H. Y. Hanna’s Oxford Tearoom Mysteries

  H.Y. Hanna’s Oxford Tearoom Mysteries starring intrepid graduate Gemma Rose and her cheeky cat, are for fans of TV shows like Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders, with twisty tales set in classic English villages. Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today H.Y.  – known to her friends as Hsin Yee – talks about her years as an Oxford student and why food and animals play such a big role in her stories. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: How HY got started writing The attraction of the Cotswolds  Why she – and her readers love animals The importance of food in the Tearoom Mysteries The writers she admires most What she’d do differently second time around Where to find HY Hanna (Hsin Yee) (Pronounced Sin Yee) :  Website: https://www.hyhanna.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hyhanna.books  Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7232313.H_Y_Hanna What follows is a “near as” transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now, here’s Hsin Yee. .  Hello there Hsin Yee and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.  Hsin Yee: Thank you for having me, it’s very exciting to be on my first podcast! Jenny: That’s lovely. I’d just like to mention to listeners- I’m in Auckland, New Zealand and you’re in Perth, Western Australia. We’ve got a lot of ocean to cross between us, haven’t we! HY Hanna: (Sin Yee) Tearoom Mysteries Murder Jenny:  Beginning at the beginning – was there a “Once Upon A Time” moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction?  And if there was a catalyst, what was it? Hsin Yee: Well, I think all authors will tell you they wanted to write, so that’s probably not a very original answer. But that’s pretty much my luck. As a little girl, I was always making up stories and sitting in my room. I had little plastic animals that my parents bought me- little farm animals- and I’d make little stories with them, going back and forth. So I guess I’ve always wanted to tell stories. And then as I got older, once I could start writing, I wrote these little stories in my diary usually featuring myself. You know, going to buy an ice-cream or something! But they were all stories with a beginning, middle and end. And so I think as you grow up a bit more, you realize that’s kind of what you want to be; a writer. And then of course reality intrudes, and as you get a little bit older you realize it’s not as simple as that. Usually you get people saying, “do a “sensible” job, do a “normal” job”. So I put that away for awhile – I went to university and did all the usual things. I did a selection of different jobs actually, because I was very much doing what was expected of me. And then I think you’d call it one of those “midlife crisis” moments – I was approaching my 40th birthday, and I started thinking- what am I doing with my life? Where is it going? I guess you get that feeling of ‘I better do what I really want to do now, otherwise life is just passing me by.’ I was never really happy with any of the jobs I did. I tried various things; obviously you enjoy doing your work well, but it wasn’t where my heart was. Creatively, I was always very frustrated. So I don’t think it was a particular triggering event, but I guess my looming 40th birthday where I just thought, if I don’t do it now, it’s never going to happen. I was actually quite lucky during the time I was moving into writing anyway, in the sense that I was working as a freelancer writer and journalist writing for various magazines. So I was already used to the whole idea of working with an editor and having a piece commissioned, writing to a certain word count… you know, all those kinds of things. So writing I guess for a living – I was already half way there. I just wasn’t writing fiction, which is what I really wanted to do. It just went from there I suppose. Oxford Tearoom Mysteries – HY Hanna You think, this is the time right now to really write that novel! Actually to be honest, I did start writing novels in my early twenties, when I was working in London. I did start several novels – I actually had one novel and completed a couple then – and I had one novel get very close to publication. I had an agent in the UK, and it got considered by one of the big publishers there called Hodder and Stoughton. It got quite close to a book deal, but what happened is the editor who liked it left. She actually came to Australia! And like all these things- when the editor likes your manuscript leaves, and the next editor comes along, they don’t always like the same things. So it sort of fizzled out. I don’t think I was giving myself permission in the sense that I tried, but then I thought “no no. This is me being silly again. I need to go back again and do a normal job!”