We were housebound for the foreseeable future. The orders had just come down from Downing Street. I would have hugged the machine, but I was afraid of dropping it and breaking my toe, or, even worse, the machine. “Thank you,” I said, hugging an armful of pod packages. And all those years of living with me had taught Colin that it was best to keep me caffeinated in his own self-interest. Two children had contributed the lines around his eyes and mouth. “I wasn’t sure which ones you would like, so I just got them all,” my husband said.įifteen years of marriage had added some gray to his blond hair. On the first day of quarantine, my true love gave to me-a Nespresso machine and a large collection of pods.

This is just a little snippet– but for everyone who wondered what Eloise is up to these days, here she is! I call it Pandemic Pink, and I thought it might be rather fun to share on a gloomy, rainy October day. There was also a young woman with her hair smoothly parted in the middle and a very round hoopskirt named Flora Selwick who appeared to be nursing with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War– and doing it rather badly.Īt the time, I was on deadline with my upcoming standalone book, Band of Sisters– and now I’m deadline with the prequel to Band of Sisters (untitled) and the next Team W book (also untitled), but whenever I can grab a moment, I scribble down that Eloise voice in my head. And she was dying to tell me all about it. This was an Eloise with two kids– older than mine– in an apartment in London under lockdown, too. Who was suddenly talking in my head again. I found myself in my apartment with my husband, kindergartner, toddler– and Eloise. Every now and again, I’ve entertained the idea of writing a series about Aunt Arabella in her youth in the 1940s or the Marquess and Marchioness of Uppington in the 1760s, but, for the most part, the original cast of Pink have stayed demurely in their books, closed behind the covers. It’s been five years now since I wrapped up the Pink Carnation series with The Lure of the Moonflower, which sometimes feels like the blink of an eye and others like an awfully long time.įor the most part, the Pink characters have left me be while I’ve been writing other things.

The pink carnation book series