Friday 25 November 2022

Christmas Quiz

Christmas Quiz



In The Christmas Cupid, Zoey and her friends take part in a weekly pub quiz, so I thought I'd put together a little festive quiz for you to have a go at.



There are 20 questions, with everything from crimbo music, festive soap storylines, seasonal food and drink and Christmas films.


To see the answers, click on the button at the end of the set of questions. Do let us know how you got on in the comments!


Q: The action figure Turbo Man is from which festive film?


What did my true love send to me on the eighth day of Christmas?


Q: Which festive cocktail is made from champagne and orange juice?


Q: Which of these was NOT a Christmas number one in the UK: Lonely This Christmas (Mud) Fairytale of New York (The Pogues ft Kirsty MacColl) I Love Sausage Rolls (LadBaby)


Q: Who killed Emmerdale's Tom King on Christmas Day 2006?


Q: Name the Three Wise Men in the nativity


Q: In  the 2019 Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, what festive food item was left in the pub on Christmas Eve?


Q: Whose affair was revealed by DVD footage on Christmas Day in Eastenders 2007?


Q: How many days of Christmas do Destiny's Child sing about?


Q: Which celeb won the first series of Strictly Come Dancing?


Q: Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz swap homes in which festive film?


Q: Who was Driving Home for Christmas in the UK charts in 1988?


Q: Who was Scrooge's business partner?


Q: Which of these Coronation Street characters was born on Christmas Day: Simon Barlow Rosie Webster David Platt


Q: Which festive hit starts with 'Welcome to my Christmas song'?


Q: The Vicar of Dibley's Geraldine Granger is invited to - and accepts - how many Christmas lunches?


Q: In Home Alone, Marv labels himself and Marv as 'The Wet Bandits', but what does he call them in the sequel, Lost in New York?


Q: In The Royle Family at Christmas (2000), whose first birthday are they celebrating?


Q: Which coin is traditionally mixed into a Christmas pudding?


Q: In the Father Ted Christmas special, where do Ted and Dougal get lost?




Get Answers





Find out more about the book:


The Christmas Cupid | Jennifer Joyce



‘Laugh-out-loud funny… Everything you want in a Christmas book and more!’ Jaimie Admans


One Day in December meets Groundhog Day in this hilarious Christmas rom com!


Zoey Beake is having a bad December. She might be an elf in the local toy shop’s Christmas department, but it’s hard to stay festive when you’ve just been dumped, you’ve had an extremely unfortunate haircut, and your boss volunteers you to walk on stilts in the toy shop’s Christmas parade.


But then something incredible happens.


Zoey is sent back to the start of December, with the chance to live the whole month again. The catch? She has to match six true-love couples by Christmas Eve. Now it’s not just her own love life she needs to fix… Grab the mistletoe, the Christmas Cupid is ready to matchmake!


A funny and uplifting Christmas romantic comedy for fans of Holiday RomanceOne Day in December and Santa, Please Bring Me a Boyfriend!




Wednesday 23 November 2022

Nanowrimo 2022 - The Final Push


We're in Week 3 of NaNoWriMo 2022. This time next week there'll be a rush to get those final words down, but how's it going so far?





I started Week 3 at 36,448 words, which I'm really pleased with and I'm starting to believe I can actually reach the 50,000 words by the end of November. I think it'll be tight, but I'm going to do my best to get there. But even if I don't reach it, I'll still have loved taking part in this year's Nano because I lost my confidence a bit with writing last year, especially when I didn't do as well as I'd hoped during Nano. But this year's Nano has shown me that I can do this. I can write in between all the other stuff that life throws at us, and I'm so grateful that I can physically write as a few months ago it wasn't really possible (a blog post took me three days to put together, a little bit at a time) as I was ill and my hands were so messed up. So whatever my Nano word count is, I'll be happy.


Nanowrimo 2022 | Day 22 | Word Count: 36,448


I didn't manage to get to this week's in-person write-in at the library, but there's an online meet-up tomorrow that I'm looking forward to attending. Hopefully I'll get some extra words down!


How are you getting on with Nano this year?

Tuesday 15 November 2022

Nanowrimo 2022 - We're Halfway There!


It's Day 15 of NaNoWriMo 2022, which means we've reached the halfway point!



The first two weeks of November have flown by; one minute I'm posting my Day 1 Nano photo on Instagram, the next I'm posting a halfway there pic - madness!


I've really enjoyed the past couple of weeks though, and I've loved diving into my book at every opportunity, wondering where my characters are going to take me next.


Nanowrimo 2022 Halfway Point


We're at the halfway point of the challenge and I'm not quite there with the word count, but I'm not far off at all and I'm going into the second half of Nano at a teeny smidge over 24,000 words. I'm really pleased with this amount as not only am I very nearly on track, I'm also around the point I reached for the whole of the month during last year's Nano, where I managed 20-25k.


I'm aiming for 3,000 words today, to take me up to 27,000 words, which will definitely take me over last year's word count. I've got an in-person Nano meet-up at the library this evening so that should definitely help me to reach my goal. I've only managed to attend one meet-up so far so I'm looking forward to finding out how the others are getting on with their projects.


Nanowrimo 2022 | Day 15: 24,018 words

Friday 11 November 2022

Spotlight Book: The Mince Pie Mix-Up

The Mince Pie Mix-Up

I'll be throwing one of my books into the spotlight each month during 2022 and next up is the first book of mine that was published by HQ Digital, The Mince Pie Mix-Up



Be careful what you wish for this Christmas...



