Welcome to the parlor archive for September-December 2015! If you would like to post a comment, please visit the current Parlor page.
Autumn is slipping in – I see the edges of leaves turning golden, and the nights are getting longer. Summer’s heat is easing, for which I’m grateful. The tomatoes are starting to produce a lot of fruit.
Summer was rather busy for me this year, with a good deal of travel. I’m glad to be back home and have some time to just enjoy the garden and the shading shift of the season. A nice time for a cup of tea and a spell of quiet reflection.
How was your summer?
– Patrice
earlier Parlor pages: December, 2014 ~ January, 2015 ~ February-April, 2015
I love your books. I sat and read all four today. It was like potato chips, I couldn’t stop at just one (or two, or three or …). I was glad I found you with so many books already available in the series and disappointed there aren’t more. Please keep writing! Not to be impatient, but writing fast would be appreciated. Just one request, don’t get in the two men/one woman storyline. It’s the only one I find hard to read. However, I do know you really do have to go where the muse takes you. The most important thing is more books.
Thank you, Stephanie! I assure you, I am writing book 5 even now. Would that I could write them as fast as you can read them! I love to read, too, and I know it’s hard to wait.
Right now, book 5 is scheduled for summer 2016. I have a little in-between treat in mind, if I can find time for it. Stay tuned!
Love your books,discovered first book just a couple of days ago and now have read all of them! Not sure I can wait until next summer for the next murder and what is in store for Ellen and Tony.
Thanks, Patti! I’m having trouble waiting, too…
AWESOME 1st. Book in this series ,keep them coming. Your book is amazing, I’m from N.M. so I’ve grown up going to Santa Fe and yet finding so much I haven’t tried or explored. New fan NORMA
Thank you, Norma!
Have you been to the St. James Tearoom in Albuquerque? It’s quite wonderful.
Loved reading this book. Held my interest. Looking forward to reading your other books.
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed the first book.
I just finished A Fatal Twist of Lemon and thoroughly enjoyed it. Off to read the next in the series.
Thank you, Bev! Hope you like the next as well.
Just finished reading my first book of yours, Wysteria Tearoom, enjoyed story so much. Made me want to go have tea at my favorite tearoom right away! Lavender and Lace in Lake Alfred Florida.
Thank you again.
Lavender and Lace sounds delightful! Just my sort of place, I expect.
I’ve just discovered you this week! Downloaded a free book from Barnes & Noble (A Fatal Twist of Lemon), read it in one sitting and immediately purchased the other three in the series. Now, the burning question: WHEN WILL THERE BE MORE??? They are absolutely delightful- lovely suspense stories with culturally very different protagonists, just a hint of sex (hate blatant stuff- leaves nothing to the imagination)- altogether a lovely read! I hope you become wildly successful! Meanwhile, do please publish another very soon!
My victorian grandmother, who wore lavendar or lilac nearly every day and would make Downton Abbey look like Woodstock, always had tea at half past four, usually High, with lots of finger sandwiches, cakes, and “bikkies” (biscuits, known in the US as cookies). Tea often was actually supper for us kids, and the tea itself was really mostly milk (we did not sit up at table until we were about twelve and could be civilised!) Adults ate dinner around eight or nine, after the children were in bed.
Mornings began with a gentle knock on the bedroom door, and a tray brought in, with tea and toast. Even now, my hubby brings me a cup of tea each morning to start the day. It is NOT a cup of tepid water with a teabag, either. Water is poured while on the boil, and tea steeps for six minutes here. PG Tips is cheap stuff, but it’s a nice starter for the day, being somewhat sturdy! For the more sophistidated palette, Harrods still has a nice selection of teas, although it has changed through the years.
I love your knowledge of teas, especially the vigor of stout varieties like Hu Kwa (horrid stuff, a bit like a cross between shoe polish and tobacco!). I intend to try some of your recipes, although I have quite a few myself- Nana had an Irish cook who did wonderful sweets and pretty nifty savories!
