Patricia Stoltey

Author

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Contact

Summer in All Its Glory

July 14, 2019 By: Patricia

I’ve been more focused on my flowers and my tomato plants this summer than my writing. It’s not lollygagging, though. I do a lot of writing in my head and planning while I’m watering and pulling weeds.

Yesterday, I was standing idly by my garden boxes, watering the tomatoes, when a new visitor showed up — the first tiger swallowtail I’d seen in my yard ever. Planting new flowers has brought new benefits. Of course, I didn’t have a camera with me. I did a little online search and found the exact butterfly I saw. Interestingly enough, the photo shows the creature on a yellow-orange day lily (I think they’re Stella d’Oro), which is exactly what my tiny guest was enjoying in my garden.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-white-butterfly-perch-on-yellow-petaled-flower-67811/

I have a few other pretties to show you as well. This floribunda rose is called Doris Day, which I thought fitting in memory of one of my all-time favorite singers. She was an awesome actress as well. Have you seen Calamity Jane? Or Love Me or Leave Me? She could do comedy, romance, and drama equally well.

This lily came up on its own this year and I don’t remember buying or planting it last year. I know memory goes fast as we age, but you’d think I’d recall buying a flower this dramatic. When viewed with the naked eye, it’s pure orange. But when I tried to photograph it in the sun, the center of all the petals were yellow. I had to shade the flower to get even this much orange.

Other Stuff

I’m a monthly contributor to the Blood-Red Pencil Blog. My most recent posts there include:

May: The Writer’s Conundrum: How Much Online Time is Too Much?

June: A National Month (or Twelve) Just for Me

My blog is now open for guest bloggers. Colorado mystery author Jodi Burnett will be here on Wednesday, July 24th, with an excerpt from her new release, Hidden in the Hills.

And finally, this is my gardening assistant, Sassy. Her nose is always right in the spot I’m digging or pulling weeds. I think she likes the fresh earth smell.

Category: Blood-Red Pencil blog, Books and Authors, Photography, The Writing Life

Reading at BookBar in Denver and other totally unrelated comments

April 30, 2018 By: Patricia

I had the best time ever on Friday evening when I read excerpts from Wishing Caswell Dead at the 2018 Colorado Book Award finalist event for general fiction, literary fiction, and poetry categories. BookBar in Denver was the location. What a great place! A bar and a bookstore, all in one awesome package. I always …Read More

Category: Books and Authors, The Writing Life, Writer's organizations

The Art of #notwriting

June 15, 2017 By: Patricia

So here it is June 15th and I’m still doing just about everything you can think of except adding new words to manuscripts. We had wonderful family visiting last weekend and everyone got to meet Sassy dog for the first time. My 8 year old granddaughter and Sassy became besties, so Sassy was totally exhausted …Read More

Category: The Writing Life

Saying Good-bye to the Grapes and the Trellis

May 18, 2016 By: Patricia

The wind broke the main post of my grape trellis off at the base this winter. It’s leaning precariously, but tied to the aspen tree to make sure it doesn’t collapse across the sidewalk. Poor broken thing. I’ll be taking it down piece by piece as soon as the rains stop and the ground dries …Read More

Category: Photography, The Writing Life

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

Search

Categories

Wishing Caswell Dead

Dead Wrong

Copyright © 2022 · Customized with by: Upperdale Designs