Hello from Down Under!

I was planning to drop you a line earlier but then things got a bit crazy in the past few weeks... do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you?? That's what it feels like with these latest manuscripts and the number of hurdles that "Life" keeps throwing at me (yes, including getting Covid again... Ugh!) 

Anyway, I'll tell you more about what happened below (for those who enjoy a gossip! 😉 ) - but first, as promised:

In book news...

Fear not - following feedback from my beta readers, I managed to plough through all the necessary revisions for the Bewitched by Chocolate finale (despite battling a Covid infection! 😜 ) ... and I sent off both manuscripts to my editor last weekend. 

So they’re both “cooking” at the moment... It'll still be several weeks, though, before they complete the various rounds of edits, further revisions and proofreading... but I'm still hoping that they'll be ready for release in June (fingers crossed that "Life" doesn't spring any other surprises on me!)

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In the meantime, I'm starting the process of cover design for these two books, as well as trying to catch up on various other projects that I've been neglecting... Will be sharing some cover reveals soon!

The truth about Kindle Unlimited... 

As mentioned in my last newsletter: as of April 16th, the Bewitched by Chocolate mysteries is no longer enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited (KU) library. If you borrowed the books before that date and they're on your "shelf", you can still read them - don't worry! - but once you return them, they will no longer be available to borrow again.

My other mystery series are currently still in KU but will also be withdrawn later this year.

There are 3 reasons my books are being withdrawn:

1 ) One of the conditions of being in KU is that Amazon insists on exclusivity - this means that I am not allowed to make my books available for purchase anywhere else, even on my own website! Many readers have contacted me to ask why they can't get my books on Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble NOOK and other platforms - as well as in libraries - and I've always felt bad about this. So by withdrawing my books from KU, they will be accessible to everyone, everywhere.

2 ) When someone borrows & reads my books in KU, Amazon only pays me 1/3 of what I would have earned if the reader had purchased the book instead. This means I am taking a big loss and I feel that it's important for my books to earn their full price - if I am to sustain my author career and keep writing books for you for a long time! 😊

3 ) By removing my books from KU, I'll be able to sell my books direct to you from my website! Not only will you be supporting the author more but it also means that I'll be able to offer things that I can't on Amazon - such as giving you exclusive discount codes, offering special editions (eg. those of you who preferred the vintage Oxford Tearoom covers? I may be able to provide exclusive versions with the old covers!) - and creating great value bundles & box sets. Right now, my hands are tied by Amazon in terms of what I can do. 

"But I'm on a budget..."

** I know some of you may be concerned about budget if you cannot read my books as part of your KU subscription. But by pulling out, I'll be able to make them available to borrow from your local library where you'll be able to read them for free! Yes, even as ebooks.

And I'll also be offering special coupons so you can purchase the titles at a discount from my own store - which means that the books will be yours to keep forever, to re-read whenever you like (whereas in KU, you can only borrow temporarily and any title might disappear from the library at any time).

I'm currently in the process of setting up my website store and I'm planning lots of exciting things for that - so stay tuned! 😊

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You guys have some odd pets too...! 😄

Following my last newsletter - in which I told you about Muesli's strange predilection for oatmeal - I was very amused when several of you emailed to tell me about your pet's odd quirks. 

First, there's Candy who told me that her kitty shared Muesli's fondness for porridge: "little Juno can be found by my side waiting impatiently for me to finish it so he can lick the bowl too!! He also loves croissants with jam too, I obviously don’t give him a lot but again he waits for me to peel the pastry so that he can share it with me..."

Meanwhile, Linda sent me a photo of her cats Marty and Mac - 2 handsome Tonkinese brothers - who have been known to "snatch bacon out of a rolled-up paper towel, leaving the towel roll apparently untouched" and also enjoy mashed potatoes, spinach souffle and mac & cheese!

Then there's Jane who says her little tabby Lucy waits for "the remains of my yogurt when I have that in the morning"... and Lara who "had a cat Biggles who loved apples. She once climbed my husband to get to the green apple he’d been eating!"

...and Erika, whose cat Cassandra "loved canned asparagus and would beg me for several spears when I'd open a can. I usually cook it fresh but I started buying canned for a treat for her."