‘I wish I could live your life. I’d happily swap lives with you.’

’Tis the season to be jolly but for Calvin and Judy the usual festive bickering has already begun! Judy’s convinced that her husband has it easy – no glittery wrapping paper, no playground gossip and absolutely no Christmas baking.

Calvin wishes he could trade in his obnoxious boss and dull nine-to-five job to spend more time kicking back with his kids – how hard can Judy’s life really be?

But after a magical mince pie mix-up, one thing’s for certain – by Christmas Day, life for Judy and Calvin will never be the same again. Perhaps the grass isn’t always greener after all…

A hilarious, feel-good festive read, perfect to curl up with this Christmas. Fans of Carole Matthews, Jane Costello and Mandy Baggot will love this story! As will fans of Freaky Friday or 13 Going on 30!




'One of the best Christmas reads I have read this year!' - Laura's Little Book Blog



The book was initially inspired by the song ‘Christmas Through Your Eyes’ by Gloria Estefan


See more fun facts here



I like to post little 'Book Extras' (like you'd find on a DVD) for my books here on the blog, and for The Mince Pie Mix-Up I created a Playlist, put together a quiz, shared a book in pics and introduced some of the characters, and asked which character are you?

Wednesday 9 November 2022

The Christmas Cupid in Pins

The Christmas Cupid | Jennifer Joyce

I love using Pinterest while writing, whether it's setting up a mood board for characters or telling the whole story in pins!


While writing The Christmas Cupid, I pinned images for key points in the book, which you can see here


It was fun, but it also gave me a visual of what was happening in the story and helped to bring it alive.


If you've read the book, can you match up the pics to the story?





Find out more about the book:

The Christmas Cupid | Jennifer Joyce


‘Laugh-out-loud funny… Everything you want in a Christmas book and more!’ Jaimie Admans


One Day in December meets Groundhog Day in this hilarious Christmas rom com!


Zoey Beake is having a bad December. She might be an elf in the local toy shop’s Christmas department, but it’s hard to stay festive when you’ve just been dumped, you’ve had an extremely unfortunate haircut, and your boss volunteers you to walk on stilts in the toy shop’s Christmas parade.


But then something incredible happens.


Zoey is sent back to the start of December, with the chance to live the whole month again. The catch? She has to match six true-love couples by Christmas Eve. Now it’s not just her own love life she needs to fix… Grab the mistletoe, the Christmas Cupid is ready to matchmake!


A funny and uplifting Christmas romantic comedy for fans of Holiday RomanceOne Day in December and Santa, Please Bring Me a Boyfriend!




Friday 4 November 2022

NaNoWriMo 2022 - How Are We Getting On?

 


We're four days into this year's Nanowrimo - how are we getting on?



Nanowrimo 2022 | Day 1 | Word Count: 0


Nano kicked off on Tuesday, with a massive 50k goal for the month of November. I doubt I'll reach the official goal but I do love the community spirit of Nanowrimo and I'll be happy with any amount of words I get down.


On Tuesday, I met up with some other Nanowrimo-ers at the library, where we shared what we're working on and got some words down. I'm not starting a new project for this year's Nano as I'm mid-project, so I'll be clocking up as many words as I can for my WIP.


Nanowrim0 2022 | Day 2 | Word Count: 3,337


I've had a good start to this year's Nano, and I've managed to add almost 8.5k words to my current book. I'm writing another rom com and I'm loving being immersed in the story. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to my characters next!


How are you getting on with this year's challenge?


Wednesday 2 November 2022

The Christmas Cupid: Fun Facts

The Christmas Cupid | Jennifer Joyce

Have a sneaky look behind the scenes of The Christmas Cupid with a few fun facts about the book:



Steffi-Jayne was named after a newsletter subscriber



Owain's name was inspired by my local weatherman, Owain Wyn Evans



I ended up buying myself a copy of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas after mentioning it in the book



I wrote most of the first draft - almost 70,000 words - during November 2020 as part of NaNoWriMo



The toy shop was inspired by the Daisy & Tom's toy shop that used to be in Manchester



C&L's Toys was named after my old pet rabbits, Cinnamon and Leah



While I was writing the book, I posted progress updates on Instagram. Because of the toy shop setting, I used Etch A Sketch post-it notes



The book was inspired by a Christmas documentary about a festive parade, which included a bus with a Santa onboard



The book is set in Woodgate, which is the setting for a number of my other books, including the Beginner's Guide series



Zoey's name was inspired by the TV show, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist



The grotto at C&L's Toys was inspired by the grotto at Macy's in New York



Find out more about the book:

The Christmas Cupid | Jennifer Joyce


‘Laugh-out-loud funny… Everything you want in a Christmas book and more!’ Jaimie Admans


One Day in December meets Groundhog Day in this hilarious Christmas rom com!


Zoey Beake is having a bad December. She might be an elf in the local toy shop’s Christmas department, but it’s hard to stay festive when you’ve just been dumped, you’ve had an extremely unfortunate haircut, and your boss volunteers you to walk on stilts in the toy shop’s Christmas parade.


But then something incredible happens.


Zoey is sent back to the start of December, with the chance to live the whole month again. The catch? She has to match six true-love couples by Christmas Eve. Now it’s not just her own love life she needs to fix… Grab the mistletoe, the Christmas Cupid is ready to matchmake!


A funny and uplifting Christmas romantic comedy for fans of Holiday RomanceOne Day in December and Santa, Please Bring Me a Boyfriend!