. And there’s that expectation, I remember putting that on myself. I’m also Chinese, and I don’t know if you know but in Asian culture, there’s a big expectation. There’s only four jobs that are acceptable; you’re a doctor, lawyer, accountant or teacher. Or a dentist at a push! Those are the sort of “acceptable” professions if you want to be considered “successful”. Anything creative is oh my god! It’s a terrible thing to suggest. There’s no job security being a creationist, and I think with that culture it’s very much going with those respectable, reliable, professional careers. Jenny: And why choose cozy mystery as your genre? Hsin Yee: The first one was a mystery. I started with children’s fiction, because as a child I loved to read. I’m sure lots of authors say this, but I was a child with my nose in a book all the time. I used to go and find a quiet corner, sit on the stairs and just read. I’d read all day and get in trouble for not appearing for hours! So obviously, I was very much wanting to pass that on and recapture that experience I’d had as a child. Also, I loved Nancy Drew as a child. When people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said I wanted to be Nancy Drew because genuinely that’s what I wanted to be! And I really wanted her red hair. So I thought I’d like to write a mystery series like Nancy Drew, for children the age I was when I got into books. So that’s middle grade – what they call it on the American market, sort of 9-12 years old. And obviously I love animals. I had a great dame- she’s passed away now- but I had her at the time, so it was very much inspired by her as well. 101 Dalmatians, a favorite. The other book I loved as a child was 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. But this was the original, not the Disney film which is darker actually! I loved the sort of tone of that book. It was very much a combined group of dogs that are friends, and they tackle mysteries together. A puppy goes missing, or you know something happens and they track it down. Each of the dogs are from a different breed, so the personalities are very much taken from the breed characteristics. So for dog lovers, it was a bit of fun- sort of the Jack Russell with the small dog syndrome, and the Great Dame and all that sort of thing. I dabbled a bit in a few other genres, just because I think to be honest, I always knew I wanted to write mystery but I think sometimes you’re a bit afraid. Like you haven’t got the confidence to do what you really want to do. You know the genre you want to do, but you always think you’re not good enough to tackle that. And also I’m very easily influenced by people around me if they sound very confident. I lack confidence myself, so if they say “write this, it’s blah blah blah”, I sort of think I must listen to someone with much more experience. So I tried various other genres, and at one point I wrote romance – street romance in my case because I wasn’t very comfortable writing sex scenes. Street romance doesn’t involve any graphic descriptions of sex. You know, it’s closed door- that’s what they call it. But I found I could put a dead body in the story all the time! I kept deviating from the plot line. You know in romance, the important things are the boy and the girl getting together- that’s the whole point of the romance. I just kept on wanting to put in people getting murdered, or suspicious activity and this sort of thing. I finally sat down and thought, I’m writing the wrong thing. What I really want to write is mystery. So I gave into that. Jenny: Your Oxford Tearoom Mysteries are set in classic English countryside – the Cotswolds – and are for people who “like Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders.“  Are you yourself a fan of those shows? And are these the first books you wrote? Popular TV series Midsomer an influence. Hsin Yee: Yes, I’m a huge fan of those shows. Obviously having been at Oxford myself, it was always sort of both fascinating and I guess a bit of home sickness watching Morse on TV. You recognise all the places that they film and you know exactly what the colleges are. Often they obviously change the names- which is what I do as well for liable reasons.  Midsomer is set in beautiful English countryside. I love English cottages and that romantic countryside look, so it appeals to me hugely. Jenny: The settings are very authentic – you were at Oxford in the 1990s weren’t you, and lived there for a number of years before emigrating to Australia – so that was an obvious place to set your series. Hsin Yee: I was studying there as both an undergraduate and a graduate, I stayed on. I was at one of the Oxford colleges doing Biomedical Sciences, so I was getting into the whole thing of doing a “proper” degree! So I did a science degree. I mean the school I went to was very old school- I don’t know if that’s the correct term. They had this whole concept where if you were bright and you did well, you did science. You don’t do arts unless you’re failing, which is a terrible attitude. And you know I really wanted to do philosophy and literature, and history and all those arts type subjects but in the school I was in, the classes were split in two so if you got good grades, you got moved into the upper class where you basically did physics, chemistry and biology. And that’s what I did for most of my high school. So I did biology at university, and then I stayed on and did a Masters degree as well in Social Anthropology. So that was varying a bit more towards the arts I suppose. But I have a very scientific background though. Jenny: How did you come to decide on this kind of series – with Gemma Rose, a spunky heroine, Muesli, her cheeky cat, lots of humor, and lots of traditional tearoom treats!!!  