Hi there,
I’m taking a break sanitizing the dog crates in what we at Buckingham Pet Palace call our Sleepover Suites, to write to you. Sure, I’m one of the co-owners but we all pitch in and do what needs to be done. Right now, what needs to be done is sitting on the sofa in my office with my feet up.
My days are long but fulfilling because I’m doing what I want to do. I wake up around five o’clock and go to the Lewes Beach to run. My house is about three miles from the ocean. Then I go home and walk my Standard Schnauzer, Abby, and get ready for the day. When you work with dogs, the days are the same, because of their love of routine, but somehow different. If you’re a dog person, or any kind of a pet person, you know what I mean by that. It’s one of the reasons we love our guys. The only time my routine is thrown into chaos is when my co-owner, Lady Anthea Fitzwalter, comes to town. And the other is when murder comes to Lewes, Delaware.
Our partnership is the product of an organization called Global She. That’s an international organization of female small business owners, which encourages collaboration among women from different cultures. I’m not sure we’re what they had in mind, but it’s worked. I wanted something to make my business stand out. I needed help with branding to let pet parents know their dogs would get the royal treatment at our pet spa. Lady Anthea Fitzwalter was offering her consulting services. I sent her an email with my proposal and offered a percentage of the profits. She accepted right away and the “pet-ronage” began. We use photos of her estate, Frithsden, and its gardens all over Buckingham’s. Let me tell you, Downton Abby has nothing on that place. Here’s a bit of trivia: the queen’s favorite breeder is also the breeder for Lady Anthea’s Corgis. And, get this, her grandmother was Lady-in-Waiting to the queen!
I love Elvis, surfing and reading murder mysteries. She loves opera, art and history. We have nothing in common but that helped us when we had to solve the murder of one of our employees last year. I used my, if I do say so, thorough knowledge of Elvis songs for some of our most important clues. She used what she’d learned through her education and her family’s art collection, collected over generations, for others.
It’s good we were successful because of our town’s new police chief. He thinks he’s decisive but I think he’s way too quick when it comes to declaring someone a suspect. He’s learning that this is my town and that I can find out what no one will tell him.
He also wants me to go out with him. Should I? What do you think? Gotta go, those crates won’t clean themselves.
Sue Patrick
You can read more about Sue in Stay Calm and Collie On, the first book in the NEW “Pet Palace” mystery series.
Buckingham Pet Palace is known for treating dogs like royalty-until murder dethrones its good reputation!
As owner of an upscale doggy daycare and spa, animal-lover Sue Patrick pampers pooches for the most elite clients in Lewes, Delaware. Surely she can survive a weeklong visit from Lady Anthea Fitzwalter, her well-to-do business partner from England. But before Sue can serve her guest a spot of tea, she discovers more-than-a-spot of blood inside the company van-and all over the driver’s dead body . . .
Someone abandoned the van full of dogs at the Lewes ferry terminal and got away with murder, leaving Sue and Lady Anthea pawing for clues. With a fundraising gala approaching and Buckingham Pet Palace facing scandal, can two very different women work together to fetch the culprit from a list of dodgy suspects-or are they heading toward a proper disaster?
# # # # # # # # # # #
Meet the author
Lane Stone, husband Larry Korb, and the real Abby live in Alexandria, Virginia during the week and Lewes, Delaware on the weekend.
Her volunteer work includes media and communications for the Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation. She’s on Georgia State University’s Political Science Department Advisory Board. She serves as College/University Coordinator for the American Association of University Women for Virginia and on Northern Virginia Community College’s Women’s Center External Advisory Board.
She is currently pursuing her post-graduate certificate in Antiquities Theft and Art Crime. Her alma mater is Georgia State University.
Her standard schnauzer, Abby, tweets as TheMenopauseDog. You can find Lane at www.LaneStoneBooks.com.
All comments are welcomed.
dru's book musings 