Today, I am delighted to welcome Hanna Park onto The Whispering Bookworm for an exclusive interview about her new book - The Midnight Carousel.
Belle Stanhope had plans. Good plans. Practical plans.
None of them involved Hudson Carver.
The florist with the crooked smile had become a distraction she neither wanted nor could avoid. Which was inconvenient, considering the Pretty River Inn and the upcoming bachelor auction left little room for distractions.
For years, Hudson had been content with the life he'd built beneath Christmas Mountain. His flower shop, his workshop, and the friends who had become family were more than he'd ever expected. Then he met Belle Stanhope.
As Christmas approaches, the carousel's calliope sings off-key, and the old magic he'd left behind stirs once more. The life he'd built and the life he wants are no longer the same.
In Forest Falls, wishes have a way of finding the people who need them most.
Publication Date: 22nd September 2026
Publisher: Baisong Press
Print Length: 197 Pages
Genre: Romance
Interview
What inspired you to start writing?
My husband’s snoring! I started writing later in life, at sixty. One sleepless night, I gave up, made myself a coffee and curled up on the loveseat by the fire with the cat. I started writing a story—and somehow, I never stopped.
Well, that’s certainly a memorable way to begin a writing career! I love that something as ordinary as a sleepless night turned into something that completely changed your life.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
Keeping out the spice! Honestly, that may have been the hardest part. I’m used to writing romances where my characters get a little more carried away, but Belle and Hudson insisted on taking their time. I kept thinking, surely now? Apparently not. In the end, I had to accept that their story was more about the anticipation—and let them get there in their own time.
I think readers will probably appreciate that anticipation too! It sounds like Belle and Hudson were very much in charge of their own story, rather than letting you decide when things should happen.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
Belle definitely does. I love her practicality, her independence and her dry sense of humour—especially because Forest Falls has absolutely no intention of letting her keep everything under control.
But I have a real soft spot for Nana Iris too. She has that wonderful ability to see more than she lets on, offer advice whether it’s wanted or not, and quietly nudge things in the direction she thinks they ought to go. I think every magical little town needs a Nana Iris.
I have to say, Nana Iris sounds like a character readers are going to fall in love with. There’s something so appealing about that person who seems to know exactly what’s going on, even when everyone else is still trying to figure it out.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
That magic is everywhere—sometimes we just have to be willing to see it. I hope readers come away from The Midnight Carousel with a little more belief in impossible things, unexpected love, and the idea that there might be something magical hiding in the most ordinary places.
That feels like such a lovely message to leave readers with. I think we could all use a little more belief in the unexpected—and perhaps a reminder that magic doesn’t always have to look the way we imagine it will.
Hanna Park
I began my writing career in the pre-dawn of a winter morning while my husband snored like a train. We could call my husband the catalyst. If it weren’t for him, I would never have gone to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, feed the cat, and sit on the loveseat in front of the fire. It was there, in those moments of wondrous quiet, that I did something I had never thought possible. I opened my laptop, and while the coffee went cold, I wrote a story. My husband had no idea that these sojourns to the loveseat in front of the fire would become a daily occurrence, that writing would become an obsession, but the cat knew. She knows everything.
I write stories that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you love. Thank you, friends, for reading!
In the beginning, there was an empty page.
I am a writer who lives in Muskoka, Canada, with a husband who snores, a hungry cat, and an almost perfect canine––he’s an adorable little shit.
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