I love the titles – Tea with Milk and Murder comes to mind . . . a light touch of humor. Muesli the cat – a real cat in a mystery series Hsin Yee: I’m glad you like it! I don’t know… I think any writer will tell you that a lot of their books are intended as autobiographies. I think a lot of Gemma Rose is me. She’s quite uptight and anxious about what people think, and I can be a little bit like that. You write a lot of yourself into your characters. You also try and write some things that you would like to be, alongside the heart that you put into your characters as well. Her sort of fraught relationship with her mother is very much mirrored by mine! You know- I love my mother and she’s lovely- but she’s very much in her own way quite bossy and mad sometimes! A lot of my scenes of Gemma expressing her exasperation with her mother is sort of inspired by my own relationship with my mother. Some of the things – her mother’s technological issues are inspired by my mother in law, who is lovely but she struggles with her iPad! That was actually one of those strange ideas; I didn’t intend it. It happened at the time, and she was always losing her password and we were always helping her find it. I thought it was quite funny, so I put it in and it struck such a chord! I’ve never had so much fan mail over that particular scene, people writing to me saying that they loved Gemma’s mother or her relationship with her mother and that whole scene with the password. Because basically, that’s them with their parents! I didn’t realize at the time, so some of it is very much inspired without necessarily intentionally with your every day life. The cat is obviously inspired by my cat. I have a cat called Muesli and she’s a little rescue tabby. Muesli in the stories is inspired by my own cat, partly my own relationship with the cat because Gemma – in the beginning anyway- she isn’t a cat person. She doesn’t mean to adopt one, and you know in the course of the story things happen and she ends up with Muesli. There’s a lot of her learning what it’s like living with a cat, and that’s based on my own experiences, because I would say I was never a cat person. My husband loves cats, and that was the reason we got one. We got a kitten and a puppy at the time, but I was always the dog person. Since then I’ve obviously come to appreciate cats! But I’d say I still have a very up and down relationship! She drives me made, but a lot of that feeds back into the story. Like Muesli trying to climb into things in the wall, doing things that drive Gemma mad; they’re all taken from my real life experience with the real life Muesli. But that’s helped that aspect of it I suppose. A Scone To Die For – HY Hanna Jenny: Now tell me – has your mum got used to the idea of having a daughter who’s a writer rather than a scientist? Hsin Yee: Yes, she has actually! She’s very proud of me now. I think at the beginning- I mean she’s never been a terrible, what they call a “tiger mum” or whatever. She’s always been very supportive. I think a lot of the pressure was put on me by myself. I was a very irritating girl at school, like the girl who always did her homework on time and everything was expected of her, so I think it wasn’t so much her as me. But yes, she has. She’s very proud of me. Going back to what you were saying about the tone and things – partly I was going to say that was also because one of the things I learnt in the course of writing several books or several different genres was it’s very important to meet reader expectations. When I decided I was going to start writing mystery, I obviously had to decide which type of mystery because there are lots of different types. I read crime fiction and everything from psychological suspense to cosies to police procedurals- you know the whole range. I realized when I was doing a bit of research in cosies that there are certain expectations- the obvious ones like no swearing, no sex or graphic violence. Often there is an expectation of a setting- a small setting like a community and with quirky characters. They’re light stories with a lot of humor. Often the readers enjoy reading about a hobby or a craft, and also usually they’re animal lovers. The animal thing- because I’m an animal lover- just comes in naturally. But I was aware of some of those things. I tried to make sure I didn’t put in things that the readers of cosies would think “oh! I don’t want to read about this!” I think the setting helps- it’s in the English countryside, it’s in Oxford so it is a small town and it gives that whole tone to it. Jenny: It has a real resonance. People know what to expect, don’t they. They know what they’re going to get if you set something in an area like that. Hsin Yee: You’d hope so, yes. You can buck the trend, but I think you have to be a bit careful sometimes. It’s a bigger challenge to fulfil expectations but do it in a sort of original and rash way I suppose. That’s sort of the real challenge. Jenny: And then your other series also has the same warm playful tone – the Bewitched By Chocolate series…. Food plays an important part in your work, doesn’t it?   