tradition of Nativity plays in schools is slowly declining in favour of more secular winter stories, but in primary schools that are attached to churches (of which there are a lot in the UK), they’re still popular. (For those of you who are interested, I went from playing Mary in my first ever Nativity play to being a sheep the next year. Talk about a fall from grace.)

I hope you all enjoy the little glance into snowy Little Wetherill and the two cute boys who are too shy to admit they like each other. If you’d like to win a copy, please leave a comment below!

Blurb

It’s the day before the last day of term and Year One teacher Harry Britton has a problem: all of the costumes for his nativity play have been destroyed by accident. The only person who can possibly help him is Edward Saunders, who runs a small tailor and alterations shop in the village.

Edward is more than a little shocked to be asked to make seventeen costumes for five year old children—he’s more comfortable making bespoke men’s suits. But there’s something beguiling and utterly charming about Harry Britton, so despite all his hesitations, he agrees to help.

Bio

Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the south west of England and now lives in Bristol. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English Literature at university before turning her hand as a professional writer.

Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theatre (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), visiting friends who live in other countries, Marvel Comics, learning new things, and Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk.

Although her most recent work is in the LGBT Fiction genre, in the past Anna has worked on a variety of different projects including short stories, drabbles, flash fiction, fan fiction, plays for both children and adults, and poetry. She has written novels in the Teen/ Young Adult genre, Romance, and Fantasy novels.

Anna is, by her own admission, almost unhealthily obsessed with books. The library she has amassed is both large and diverse; “My favourite books,” she says, “are The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.” She also several well-read copies of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park books and re-reads the Harry Potter novels with almost startling regularity.

Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, pre-reading and creative ass-kicking provided by her closest friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept any responsibility for anything Anna has written.

Giveaway

Anna has brought a choice of ebook to give away to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Saturday, December 14th at 11:59 pm ET.

• By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
• Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
• If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
• Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
• Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
• All book prizes are in electronic format unless otherwise specified.
• By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
• Readers may only enter once for each contest.  Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
• Void where prohibited by law.