The Clockwork Rose Tea Emporium Experience

I had the most delightful experience this past Tuesday, a friend treated me to tea at the Clockwork Rose Tea Emporium. This is a wonderfully imaginative tea shop in Beaverton, that really should not be missed by those inclined to take a cuppa with delicious savories and sweets along with a truly unusual and marvelously creative atmosphere.

The Clockwork Rose Tea Emporium is a delightful mix of steampunk and Alice in Wonderland. I was in awe at the detail and creative talent of the two owners Maggie and Harold. The establishment is a feast to the eyes; hot air balloons, delicately balanced tea cups, and steam punk hats and portraits.

The Farloft Chronicles and the Dragon Who Tweets!

My relationship with Farloft, my dragon muse, started in 1996. My nephew, James, was nine years old and having a problem with the concept of ownership. It wasn't that he stole, it was that he made some really poor trades. Let's just say you wouldn't have wanted him on your corporate bargaining team.

He would go to school with a new winter coat and come home coat-less, with a transformer toy. His mother would have to go to school to retrieve the coat from the student he struck the trade.

James just didn't seem to get it. His parents talked to him, his grandparents, I even took a stab at it, but it was a concept he was having real issues with. I wondered, 'who would a little nine year old boy listen to?'

A Challenge from a Fellow Writer

Theresa Jacobs tagged me on a blog post challenge. 

Why did I chose an animal as my main character?

Here are her questions and my answers.

Why did you choose to use animals as your main character? Is your animal real or mythical?

I actually have three animal characters:

Farloft is my dragon in The Farloft Chronicles. I chose him because I was wracking my brain trying to think of who, or what, my nine-year-old nephew would listen to. Whose advice would he take when he wasn’t listening to his parents, grandparents or aunt? I thought it might just be a very wise old dragon.