You’ve even got some very yummy tea time special recipes on your website. . . . Victoria Sponge and so forth. . . Bewitched Mysteries Hsin Yee: That came the year later. It’s actually doing very well at the moment as well. I keep getting fans emailing me asking when the next book is coming! But the problem with doing different series is you then have to split yourself between your series and it gets hard. You want to try and keep everyone happy, but you can only write so fast and only produce one book at a time. It’s a bit like carrying a baby. You can (usually) only carry one at a time! And so until you go through the whole pregnancy and giving birth, then you start the next one. But that one came later, and it’s also set in the Cotswold. It’s got a very similar sort of feel, in the sense of the beautiful English countryside. A lot of my readers are I think they’re called an Anglofast- people who love the sort of English thing. The English afternoon tea, and the whole Englishness of things. And so there’s a lot of that. But the only difference really is that there’s an element of paranormal in it. I love mythology and legends, that sort of thing. And so a lot of the legends based on English folk legends from old English mythology got fed into the stories. I just thought it would be interesting to explore that side of things. There’s obviously a food element as you said earlier. I love food, I love eating it! I love eating- I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think is what am I going to have for breakfast? And then after I’ve finished breakfast, I think what am I going to have for lunch? I’m always looking forward to my next meal. I love describing food, and I think that comes through very much. With the Oxford series, that was very much focused on traditional English baking. So scones, Victoria sponge, that sort of thing. With the Bewitched by Chocolate, it’s focused more on chocolate because partly also I loved the film Chocolat. I watched something about how they make chocolate. It’s almost like an art, what they manage to do. So I really wanted to bring some of that into the series. It can be quite fun, because witches are always about herbs and potions- I thought it’d be quite cool if the powers were linked to chocolate! It was all a food related type thing! Food like Victoria Sponge a highlight of the books Jenny: Tell me, do you like to cook as well? Hsin Yee: Sometimes! I have to say, I’m not a very good cook. I’m very impatient, and so I’m very bad at following recipes. I’ll read it, and I’ll think I can’t be bothered measuring out 10 grams or whatever it is! It’ll be fine, I’ll just put in a bit of this! I think I’m Jamie Over, but I’m not Jamie Oliver! I’m just dashing things in and it doesn’t come out right. But occasionally, I manage to get it right. Overall, I wouldn’t say I’m a very good cook. Turning from specific books to wider look at your career – Jenny: What is the one thing you’ve done more than any other that you feel may be the secret to your success?  Hsin Yee: That’s a really hard question, because I don’t know! They say hindsight is 20/20. The usual ones will say it’s persistence… don’t give up. And that’s obviously very important, but I think in my case I would just say being myself. There have been several incidences from a career point of view where I’ve had advice from people to do what the done thing is, and I’ve struggled with that because it’s not me. Sometimes I’ve taken suggestions just to be myself- I don’t know whether that was the right choice. The news from Vienna shared with readers One example was my newsletters- I have a very chatty style, it’s just the way I talk as well! I find it very difficult to be formal and succinct, and I know there’s a feeling for example in the author community that newsletters should just be more of an “announcement” thing. You know, you should just tell people what your new release is or sale that’s coming up. That’s it, kind of thing. Or about book recommendations. And that was very much the advice given quite strongly actually, as anything else is considered “spam”. It was almost like, why would readers sign up to you in the first place? I sort of feel like Amazon and those other big people can tell them about book deals and things. Part of the reason for me anyway, if I signed up to someone’s newsletter, is because I want to find out and I’m interested in the whole process, and maybe the background of the books, and the characters. Jenny: In your blog you outline a romantic story of going to Vienna for a long-planned 20th wedding anniversary