Please do hurry and write another book. I’m trully hooked! Can’t wait to see how the young lovers’ story unfolds…
Your latest fan-
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed the books. How I wish I could just wave a magic wand and have a new one completed just like that! Believe me, I’m peddling – er, writing – as fast as I can!
Your comments reminded me of England – I did buy some tea at Harrods, but it’s long gone, of course. I have never tried Hu Kwa, but it sounds like it’s as … ahem, challenging as Lapsang Souchong.
I wonder if Russian Caravan is out of fashion. I have this little jar of sour cherry jam…
By the way- than you so much for correctly referring to that lovely piece of furniture as a chaise longue, and not a chaise lounge!
But of course! You will find a candelabrum around somewhere, too, I believe.
I have just turned the final page on the fourth of the Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries. I have been reading night and day since I picked up the first. It is one of the most charming series I have ever enjoyed (and I’ve read a LOT of books)! I am looking forward enormously to the release of book five, however, no rush! Everything has its own time! In the meantime I intend to go straight back to the beginning and enjoy them over and over again. As Oscar Wilde said “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all”!
Thank you Erica! I don’t think I’ve ever received a better compliment!
I just finished reading your fourth book and am saddened they have come to an end.
I am anxiously awaiting Book # five!
I just love to get in bed early in the evening, curl up with a good book and read on!
I also just love when I find a new Author whom I totally enjoy and you fit the bill.
Keep the Tea Room open, finding bodies, solving the mysteries and pursuing Tony!
Willow, the Captain, the Staff all open up great avenues for adventure!
Thank you for starting # five, I know I will enjoy it.
Wishing my life away but I can hardly wait for Spring of 2016!
Thank you kindly! The tearoom shall remain in business as long as I have anything to say about it.
I also have read your books, one right after the other, before sleep each night: and feel at a loss not being able to visit the Wisteria Tea Room. I read all kinds of books, but find your books so real. I actually feel like I know the characters. You have a gift, so please keep writing. I love tea and have taken my daughters and granddaughters to tea rooms as they were growing up. That’s the special feeling I get when reading your books, like I am actually visiting Wisteria Tea Room!
Thank you, Jane. I love visiting the Wisteria Tearoom, too, even though it’s just in my imagination.
Look forward to hearing Book Five is finished and ready for reading .
As am I!
Wow… I so loved this series. I normally stay away from modern books (only Diana Palmer, Julie Garwood and Judy Christenberry have tempted me away from my historicals) but my Boobhub Club sent me an email for their choice selections and A Fatal Twist of Lemon was offered for free so I thought “who can go wrong with free”… I was going through my ereader to find something new since I have just spent the last two months reading Stephanie Laurens Cynster series from start to most current and I came across A Fatal Twist of Lemon… why not I thought, give it a try… that was Tuesday night… its now Friday night and I have finished Book 4 and am impatiently waiting for Book 5…I cannot wait… but I guess I must… thank you so much for these delightful intriguing stories.
Kathie –
Thank you for giving A Fatal Twist of Lemon at try! I’m so glad you like the series. I’m doing my best to make sure book 5 is worth the wait.
Patrice I just recently discovered your books. I’m in love with your characters and the setting. So glad to hear that there is a 5th book in the works. Can’t wait! As an avid reader I enjoy a book that pulls you in. You are that kind of author! Please keep up the good work. And enjoy a wonderful cup of tea!
Thanks, Kimberly! I am enjoying a cup of Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling, at the moment! Then it’s off to work on book 5…
I realized as I sat down to pen you an admiring e-mail that most of what I have to say would be better served in a review of the series on Amazon. Whew! Ackward change of tenses !
Anyway I am in awe of your ability to capture character ,seamlessly weave recipes into the mix, etc and chew gum while telling a ghost story/police muder mystery/romance/cozy I look forwar to more books in the series and/or other people you may want to introduce us to.
Thanks, Ann! (How did you know I was chewing gum? Don’t tell Miss Manners!)
Please do leave a review at Amazon if you have time. Those are so very helpful!
Back to writing….