Okay all that aside, I took myself by the proverbially sandle straps and got myself to the Serenity Tea Room in West Palm Beach on time and had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon amongst my peer authors, friends, family, and walkin customers.
What a wonderfully quaint place! I have some personal pictures to share with you later because I have not gotten them downloaded as yet, but here are some a friend has taken.
This is the beautiful little cottage that houses the tea house. This picture is not the most current. It came off the Serenity webpage but I will share an updated one as soon as I get them. The cottage trellis in front it completely covered in bougainvillea and the front is surrounded by various flowers and plants now. When you pass through the arch of the trellis you are enclosed in a little garden terrace.
The Serenity Tea House serves the traditional British High Tea. Complete with a three course meal. The fair consists of a wonderful brothy soup, scones, cucumber and tomato sandwiches, as well, coddled cream served with lemon and strawberry preserves, and the traditional tiny desserts. The ambiance is so relaxing.
Below are the signing authors as well as members of the Florida Romance Writers(my RWA chapter), family, and friends. I am seated in the toward the back of the first group picture behind the rose centerpiece to the left.
As you will notice the first two photos are either end of the room I was seated in and the below picture is taken in one of the adjoining rooms. Assorted fresh flowers, knick knacks, period pieces from hats to antique wedding gowns, furniture, lighting, so much imagery it's truly hard to describe. All I can tell you is it turned out to be the perfect afternoon.I'm quite sure you are wondering how the signing went. Fantastic! I went with a small number of books and came back with only two. It seems my debut author signing proved to be a wonderful success:) All the authors report the same result. I will definitely look forward to doing this again.
In closing, I would like to thank Mary Ricksen for all the work she did in making this signing the success it was. She did a terrific job and and deserves a standing ovation along with lots of hugs. I know for a fact there were times she probably wanted to pull her hair out:) I hope to do more promotional events with my good friends:
Mary Ricksen,
Jianne Carlo,
Mona Risk,
Patrice Wilton, and
Traci Hall.