trip that was also paying homage to author Mary Stewart, who you admire . . tell us a little about that trip . . . Hsin Yee: That’s what I mean, that’s sort of me and I find it difficult to be quite personable and chatty. I mean actually that trip was a research as well. It was just lucky that it coincided with my 20th anniversary. I had been intending to write a book set in Vienna, so it was very fortuitous I suppose that everything happened at the same time. I took loads of photos, partly also for research purposes, because I’m a very visual person. Often I need one picture to write a scene as a stepping off point. I love taking photos, and I used to write a blog for quite a long time actually. So I’m used to doing that, like sharing photos and telling people a little bit about the background, experience or journey. I find that people generally really enjoy that, because it adds an extra dimension I suppose. And in that case it definitely did, because the story- once I came home fresh from the trip- I wrote that book very much based off my trip. You can literally see the places I’ve been, and I’ve incorporated that into the story. Jenny: And that was Apple Strudel Alibi, was it? Number 8 in the series? Apple Strudel Alibi – the Vienna book Hsin Yee: Yes. I thought it was a nice for a change also to go away from Oxford for a bit. And you know, Austria is very much still in the same vein. It’s a beautiful romantic European city, and oh my goodness the pastries and the cakes! It’s a slightly different country but the cakes are amazing! I put on three kilos while I was there! Jenny: If you were going to do a “magical mystery literary tour” for your Oxford Tearoom series, where would you recommend people go?  I know you returned to Oxford recently didn’t you, after 15 years away, and you catalogued quite a bit of it in your blog on your web site…. Hsin Yee: Yes, I do actually have a blog- there’s a two part blog post on my website- which again details when I returned to Oxford. So I made a trip to Oxford back in 2016 which is the first time I’d bee back in 15 years since we left the UK actually. I took again lots of pictures- it was lovely revisiting a lot of the places that are featured in my books. Some places hadn’t changed at all, and some obviously had. So I put all the pictures up and mentioned them so readers can basically look at those blogs and see if they want to visit settings in the book. But definitely, I could give you a list but it’s all mentioned. The one thing people often ask me though, is where can they go for afternoon tea in Oxford, to replicate the experience. Unfortunately in Oxford, there isn’t actually a little tea room. You can get a formal traditional English afternoon tea in the Randolph Hotel, which is like their one big posh hotel in the city. Oxford city is not very big, but you get the whole sort of four tiered English tea service. But it’s quite formal and these beautiful drawing rooms in the Randolph, which I think is a Gothic building. But if you want a little tea room experience, you have to go out of Oxford really into the Cotswolds. The place that when I thought up the little stables tearoom, it was partly inspired by the tearoom I used to go to when I was a student there, you know on a Sunday morning we’d go for a big walk out in the country sometimes and we’d finish off having tea there. It’s in a village called Burford. That’s part 3 of my book, I haven’t got around to it yet but I have pictures for that, for the tearoom in Burford. Jenny: So it’s still going? Hsin Yee: Yes, it’s still going. I think it’s been going for 200 years now; a really, really long time. I can’t remember off the top of my head now, but it’s very much your traditional tearoom. Jenny: That’s wonderful. My mum was actually born in Oxford I must admit, and although I went there once I’ve never spent any time there. She lived in New Zealand for all her adult life after her marriage. She married a Kiwi. Funnily enough, I’ve still got a funny place in my heart for Oxford just because of all the old photographs on the walls and things like that, you know. Hsin Yee: You should definitely try and visit! Because the books are very much in the realm of it, if you just visit and as I say the center is quite small, you can just walk around and practically see a lot of it. I do mention the name of pubs, so basically pubs and places that are mentioned in my books are real places in Oxford. The only thing that has changed is the college names- I changed all the college names which is in the same tradition as Morse and Lewis, mainly because they wouldn’t be very happy if I was suggesting their college master was a potential murderer! So anywhere you need a bit of creative license, you tend to change the names. I try and include usually in every book one point of interest, like an instruction in Oxford, so that the people can visit there. So you know, like a famous pub. Turf Tavern – one of Oxford’s treasures. There’s a lovely pub called the The Turf Tavern which is tucked right under, it’s almost hidden. Most