A little catch-up from Western Australia...

Published: Sun, 10/25/20

Hello from Western Australia! I hope this finds you safe and well, and coping with all the craziness in the world at the moment...

Here in Perth, I've been spending loads of time in my garden as we're in mid-spring now and everything is in full bloom. It is SO beautiful at the moment! I wish there was a way you could all visit and enjoy it - but failing that, here are some pictures to give you a taste!

"Portrait of cat and roses" ;-)

One of my gorgeous hollyhocks in the golden afternoon light!

"Footloose and fancy freesia..."

This is one of my favourite David Austin English roses, named "Jude the Obscure" after the Thomas Hardy novel. It has a divine fragrance and I love the unusual globular shape of the blooms and the unique colour: a mix of cream, peach, pink and yellow, which is described as "the colour of clotted cream"! :-)

But don't worry - it's not been all play and no work! ;-) Here are some updates about upcoming books (and scroll further down for audiobook news)

Next week, I will start work on FRONDS AND ENEMIES (Book 5 in the English Cottage Garden Mysteries). That's currently on pre-order with a release date set for May 2021, but I'm hoping to publish it much earlier.

After that, I will be writing the next BEWITCHED BY CHOCOLATE story (Book 7) - which I'm hoping to release in the first half of next year as well.

And for all the Oxford Tearoom fans, I'll be returning to the Little Stables Tearoom and the beautiful university city of Oxford for some tea, scones and murder, soon after these other books are released!

But first, I'm finishing up the first draft of BIKINIS AND MURDER, the last book in my new Barefoot Sleuth Mysteries. I will be sending it on to my beta readers next week, then - following revisions - on to my editor after that. The book will be released in Jan 2021 (although you can nab it now on pre-order!)

And in case you missed them, you can check out the first 3 books here: The Barefoot Sleuth Mysteries

Speaking of the Barefoot Sleuth series... here are the winners of the giveaway celebrating the release of this new series!

The 4 lucky readers with emails starting:

geraniumcat
rieroberts
need2stamp
debmeow3

- each win a paperback set of the first 3 books of the series. Congratulations! My assistant Erin will be contacting you with details of the prize.

There are more exciting giveaways on the way so if you didn't win this time, don't fret - you'll have plenty more chances soon! :-)

Actually... Kings River Life Magazine have just featured a lovely review of COCKTAILS AND MURDER (Book 3), with a fun recipe and the chance to win either an ebook or print copy... so head over there to check it out and enter the giveaway!

https://kingsriverlife.com/10/24/cocktails-and-murder-by-h-y-hanna/

Audiobooks Update:

I know many of you are patiently waiting for COCKTAILS AND MURDER, the 3rd book in the Barefoot Sleuth series, to come out in audio.

Unfortunately, production has taken longer than expected. My narrator Pearl Hewitt lives in Texas and the poor thing has been struggling with a host of issues, from multiple hurricanes and a bout of sickness to technical glitches and noise issues, all of which have prevented her from recording.

But we're in the final stages of the production now so the audiobook should hopefully be available on Audible by early November. I'll let you know as soon as it's out!

I also have some exciting news about German audiobooks which I hope to share soon!

Reader Questions:

Apologies to all those readers who have emailed me in recent months... I'm SO behind with responding to messages!

I have a folder caller "Reader Emails to Answer", which currently has over a hundred & fifty emails waiting and keeps growing every day... and I'm struggling to keep up.

So if I haven't responded to your email yet, please forgive me - I really do read and appreciate all your messages (well, the polite ones anyway! ;-) ) and I try very hard to answer them all personally, although sometimes I just cannot manage to.

A lot of people ask the same things so I have put the most common questions on an FAQ page on my website:

https://www.hyhanna.com/contact-me-faq/

But I thought I'd also start answering some questions in each newsletter, as other readers may be wondering the same thing or find the answers interesting.

1) "Have you given any thought to publishing a cookbook with all of the Tea room treats?"

- Yes, I have - although such a project would take time away from writing and my lovely readers are always clamouring for the next book faster than I can write it - haha! Perhaps I'll find time to do it some day but in the meantime, I have put all the recipes featured in the Oxford Tearoom Mysteries on one handy page on my website (including a printable PDF version): https://www.hyhanna.com/recipes/

2) (in response to my last newsletter) "Lovely garden walkway. Is the purple tree in the background an acacia?"

- No, it's actually an azalea bush trained in a tree shape! ;-) I've discovered that bushes or shrubs trained as "standards" are wonderful solutions for a small garden, as they look like a tree and can be pruned to shape, but they never grow too big or tall. Azaleas in particular, have a very small root ball which means they don't take up too much space in the bed and I can cram in lots of other plants under & around it! ;-) I have 2 azaleas bushes which have been trained as standards and they both look like beautiful flowering trees in the spring.

Until next time, when I'll be sharing more book news, photos and a new giveaway...

Thanks for reading - talk soon!

Hsin-Yi

(H.Y. Hanna)

Website: www.hyhanna.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/hyhanna.books

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