It’s that time of time of year, isn’t it, when everyone’s minds turn to fresh starts and new directions? Maybe it’s exacerbated in my case by having recently passed “the big 5-0” – but I do feel the sense of not just starting a new year but a whole new decade.
Life can go by so quickly: I still vividly remember that heady day back in Jan 2016, when I published A Scone to Die For, the first book in my Oxford Tearoom Mysteries… and now suddenly, I find myself here, a decade later, with over 30 mystery novels across 4 series and a day job that involves making up stories in my pyjamas… just like I’ve always dreamt of! 😄
(Me & Muesli hard at work on that first mystery manuscript!)
In all seriousness, though, it has been incredibly hard work – no dream worth following is ever easy.
But amongst the tears and trials and tribulations are also the things I am most proud of: the stories I have loved and laboured over, the characters I have created and cherished, and of course, you – the readers I have been lucky enough to meet and call my friends and fans.
As many of you know (especially if you’ve watched my first chatty video! 😉) – I write by “hearing” voices in my head: either the characters talking (like eavesdropping on their conversations, which I then write down as “dialogue”) or hearing the sentences of narrative prose fully-formed (like listening to someone in my head reading a story out loud) – which I then transcribe on the page.
It’s almost like being a radio antenna, tuning in to a certain frequency to receive the transmission. If I can’t get reception, I can’t write it.
And in recent years – although I kept trying to deny it – I’ve been struggling to get reception. There were more and more days spent furiously twiddling the knobs in my head, trying to find the right frequency and getting nothing but static.
This has meant that each book has taken longer and longer to write (as you’ve probably noticed!), and I’ve felt terrible about this because I know how much my readers want more books in their favourite series. I’ve always been the dutiful first-born daughter, sensitive to people’s expectations and not wanting to disappoint, and I felt so guilty…
Well, I was brought up with what’s often called the “Protestant work ethic” – and so when things get difficult, you just double down and push yourself harder! So I started last year with a renewed determination to write the 13th book in the Oxford Tearoom Mysteries, breezily announcing that I would have it done by the spring…
But spring became summer… and summer became autumn… and as I sat in front of that blank first page and the days stretched into weeks and the weeks stretched into months, I grew frantic.
I tried every writing trick suggested, every productivity hack out there… I never told you this but I even changed my flights so that I could stop off in Oxford en route to that author conference in Las Vegas, late last year.
For me, setting has always been the biggest inspiration and I hoped desperately that a few days spent wandering around the “dreaming spires” would help me find the right frequency and get reception again.
But it was no use. I just couldn’t hear anything. In my head, there was only radio silence.
So I came home. And when the dust had settled after the post-conference excitement and I had returned from my Christmas trip to see family, I found myself facing the start of a new year… and finally admitting the truth I had been avoiding.
After writing Cozy Mysteries for 10 years, my heart is yearning to write something else. It’s time to leave the Little Stables Tearoom, time to shut the gate at Hollyhock Cottage.
Oh, not forever, mind you. Don’t worry – I’m not saying that I will never write Cozy Mysteries again. I would like to return to those series some day. But for now, I need a break and the chance to spread my wings beyond the quaint English villages of the Cotswolds.
And in fact, for the past few years, there has been a different frequency coming through loud and clear – but which I have been steadfastly ignoring…
As someone who has travelled all my life and lived in multiple countries, I’ve always been fascinated by the “what if?” of being stranded in a beautiful but foreign land, where you don’t speak the language and don’t know who to trust…
… what happens if you’re suddenly drawn into a web of mystery and murder?
Story ideas came to me, vivid and atmospheric… set in France, in Scotland, in Greece, in Japan … but each time, I shoved them ruthlessly away. Still they lingered at the back of my mind, calling to me… until at last, I found myself unable to ignore them any longer (milestone birthdays have a lot to answer for!).
A few months after my 50th birthday, I started a new manuscript and this time there was no staring at a blank page. The words poured out of me, faster than I could type.
Yes, this is the “Secret Project” I’ve been working on in the past year, the one that I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters 😉. It was just meant to be something that I did on the side – but it quickly grew to become my whole world.
Perhaps it’s because this story is set in a place I had been dreaming of visiting since I was a girl of fourteen – the wild and beautiful island of Crete.
I’ve trekked those mountain gorges, visited that remote fishing village and gazed at the dazzling blue of the Mediterranean Sea a dozen times in my imagination – and now I want more than anything to take you there too.