tourists don’t know about it, so that’s mentioned in my blog post. Little things like that. And obviously the big colleges to visit. The one thing that’s different to the colleges in America is that Oxford University doesn’t have a campus as such. The city is the campus. So that’s what people often ask me. When I was studying there, I’d come upon tourists who said “can you tell me where the university is? Where’s the campus?” And I’d say to them, you’re standing in it! The way the university grew up was in and around the actual city, or the city grew around the university. So as you walk around downtown, you know the centre of the city of Oxford, the colleges are all around you. The libraries are around you. So there isn’t a separate campus as such. Hsin Yee as Reader Jenny: The series is called “The Joys of Binge Reading” because I see it as providing inspiration for people who like to read series . . . .The preference in our culture for the instant and addictive – Netflix in reading… So – turning to your taste in fiction who – if anyone – do you “binge read” Hsin Lee: I don’t know about “binging”, but I read continuously! Now I don’t read so much because I find if I’m writing, I’m really bad when I’m reading because it’s like a drug; I can’t stop. If it’s really bad, I’ll chuck it and start the next book. I sort of feel that life is too short to persist, and I’m not one of those people who must finish a book. If it doesn’t capture me in the first couple of chapters, then I leave it and go onto the next. But if it’s good, I just have to read it constantly. I don’t want to do anything else, and I stay up until 3am reading it. I don’t work, and so I have to go on a self imposed reading fast where you know, I don’t read when I’m writing. Which is unfortunate for me because I’m writing so much these days, I don’t read as much as I used to. I read between books. If I finish a book, I’ll indulge in a book for a week. But yes, I do binge read that week and get a couple of books in before I start again! I’ve read mysteries and crime fiction all my life, and now that I’m writing it I find that I don’t often want to read it! It’s just because I guess it feels like more work- you want to do something totally different. My guilty pleasure is young adult, the dystopian fantasy. You know, all the things like the Hunger Games and also the light fantasy. Laini Taylor – Daughter of Smoke and Bone One of my favourite authors for that is an American author called Laini Taylor. Her first series is called Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I guess I love it because it’s very strong in mythology and legends, but not the shallow stuff. Not the things that people talk about every day. She shares a lot of knowledge, and it’s a very interesting, more unusual type of mythology. Mainly I love her because her writing is so beautifully descriptive. You know now there’s a thing (which is a little like throwing the baby out with the bath water) but especially in writing classes, don’t write descriptive prose. Don’t write long descriptions, because nobody wants to read them. It’s very boring. I think it’s a great shame, like a lost art. Older writers used to write beautiful descriptive prose, but now people just write short, clipped things and there’s a lot of telling. Like “it was blue”, without telling or actually really giving you the sense of it. Obviously there are times when it’s good to tell, you don’t want to be waxing on. But I think it’s a lost art really, and there’s a lot of dialogue. Readers say they don’t want to read through lots of description but I sometimes think there’s good description and bad description. I think people just don’t even try to learn how to describe well, because they think it’s all bad. And that’s one recurring common I get from readers a lot. They love my books because of the vivid sense of setting and because they can almost taste the scones, you know. When I write about them, they could be there, they could be touching them. You know it’s very vividly described. That’s mainly because I like books like that. I love to read books that are painting a picture with words, and Laini Taylor does that beautifully. Her first series is set partly in Prague. I love books that when I read them, I want to go there. So she’s one of my favourite authors. Jenny: I guess looking backwards, you have mentioned Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart – classic popular fiction Hsin Lee: Yes, she’s another one who is very good at that. I have all her books, and I read them in rotation. But I always vividly remember one of her heroines is on the run- she’s hungry and tired and she’s in a car chase. She gets out of the car, because she’s so hungry she stops at some small garage. They make something- I think it’s an omelette or something- but anyway she describes this meal she gets given. It’s a really simple thing, but I vividly remember she describes how the slice of bread was warm, and it left condensation droplets on the plate. But oh my goodness, it was such a tiny little detail but I read