But I think the prize for the funniest pet story has to go to Susan, who wrote: "I wanted to tell you that sharing porridge with your cat does not sound so strange to me as my son and I share our morning porridge with his hamster! I give her about half a teaspoon on a saucer, and she sits between us on the table to eat it. It's the cutest thing"

And Susan even kindly sent some photos for me to share, of her son Alcuin and his hamster "Hamura Ham" enjoying their porridge together... aren't they adorable? 😊

Thank you for sharing all these delightful stories - 
they really made my day! 😄

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For those who enjoy a gossip... and for the foodies too!

As many of you know, when I'm deep in my Writing Cave, life pretty much goes "on hold" until I reach "The End". And I have to say, the past few months have been one of the worst, as everything was in limbo while I was desperately trying to finish writing the finale to the Bewitched by Chocolate series...

... except that I also had a big birthday earlier this month! Yes, I recently reached the big 5-0 and in honour of the event, my husband insisted that I do the unthinkable: take a weekend off!! 😅 

He'd booked a special meal and got tickets for the ballet and planned a lovely weekend of special events to celebrate my milestone birthday. So I was being "forced" to take some time off (my editor was really nice and told me not to worry about the slight delay - "life's too short!") - and to be honest, I WAS really looking forward to having a little break from the intense slog... 

... but then my husband started getting a sore throat & feeling very tired... and I also started getting a sore throat & bad headaches... so we tested ourselves and - yup, you guessed it: we got Covid (again)! 🙄

The only good thing was that I wasn't so sick this time and so although my birthday plans had sadly gone out the window, I could still sit at my computer and work… plus I had a tax return deadline looming too (why do all deadlines always seem to clash together??!!) - so I did put my week's quarantine time to good use. 

So in the end, it was a memorable milestone birthday - just not in the way that we'd envisaged! I spent it doing taxes and manuscript revisions, and my husband laughingly said that if anyone asks what he gave me for my 50th, I can say he gave me Covid - hahaha! 🤣

Don't worry - I did have a little birthday celebration at home after we both recovered: we baked a chocolate cake and had an impromptu "birthday tea" in our own garden... 

And I have to say, I think I enjoyed it as much as if we had gone out to some fancy, expensive place! 😊 

I guess it just goes to show that one doesn't really need that much to be happy.

And an unexpected benefit of having my "birthday tea" at home was that Muesli could join in as well! 

Those who don't live in the UK (or who don't read my Oxford Tearoom Mysteries) may not know that the term "tea" refers not just to the drink but also to the light meal taken around 4pm in the afternoon, usually consisting of little sandwiches, cakes and other baked treats (such as scones!) alongside a pot of freshly brewed hot tea. 

And funnily enough, although lots of hotels nowadays advertise their "high tea" as something posh and fancy - this is totally opposite to the original meaning. "High tea" was actually the more substantial meal taken by the middle and working classes as a sort of early dinner around 6pm...

... whereas the fancy affair with dainty finger sandwiches and 3-tier cake stands, indulged in by the upper classes, was actually called "low tea" - or more commonly, "afternoon tea" (the names come from the relative heights of the tables that the respective meals were served at!).

Well, since Muesli couldn't have chocolate, her "tea" consisted of roast chicken breast morsels served in her own little plate, which she polished off with alacrity...

... and then proceeded to try and help herself to what I was eating, the cheeky minx! 
 

Well, I hope you enjoyed coming along to my "birthday tea" - oh, and in case you're interested, here's the recipe for the cake that we baked. It was actually an "Easy Chocolate Bread" (any recipe that has the word "easy" in the title gets my attention! 😜) - and given my (lack of) baking skills, it actually turned out pretty well (although sadly, my chocolate chip "50" melted and disappeared! )

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P.S. Thank you so much again to those of you who sent messages asking about my mother after the recent big earthquake in Taiwan. I was so touched by your concern. ❤️ Luckily, my mother lives in Taipei (the capital) which wasn't the worst affected area - so although a lot of things fell down in her apartment, she was unscathed, which is the main thing! 

P.P.S. Also - thank you to even more of you who wrote to tell me how much you love this new "chatty" format of newsletter, with the travel, personal anecdotes and photos, etc... I'm so happy to hear that! 😊

If you missed my last newsletter and wanted to catch up, you can read it HERE

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