Hi everybody – hope you’re all well! For those who’ve been missing Honey, I’ve got a “Vintage Honey” post for you today! 
Since I still have loads of photos & material that I never had the time to post when Honey was with us – and since so many people keep messaging me telling me how much they’re missing her adventures – I thought I might share some of them here on the book blog from time to time, as “Vintage Honey” posts. Seems a shame to waste the photos & stories and that way you can still get a bit of a “Honey fix”! 
Well, I was looking through recent videos of Honey (in preparation for doing her tribute video) and came across some funny footage of her getting attacked by a little bird while out on one of her walks!
This was back at the end of last year, when we were walking by the Swan River – one of her favourite walks, as she liked to potter along the sand by the water. The river is usually lovely and calm, and the sunsets there are beautiful…
But that particular evening, we had an unexpected intruder on our walk! Out of nowhere, a little black bird suddenly appeared, chattering ferociously and dive-bombing Honey. Even when we hurriedly left the area, it followed us for quite a bit of the walk, still attacking her. What was really funny, though, was that Honey seemed totally oblivious to the whole thing! (or maybe she was just maintaining a dignified pretense of ignorance )
I later looked the bird up and it seems that it was a Willie Wagtail – a native Australian bird, which is actually renowned for its territorial aggression! Here’s a little snippet from the entry on Wikipedia:
© Wikipedia: Creative Commons Attribution
Photographer: Duncan McCaskill
“Aggressive and territorial, the Willie Wagtail will often harass much larger birds such as the Laughing Kookaburra and Wedge-tailed Eagle. It was widely featured in aboriginal folklore around the country as either a bringer of bad news or a stealer of secrets. The Willie Wagtail is highly territorial and can be quite fearless in defence of its territory [...] It may even attack domestic dogs, cats and humans which approach its nest too closely. It has also been observed harassing snake-neck turtles and tiger snakes in Western Australia. When harassing an opponent, the Willie Wagtail avoids the head and aims for the rear. Both the male and female may engage in this behaviour, and generally more intensely in the breeding season.”
Wow – I was really impressed and quite admired the spunky little bird. It’ll even attack tiger snakes, huh? I’m guessing that we might have strayed too close to its nest or something. Anyway, Honey did eventually manage to shake off her avian attacker!
Have you ever been attacked by a bird or other wild creature while out on a walk?
ps. Thank you so much to everybody who shared their thoughts & commented on the last post – about whether to include a British/American glossary at the back of the Big Honey Dog Mysteries. It seems that – from all the feedback here on the blog & on Facebook – the answer is a resounding “YES!”
Muesli helping me with the final revisions…
Oh, I’m so excited – I got the edits for A Secret in Time (Book #2) back from my editor in New York this weekend and have been busy making all the final revisions – then the book will be going to proofreaders & formatting next week… hopefully hitting “PUBLISH” in a week’s time!
* Don’t forget – make sure you’ve added your email to the mailing list if you want to be the first to be notified of new releases & other book news.
I’ll be doing a cover reveal on the blog soon – so stay tuned! (Those on the mailing list will already have gotten a sneak preview )
I’ve also had some followers asking why they’re not receiving posts from this blog in their Inbox, like they did with Honey’s blog. Unfortunately, I can’t automatically transfer subscribers from the old blog to the new one – so if you’d like to continue receiving updates via email, just put your email address into the box below – you’ll then be sent a Verification Email to your Inbox – make sure you click the link in that! Otherwise your subscription won’t work. But after that, you should get all new blog posts in your email again.
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I was hoping, last week, that I could visit blog friends, socialise more on Facebook & catch up with your news but I’d forgotten how crazy these last few weeks before a book launch can be!
And I’m also planning to release a Easter Honey mini-mystery just like the one I did at Christmas, as a special holiday edition… so I’ll be diving straight back into writing that as soon as Book #2 is published. But I’m hoping to have that done & out by the beginning of April – so I can really take a breather, finally come out of the Writing Cave and have some time to catch up on socialising!
In the meantime, I hope you’re all well and I haven’t missed any “big news”!
Talk soon,
~ Hsin-Yi