that scene and I literally felt like I could feel and taste that freshly baked, still warm bread with the crusty outside. This was all because she mentioned that tiny bit about the condensation. It’s so true- when you pick up a piece of bread, it leaves that tiny bit of dew. I always remember that. When I write, I don’t think you consciously write it but if you love that sort of thing, that’s what you tend to do. My readers do tell me that that comes across. Circling around from beginning to end Jenny: At this stage in your career, If you were setting up all over again, what if anything would you change? Hsin Yee: Oh gosh, these are always really difficult questions! It’s easy to say because hindsight is 20/20, but I would say I would have gotten into mystery earlier. I don’t think wasted is the right word, because I don’t think anything is wasted, and I think as an author it always helps to write different things because it makes you be a better writer in a way by trying different genres, and having different experiences. I’ve definitely learnt things and gained fans from writing the other books. But I think if I was going to do it again, I would have given myself permission maybe to be brave and just dive into mysteries a lot earlier. Once I got into it, it was so comfortable and so me, and the books were very successful straight out of the gate. So obviously, people were responding to what I said earlier about being myself. I don’t want to say write what you love, because that doesn’t always work either. The first books I wrote were what I loved. I have a series that’s pretty much a romantic suspense of the style of Mary Stewart. It’s that old fashioned romantic suspense, which doesn’t have sex and all that sort of thing in it. That is what I love, but it isn’t really what the market wants. I don’t know whether you can say that, because you can’t consciously say have more confidence in yourself. Jenny: No, that’s right. Some people get a lot of success out of that little phrase “write to the market that Chris Fox talks about”. Some people have tremendous success at that, but I just don’t think I could do it. But a lot of people can. Hsin Yee: See I think the definition of that has often been confused. For me, I think writing to the market can either mean that- write something you don’t really like but just because there are readers for it, which I personally couldn’t do- but to me, writing to the market is what I was saying about meeting reader expectations. If I wrote my Oxford mysteries but there were lots of graphic sex scenes in it, my readers wouldn’t be happy even though it’s set in Oxford. I’m quite careful about that, because I tend to write “dark” naturally without meaning to, and then I have to lighten it up. My mum is like “no, no, no! You’re writing a cosy mystery, you’re not writing a psychological suspense!” Humor doesn’t come easily to me. My readers are lovely to me, they always tell me they love scenes and it’s very funny, but I sort of try to write a situation I think is awkward, but I never know whether it’s funny or not. I’m often surprised when readers tell me they find so and so very funny. I’m glad and I’m very grateful, but it’s not something that comes to me naturally. I’m conscious that that’s expected, and you try to keep things light if you can. Till Death do us Tart – Book 4 Jenny: What is next for Hsin Yee the writer – projects under development  I think you’ve suggested you’d like to write more romantic suspense? Hsin Yee: I’m starting a new series next year, which is very exciting. I’m just preparing now, actually. I’ve been plotting this week, and doing lots of brain storming and research. Then I’m actually supposed to be starting writing about now, but I’m usually late! I give myself little word limits- you know what I should be writing every day- but usually I’m behind. I keep thinking, oh no I’ll have to make it up tomorrow! But yes, I’ll be starting to write that which will be launching early next year. It’s a new mystery series. Jenny: Can you give us any hints about setting or time period? Hsin Yee: Well it’s in contemporary like the others and it’ll be set in England as well. I’ll give you a little hint- I’ve recently got into gardening and I love it! I’m really passionate about it, it just makes me so happy you know. I walk out and look at my garden, and I’ve always said I love cottage gardens. I love colour, and when I walk out and see the colour it just makes me smile and puts me in a good mood so yes, it’s related to gardening. Jenny: Sounds really fun, and very much in line with the other ones you’re doing. Hsin Yee: You never know with a new series. There’s always that massive leap of faith I suppose that you hope the readers will enjoy it as much as your old ones. It is a big commitment, but yes fingers crossed! Jenny: And when you say you’ve been plotting, how many books would you say you’ve got thought out? More than one I presume, is there? Hsin Yee: No actually, I don’t plot very far in advance. I find it quite difficult to. I have a general plan- I have a running background so that I know what will be resolved as the books move through the series. There’s obviously the main plot- the mystery plot- of who gets murdered, who are the suspects and what happened. That’s wrapped up in every book. But I like my series to have a long running background plot as well, because it just adds another layer to the characters. In the Bewitched series that’s the strongest. You don’t know Caitlyn the main character or her background, where her mother is, or what really happened to her as a baby and why she was found abandoned, all this sort of thing. So I have a vague idea where that’s going. But as far as details, no! I think it was J. K Rowling, who had seven notebooks with notes of every book plotted already! If you do that, at least for me, it just doesn’t work. I deviate too much from a plot that’s intricately plotted. I do have a rough outline for each book, and I know where I’m going roughly. Witch Summer Nights Cream Obviously you have to know who’s the killer, and I work backwards from there usually. But otherwise, no. It’s quite loose. I have a premise. But I think if you set up a good premise, like a good sense of conflicts of who the characters are- for example in my Oxford series, I knew Gemma’s background. She comes from this middle class family, she’s quite uptight and proper. You have all that conflict there where her ex boyfriend who comes back into her life came from a working class family. There’s obviously class conflict there, and with her mother and her social expectations she’s got to come to terms with whether she chooses her own happiness with a man her parents don’t approve of- all that sort of thing. So that’s all there. It’s not a specific plot. It’s a background conflict. And obviously there’s her own issues with standing up to her mother and that sort of thing, which isn’t resolved over night. I sometimes get fans saying “I wish she’d do this”, and I see where they’re coming from. But I know my own experience. Your relationship with your mother isn’t easily resolved overnight. At the end of the day, you can only change so much. You are your mother’s child. Jenny: Coming to an end where can readers find you online… Hsin Yee: I’m on Facebook. I have to admit, I’m not very good on social media. I try to be on at least once a week or every few days I try and check in. But yes, I have a Facebook page. It’s H.Y. Hanna Author. Readers can find me there, and I always try and answer any questions. I might just be a few days late, but I do try and always answer questions there. I also post upcoming releases and lots of photos of behind the scenes. There’s a lot of stuff about Muesli actually, because a lot of my readers are cat lovers. Jenny: That’s always a popular one isn’t it! And I know you’ve got a lovely newsletter… Hsin Yee: Yes, that’s probably the best in terms of getting news, because obviously Facebook is a bit unreliable. I have a newsletter- it’s just www.hyhanna.com/newsletter. Or if you just go to my website, you can sign up from there. That way readers are definitely informed whenever I have a new book out, or if I have giveaways. I usually don’t run a lot of giveaways, but if I do they’re exclusive to my subscribers usually. Because I live in Australia, signed copies are very difficult. So I don’t do a lot of signed copies, but if I do it’s always to my subscribers. Like when I went to Vienna, I bought gifts back and I did a giveaway for that for my sort of loyal fans. I don’t unfortunately update my blog very much. I think I stopped actually the blog format. There’s a section under my website called ‘Behind the Scenes’. It’s under ‘Fun Stuff’, and then under that you’ve got ‘Behind the Scenes’. That’s where I’ve put all the information about visiting Oxford, and to see the settings of the books. I’ve also put the recipes from the books in there, and more about Muesli for the people that are interested in her. Jenny: Wonderful Hsin Yee, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. It’s been wonderful to hear about Oxford and all your adventures there. We’ll be looking forward to this new series about gardens with great interest! Hsin Yee: I’m glad I’ve already got somebody interested! Are you a keen gardener? Jenny: I am. Hsin Yee: Oh good! Thank you so much for inviting me onto the podcast, it’s been great. Thanks To Our Technical Support: The Joys of Binge Reading podcast is put together with wonderful technical help from Dan Cotton at DC Audio Services. Dan is an experienced sound and video engineer who’s ready and available to help you with your next project… Seek him out at [email protected] or Phone + 64 – 21979539. He’s fast, takes pride in getting it right, and lovely to work with. Our voice overs are done by Abe Raffills, and Abe’s another gem. He got 20 years of experience on both sides of the camera/microphone as a cameraman/director and also voice artist and television presenter. Abe’s vocal delivery is both light hearted and warm and he is super easy to work with no matter the job. You’ll find him at [email protected]