***
If that’s not your cup of tea, I completely understand.❤️(I will be returning to Cozy Mystery at some stage but not for a while)
But for those of you who love to travel, who are eager to have souvlaki in a taverna instead of scones in a tearoom, and meet mysterious strangers instead of meddling old biddies… I’m so excited to share this new world of stories with you, starting with: The Taverna at the Edge of Night.
Yes, that’s the title of my first destination thriller! The manuscript is currently going through the final stages of editing and the book will be coming out in spring. I’ll be sharing lots of “behind-the-scenes” and sneak peeks over the next few months (including gossip and photos from my research trip to Crete!).
Oh – and speaking of sneak peeks… here is a first look at the cover! What do you think? 😀
I LOVE it! I feel like it perfectly captures that mix of beauty and danger, mystery and myth.
And while there isn’t a cat on the cover (for once – haha!) – there are cats galore in the story. No, that wasn’t me trying to get twee in a thriller 😜. As anyone who has ever been to Greece will know, there are cats everywhere. On the docks, in the streets, between the shops, in the restaurants… It would have been unrealistic to the setting if I hadn’t featured them in the story (although it does seem supremely ironic for someone who is leaving everything “cozy”!)
I have so much more to tell you about the new book (and many more stories about the cats of Crete!) but for now, I’ll leave you with a picture of me on my first day in Crete, when one of the local felines came over to say “Kalimera“!
(My husband, horrified, told me not to touch it – think of the fleas! – but I just couldn’t resist a pat! 😄 )
I love the idea of your new direction. I can’t wait to read your new one off stories! I’m sure I will enjoy them😃
Aww, thank you so much, Rosa, for your kind words! That means so much to me ❤️
Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi
I’m looking forward to read these new adventures that are being transmitted to you on the new “frequency” ! Good Luck with the new endeavor and I’m sure it will be successful.
Thank you, Michele! ❤️ I so appreciate your lovely words of support!!
Hsin-Yi
As much as I love your stories frem the Cotswolds😍, being European myself ( I am from Norway🇳🇴) and someone who has travelled all over Europe, I am super excited over your new book direction!🤩 I look so foreward to read them. And of course when you find some British cozy mystery inside you I will be first in line to read them too.😍😍 Best of luck in your writing and give Musli a big cuddle from me.
Kind regards from Vibeke🌺
Thank you, Vibeke, for your lovely message and kind words!! ❤️ I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your support and encouragement. (OH! And you’ll be excited to hear that I already have an idea for the destination thriller I am going to write after this one… and it’s going to be set in Arctic Norway!! 😉 So I might have to come to you for advice & expertise closer to the time, to make sure that I am representing Norwegian people and culture accurately – haha! I will be sharing more details about the 2nd thriller in my newsletter as I begin to write it later this year…!)
Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi
How exciting!!! The Arctic Norway is so beautiful – especially with the Northern lights.🤩🇳🇴🤩 I am from Stavanger – the Oil capital of Norway in the south-west Norway. But I have travelled as far north as Tromsø and I have seen the midnight sun. I have not been all the way up to the Arctic Circle but my youngest son was there last summer. I’ll be more than happy to help in any way I can if you need me.❤️❤️❤️
Aww, thank you, Vibeke, for your kindness and generosity! ❤️ It will be wonderful to have a “Norwegian consultant” 😉
Oh, I had not heard of Stavanger but now I must go look it up! I was lucky enough to visit Norway last year and travelled up into the Arctic Circle – to Alta, which was an incredible (and very cold!!) experience! You have such a spectacularly beautiful country. I hope I’ll be able to return one day to visit some of the places I missed – like the Lofoten Islands (although at the rate that I’m going, by the time I get there, they will probably have become terribly touristy! They seem to have caught the “Instagrammable” curse… but hopefully not!! 😝)
I’m excited for your new series! I love all of your books.
Thank you, Kathy! 🥰
Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi
This is exciting news!! I’m not sure how I missed this newsletter, but I am so happy for you and the new direction you’re going in. Congratulations to you!! I wish you the best. As someone whose favorite genre is Thrillers 🤭 I am excited!! And the fact that yours “won’t be gory or have gratuitous sex or violence” means you’re writing the type of thriller I love reading. Can’t wait!!
Although I haven’t been fortunate enough to travel the world, it will be interesting to read about the adventures taking place in distant lands. I already learned something I didn’t know about Greece—the cats!!
Wishing you much success in your future writing endeavors.
Aww, thanks, Laura, for such nice words 🥰 It sounds like we have very similar taste in Thrillers – haha! I don’t mind darker themes but I find books with excessive violence & sex scenes quite distasteful (or just plain boring!). I always feel that things are often scarier (or sexier!) if more is left to the imagination… 😉
Looking forward to sharing the new book with you!
Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi