Previously...

The other day, I wrote a blog post about the AMC series and a few other things. The Mayfair Witches Parlor now connects to a new website home page created for that purpose. As the various platforms spread the content out among them, I thought something to bring each together would be very handy.

In the main navigation menu above, you will find the link to the comprehensive web page, where I have also shifted to using the page's blog. Which, of course, you will see very quickly, since it is rather prominent and near the top. This has all become such a maze that I think I've outdone Facebook on the confusion factor.

To see this new comprehensive catch-all, look for Chronicles of the Mayfair Witches in the main navigation menu above...

***Update: The Mayfair Witches Parlor's Cookie Jar is for archival purposes. Hopefully, it will remain that way and cause no further problems. Thank you!!***

The Mayfair Witches Parlor utilizes third parties to measure analytics, to facilitate user preferences, and to protect user privacy by restricting any tracking via cookies. Specifically, the cookie consent banner allows users to decide whether or not they wish to allow vendors to set cookies. With the exception of Consent Manager, ALL vendors require an explicit Opt-In by the user. No cookies are aloud to drop unless and until the user explicitly opts IN. No user is required to allow cookies if they do not want their activity on the site to be tracked.

The Parlor, in addition to its host, Lycos, and its domain, Tripod, utilizes multiple Google products to assist in gathering data necessary for operating this website.

Google products in use on the Parlor are Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Fonts, and Google General. Images throughout the website are hosted on Google Photos. To ensure compliance with GDPR and data privacy laws worldwide, Consent Manager, combined with Google Tag Manager, provides the Parlor's cookie consent banner. The links below contain information on the Parlor's vendors and cookies. When you click each link, a list of vendors and a list of cookies will automatically download in CSV format. Windows users may open the lists with Notepad.

The Mayfair Witches Parlor does not run any ads you may see displayed on any of its pages. This is done by and through its web host, Tripod Lycos. The Parlor does not now and never has had an account with Google Ads, and has no control over any ads shown. The Parlor is not responsible for collecting any consent with regard to anything related to Tripod Lycos and its relationship with advertisers. Any vendor not specifically allowed and applied by the Parlor will NOT be added to any vendor lists, nor will the Parlor collect consent for marketing vendors not authorized by the Parlor. PERIOD. Tampering with codes installed directly on The Mayfair Witches Parlor without prior authorization by the Parlor, including but not limited to cookie consent/CMP banners, Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, is strictly prohibited REGARDLESS of who you are.

For these reasons, along with the fact that The Mayfair Witches Parlor is a NONCOMMERCIAL WEBSITE, and its preferences regarding user data having been made clear in the site's headers, NO consent will be given to allow vendors to set cookies for purposes of marketing and/or advertising on this website.

ALL advertising matters regarding advertising and/or consent MUST be directed to Tripod Lycos. Thank you.

O Christmas tree, oh Christm--SON OF A--!!!

This domain tree is one of the many ways it appeared when I found well over 100 vendors dropping cookies without my permission or even my knowledge. It's a cinch these vendors didn't bother collecting consent from any other users, either. I do not run ads on this website, although the web host does. If I ever see a mess like this again, I will literally make a federal issue out of it.

Just as soon as I add the entity (or the one impersonating the entity) that helped itself to my Facebook account as a vendor so my blockers will know to block it if they see it.

Who dis?

https:// gtm-msr.appspot.com/ render2?id=GTM---------

Actual tag ID redacted.

I'm not sure why appspot.com wants me to whitelist their domain or add some "page" that does not exist so they can scan it and not the actual site to make sure no one is sneaking in to collect user data without consent. I just went through and overhauled the vendor list again and added back the ACTUAL vendors I use. All TWO of them.

They are: Consent Manager (with a redecorated cookie consent banner that matches this website even more), which blocks cookies users do not consent to except the ones they use to facilitate what users consent to and what they do not.

Google Tag Manager, which is one way the Consent Manager is delivered. That's all it's used for, in fact. As cookie consent is a legal requirement, the Consent Manager is on all the time. Since it is also installed directly on the site, it doesn't really need GTM, but the Parlor does.

I removed Google Analytics from this website, not because it did anything wrong, but just in case someone else did.

People, I really don't like initiating anything serious, but when I see things like that, I'm afraid that means I will report it. Even if it's not done formally, I will make sure the information is conveyed to whom it does concern--in this case, Google. I have no problem doing the same if it concerns Meta products (Facebook, Instagram, etc), or Microsoft, or Apple, or any other company.

I get that companies do things wrong, but I'm not a fan of scapegoating. For this reason, I tend to do a lot of digging, a lot of research, just as I do with the content of this website. It's not always the giants stomping the little people.

So. I understand Google App Engine and Google Cloud Services are legitimate products in and of themselves. From what I've been able to find out, they are often used in conjunction with Google Tag Manager Problem is, I don't use either one. With or without Google Tag Manager. If you see it anywhere on the Parlor, do let me know, if you will. And do let me know if you have any other questions (sales pitches not welcome). You may email the Parlor directly at comeintomyparlor1995@gmail.com.

About advertising...

The Mayfair Witches Parlor itself does not run advertising or have sponsors. In addition, the Parlor does not run ads or have sponsors on any of its social media, including YouTube. Any ads you might see upon entering the Parlor website are advertising run by its web host/domain, Tripod Lycos. The Mayfair Witches Parlor is a noncommercial website and always has been. However, the Parlor web host--Tripod Lycos--may run advertising simply for costs associated with hosting websites regardless of what content is on them.

To be clear, The Mayfair Witches Parlor, formerly Come Into My Parlor on Tripod Lycos, The Mayfair Parlor on Blogger, Chronicles of the Mayfair Witches on GoDaddy, and all of its social media do not have ad accounts with anyone, in particular Google Ads, Google Adsense, Facebook/Instagram/Meta advertising or any advertising of any kind whatsoever. More disturbingly, The Mayfair Witches Parlor and myself personally have, like a frighteningly large amount of people, had to deal with the nightmare of finding out someone else has used my social media platforms to run ads on accounts I never set up or gave anyone else permission to set up on my behalf. To all who have found themselves in this same boat as me, I know what an awful experience it is. It's not merely distressing; it is traumatic. If one has PTSD, it will be triggered by this traumatic experience. If one did not have PTSD before, when I say they just might should the disaster ever be straightened out, I say with grave sincerity.

The trauma people have suffered is one of the main reasons I have not been able to tear myself away from the issue, from trying to find how to solve the problem not just for consumers, but for businesses as well. It is why I have decided to share some of my own experience with it both as a consumer and as a website owner. One of the most immediate ways I have of doing that is to make certain things clear on my end, as well. Like this:

1. ALL advertising inquiries regarding ads that might be seen on this site MUST be directed to Tripod Lycos. It is they who have the ads through Google and run them. I am independent, and therefore neither authorized nor obligated to speak or act on their behalf, and I am not obligated to collect data for them.

2. The ONLY vendor always on is Consent Manager. That is due to the legal obligation to be GDPR-compliant as well as compliant across the world. The cookie consent banner is there to make sure NO vendor who does not have an essential, legitimate reason (and you DON'T) drops cookies without the user's informed consent FIRST. I don't care WHO you are. Users must explicitly opt in or no cookies for you. If you, the vendor, don't like that, then I'm sure you're REALLY not going to like what I have to say next. Any business who operates by collecting the personal data of people without their consent or even their knowledge despite overall protection and advisories they might already have in place to protect them from this invasion of privacy is no one I care to do business with. Ever.

3. Advertising is a BUSINESS. Marketing is about BUSINESS. If you cannot conduct business in an ethical and responsible way, and refuse to respect the privacy of the people you believe you have a product or service to sell that they want, then you have NO business here.

4. Should the Parlor reach a point where advertising certain things would be a good fit for the Parlor and beneficial to the Parlor's guests, the advertisers will be scrutinized just as closely as target markets. Reputable advertisers (yes, there are such things as that) are who and what the Parlor will prefer to work with.

5. Despite my site not being a commercial one, I still try to operate it in a manner that is, among other things, "advertiser friendly". This means that it is operated in a way that avoids possibly reflecting poorly upon an advertiser. Let me give you an example. You might or might not remember when social media platforms like YouTube started tightening the rules on use of notty werds. Meaning, if your content is likely to be offensive to a certain amount of people due to content like notty werds, that can cause a backlash on advertisers whose products and services are advertised alongside content that is offensive to people who might also avoid the advertiser's products or services for that reason. There were plenty of screeching YouTubers, including those who thought this should not apply to them due to not being monetized. The harsh reality here is that if any of these YouTubers were looking towards becoming monetized or even just increasing the reach of their content, not being willing to avoid being notty with the potty mouth was a mistake. What you say and do online has an effect on people in ways we might not see right away. Having yardsticks by which to measure our content, including "advertiser friendly", is never a bad thing when you're learning to read the room.

6. To be clear, I have certain things set up on the Parlor for a reason. The cookie consent banner is here for users to make clear what they do and do not want vendors collecting about them. It also allows me to monitor very closely whether or not unauthorized vendors are present and/or circumventing the cookie consent banner due to what I can only assume is "confusion" as to the difference between "tripod.com" and "mayfair95.tripod.com". Subdomains are VERY aggravating when it comes to matters like this, so my vigilance has to be extra close. If I see anything at all like that mess of a domain tree again, I will take action.

7. Any vendor whose products and/or services might have been misused by bad actors who do so on the Parlor is invited to contact me directly, should the offending party make that necessary. While a popular refrain or defense is often, "b-b-b-but it's a free service", well, listen, sweetheart. The moment someone misuses it, it's not free anymore. With that being said, the Parlor will be pleased to assist any vendor whose products and services have been misused in providing those bad actors with a very expensive education in what NOT to do with other people's personal data and money online.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the privacy policy, cookies, compliance, or anything at all on The Mayfair Witches Parlor, you may email the Parlor at comeintomyparlor1995@gmail.com.

December 5, 2024

For Parlor guests in the United States, I hope you've all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Now, please get comfortable. I've much to go over...

I still managed to despite a lot of activity around here that doesn't make it to the screen (more or less). You might have noticed the graphics are a little different. I decided that since the images of the print and electronic books are already on the page of the Parlor that discusses each of them briefly, I wanted to change things up a bit. I just have not figured out what to do with all that open space along the left side of the screen. The image that is now at the top of every page is of my 3D model of the Mayfair Witches house (of the novels). I also used SketchUp for the lightning effects, since it has some pretty good overlay capabilities. The design was inspired by the cover of the May 1993 Mass Market edition of The Witching Hour.

The glowing cameos?

I had A LOT of fun on NightCafe one night. Cameos were among the first graphics I tried out using just the generative AI text-to-image prompts we're getting so familiar with. Some extra design prompts managed to make these glowing cameos! Of course they were inspired by the ones Aunt Queen had in Blackwood Farm. I wanted to see what a cameo with jewels encrusted in it looked like and found those kinds of cameos are called "cameo habille". Now, I've used that term in tons of my generated cameos on NightCafe.

One thing generative AI can do if used well, responsibly and ethically, is a new angle on stock images and graphics. For many years, the Parlor has made do with what could, in some cases, be considered stock photography. We look for such images when we are showing while we are telling. For example, YouTube videos will have stock images so the creator can give a visual as they present their content. It can aid and enhance what the creator is trying to say. But are stock images able to cover enough topics by showing accurate representations? No, but they are still a great place to start. And they still provide one thing generative AI cannot: 100% real subjects.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to invest in stock images, especially if they are just starting out. Generative AI may be of help there. That is one way of making graphics that include necessary details that might not be found in other image resources. This might also be a good option for making things like banners and avatars for online or social media, as well. However, there are some things you must consider if you do use AI for graphics.

One is that there is no substitute for the real thing. Stock photography does have 100% real subjects. Another is if you want an effect like an oil painting. Or if you use or make videos with AI generated effects and alterations. If it's text, music, anything you could imagine... ALWAYS make sure to clearly indicate a creation is AI generated if you share it with the public. You might even see what can be done with existing intellectual property you do not own. If so, you need to treat it like you are required to with any other intellectual property: permission, buy the rights, and/or Fair Use.

Then, there is perhaps the most important one: making sure that you indicate your image, if it has a person in it, is not of a real person. Faceswapping can be a way of putting a face on characters, but make sure the face you use is not of someone who is well-known, especially if they do not know you. The Parlor has gotten wind of a disturbing trend that has arisen: scammers using the faces of celebrities to ensnare victims. Fake fundraisers, fake products, fake services, you name it--NONE of which celebrities whose likenesses were used ever consented to or even knew about. Until someone got hurt.

The Parlor has always approached creating likenesses of characters like the Mayfair Witches with ethics and responsibility. It makes me very angry that anyone would use something that can be a wonderfully creative tool for purposes of deception, of fraud. And that they do it with no concern or caring about the lives of the people they victimize. How angry? Let's just say one never saw so many sailors DIVING out of doors and windows as fast as they did at the Parlor motherhouse.

This leads me to...online safety.

First, it's important to reiterate that even though you see ads on the Parlor's landing page, they are run by the web host, not the Parlor. The Parlor has never run ads anywhere online. Now, not all advertisers are deceptive pond scum. There are far more reputable advertisers than not. One thing I have learned from social media is that no advertiser worth their air time is going to want their products advertised with content full of ugly behavior. Like bullying, harassment, cyberstalking, threatening words and behavior. They also don't want to be associated with behavior such as content creators whose only content is taking pot shots at each other every live stream and every video they make (for example). Of course, people have the right to free tantrums--oh, sorry, free speech. I once asked my father about the right to free speech (he was an attorney).

He said, and I quote, "Yes, you do have the right to free speech. BUT. You are responsible for whatever comes OUT OF YOUR MOUTH."

He also made it clear that not all forms of speech are protected, such as defamatory speech. Hate speech.

No reputable advertiser wants their products or services advertised alongside content like that.

Now, I realize this is harsh. But I have seen firsthand what this sort of horrible behavior can do to those on the receiving end of it and to society at large. It ain't pretty, folks.

It's also made me A LOT less tolerant of anyone or anything calling itself a "business" to help themselves to people's private data without permission or disclosure. This is why the Parlor is even more strict about this matter than ever before. It is why the Parlor has a cookie banner. Even though the Parlor utilizes Google Analytics, it does so for basic reasons, like page hits and pages visited. Still, collecting this type of data requires consent from users FIRST. Which is why each guest who visits the Parlor is asked to explicitly opt in if you do not mind the use of Google Analytics for...analytics on The Mayfair Witches Parlor.

I am looking at how I will proceed forward in making sure this website and any other website, blog or social media profile that belongs to the Parlor is as safe as possible. Hopefully, things will be well in hand by January 5, which is when Season 2 of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches premieres on AMC.

Thank you all for your patience, and if you do encounter anything that concerns you that you believe I should know about, please let me know right away by email at comeintomyparlor1995@gmail.com.

Happy Holidays!

November 24, 2024

Yes, this page looks a little different from the others. I'm testing out new layouts because I'm thinking the Parlor can use a facelift. One that is more conducive to making it more mobile-friendly. Not sure what to do with that empty area to the left.

The image behind the site header is of my 3D model of the Brevard-Rice house, made with SketchUp and using the software's overlay features to create the effects. The effects were inspired by the cover of the 1993 Mass Market edition of The Witching Hour.

The links to change your privacy settings for the Parlor's cookie banner and Do Not Sell My Personal Information have been put back. They are accessible no matter where you are on the website.

Just to reiterate: the Mayfair Witches Parlor itself does not now and never has run ads. This is done by its web host, Tripod Lycos. They do this to cover costs associated with hosting websites, but any collecting of user data for marketing has to be done with the user's informed consent.

Thank you for your patience as the Parlor takes measures to make sure this original site is safe and fun for everyone who visits.

Because I cannot seem to just make a new home page for The Mayfair Witches Parlor, I have created this second page as the place for updates. The original home page will simply function as the site's landing page on its original host. This is being done to preserve the site while protecting the privacy of its users.

To that end, I will continue to make available to users of the site a list of every vendor who wants them to allow cookies of any kind to be set on their devices. The vast majority of these vendors seem to have been able to do this without my authorization or even my knowledge. If I continue to see unauthorized vendors setting cookies without the consent of users of this site, including mine, I will take appropriate action. That may include, but will not be limited to filing reports of violations to government agencies.

This is a noncommercial website and always has been. The Mayfair Witches Parlor does not now and never has run any advertising or marketing activities of any kind. Not on this website, its blog or any social media or other web hosts. The web hosts and social media platforms themselves may run ads; however, the Parlor does not. Again, the content on this website is either here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the US Copyright Act of 1976, or it is my intellectual property. I write my own text for this website and always have. I also create some of the graphics, for example, my 3D models. These things belong to ME. You are not to use any intellectual property found on this site for monetary gain of ANY kind without permission, PERIOD.

For the formalities of this, you will find in the footer a direct link to the Parlor's disclaimers, Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Please read them carefully. They are now in effect.

Everyone else, enjoy the Parlor as usual! And please let me know if you have ANY questions or concerns of any kind. Thank you!!

Update on The Mayfair Witches Parlor

Because of the ongoing challenges of continuing to host this website on a web host that does not have the secure capabilities and compatibility of other, newer and more robust hosts, the Parlor has decided to redesign the structure of the site. The pages of the Parlor will stay live, but eventually, all of them will be accessible through the site's new landing page. For security, I will not provide the new link here. However, you will find it on the Parlor's Facebook page (also no longer linked here, but type in MayfairWitchesParlor in the Facebook URL and you'll find the pinned post with the landing page linked there). The Mayfair Witches Parlor, formerly Come Into My Parlor has been here since 2008, and there are reasons I have continued to host it here in recent years despite the advances and changes in the tech industry.

I see no reason why the Parlor should not use newer, more advanced technology in conjunction with what it already uses for the time being. And I really should have given this whole clusterBLEEP a Mona Mayfair-inspired name. Mona, for those of you who have read Lasher, was something of a little tech wizard herself. We only get as far as page 5 (in the 1995 Mass Market edition) before we learn this kid, who recorded her conquests in \WS\MONA\AGENDA, had "the fastest 386 IBM clone on the market, with max memory and max hard drive". This was the early 1990's, children. However, max memory and max hard drive are still two of the things people look at first when they go shopping for a new computer--I mean device.

Amazing to see a character go from designing her own complex setup at age 13 that was enough to outsmart a couple of attorneys to "I shouldn't have called her on her cell." That last was from Blood Canticle, when Lestat told Mona to consider Michael Curry's worry for her and call home. It's been a while since I last read the last book, but even with that, you hit your head in a car accident and see if your memory doesn't go a bit spotty at times on top of a row of herniated/blown discs in your neck and one blown disc in your back. Yes, the car accident happened right as this site was launching. Accident: past. Injuries: permanent. It's a VERY good thing I have always been a reader. It really comes in handy when you spend more time sitting and waiting in waiting rooms and exam rooms than you do actually being examined or treated or talking to...anyone. Except the day this NASTY trigger point deep in my shoulder was finally released...

Don't get me started. I LOVE that story!

Anyway.

This might be a bumpy road, but this website isn't, or shouldn't be, the only thing I do. It also shouldn't be something I do that someone else exploits at my expense, either. If that's what you're doing, marketers, you can stop right now. This site is noncommercial, and whatever is on it that is not mine is used under the Fair Use Doctrine of the US Copyright Act. If you're making a profit off of my work or that of anyone else on this site, I advise you to stop NOW. Everyone else, enjoy!

Update Your Bookmarks/Favorites!

The Mayfair Witches Parlor has decided that the URL of each page of the Parlor should finally have its proper name in it. If you have a favorite or fourteen that you've bookmarked, you'll want to update that. The quickest way to find your favorite pages is the Site Map in the main navigation menu. Only a few pages are having trouble linking on the site map, but they are pages that can be found in the main navigation menu above.

The site's canonical URL has not changed, so you can easily get back to the Home page if you need to.

Surprise!

The Parlor now has a black background with text that I hope will be much easier to read. I hope the overall effect will be easier on the eyes for those of you who struggle with reading text on white backgrounds, suffer from migraines, or other difficulties. I'm a chronic migraine sufferer myself.

I hope this will make the site more enjoyable for people. And I promise not to break too much on it!

The site looks different...again.

I began testing to see if the site appears the way I want it to in other browsers. I use Firefox for almost everything, including working on this site. I wanted to see if Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge would display the site, and...

They did not like the font I use for the drop down menus and footer button grid, which was Cinzel Decortive Bold. After much wailing, melodrama and (eep) pottymouth, I figured out the problem.

Chrome and Edge did not know what to do with the word "bold" in the font name.

So it is now simply Cinzel Decorative. And it still looks nice, I think.

The very top Navigation Bar is something Tripod does not allow much in the way of customization, so I could not make the font any larger than it is, a diminutive "3". So the drop down menus at the top of every page tell you where in the site you are and allow you to go to other pages in that category. But to go to a different category to see what's there, you'll need to click on the category in the top navigation bar first.

I've also begun to add some new images, beginning with the pages of Anne Rice's work. I still have to update the Ramses the Damned series, and add The Wolf Chronicles. After much misery, I finally managed to build a decent gallery image table and some cover mock ups I made of the covers. The site I use to do this is listed on the Digital Funhouse page of the Blogspot site. I keep meaning to link it here as well, as there are some pretty neat sites you can use to make graphics.

Images...

There are many images on the site that still appear and if you right-click on them and choose to view in a new tab, they will open. If you just click on them, you'll get an empty window. Quite a few of the images will show up on a Google Image search, but you can't open the older ones. I'm not sure I'll be able to put a redirect on them, but I'm still going to see about making sure the images can be accessed.

One photo gallery I had previously linked on the site but is no longer available is a series of historic photographs of the inside of the First Street house taken during a tour in the early 1970's. I do have the images saved and where they came from, so I might consider building a gallery for them. They're actually pretty good photos!

There's more to do, and I'm itching to get more into the topic of the TV series. Until then, there's more on the site to break--I mean fix...

I couldn't help it. I have restored links to an early script for 'The Witching Hour' written by Anne Rice, an historical document about 1239 First Street from 1964, and the three family trees I made for Rowan and Mona Mayfair and for Michael Curry. I was able to restore the links by using Google Drive.

Each document has its own link.

I might reproduce the family trees using my Ancestry.com account. If I have the display how each are related to each other, I think it might choke! I do have the software for my own family tree, so that might also be an option. And it might still choke, too!

Years ago, I got an email from someone advising me of an error in one of the trees, but I can't get to that email. Or recall which tree and where the error was in it. So please feel free to take a look at the trees and if you find something that is different from the way the relations were stated in the books, please let me know.

The pages the new links are on are listed at the end of this memo.

Let's see, what else can I break--I mean fix...

A little later...I've managed to find a way of organizing it. Hopefully it works well enough to make navigation a bit easier. Tripod's menu has to be the main menu, but each page in each category has a dropdown list of links in that particular category.

You can return to the Home page (now it needs pictures...) in the main menu or the Home button in the footer. You can return to the top of any page by clicking on Return to Top. Pages with more content on Blogspot will have a button that will take you to that page.

As soon as I finish wailing on the floor and taking a bit of a break, maybe I can get to some updated and new content...

Previously...

I am having a lot of trouble getting the menu to work for the site the way it should. I've managed to put the footer to use, but not without having to "trick" it to have a margin wide enough to run across the bottom of the page.

Tripod does not have much in the way of options for an efficient navigation menu. The size of the site really does demand a more efficient navigation menu than is available. I've been able to add things using HTML codes, but only the most basic things. I'm trying, though!

Both menus will work, so you can use either one to navigate your way through the site. I realize this is not exactly the most efficient or aesthetically pleasing thing, but I don't seem to have much in the way of options available. Thank you in advance for having the patience of saints!

Some Discussion on the TV Series

My goodness, what a direction this new series is taking!

My mother has asked, "Who is Tessa? What...?"

Tessa was actually the name of the Taltos female the three rogue Talamasca members had housed in England and why they targeted the Mayfairs and Aaron Lightner. They were on the hunt for a Taltos male, and there was a line of witches in America that had managed to produce a Taltos.

Of course, this Tessa is not a Taltos. She is a Mayfair. A witch in a family of witches, but the Mayfairs are humans. As Tessa becomes the new Designee of the Legacy by ceremony in the TV series, it was the character of Mona Mayfair who became the new Designee, but it was done differently. In the books, it was very much a legal process, whereas in the TV series, it was a spiritual process in which Lasher chooses a Designee to bind to.

Mona Mayfair was 13 when she first appeared in the books, but a very...precocious 13-year-old. Extremely intelligent and resourceful, she was definitely a character who would have been as at home in the world of social media as she was with anything computer-related in the "present day" the novels were set in, which was 1989-1990.

The part that actually had Lestat laughing so hard he would have about cried had he been still human? Mona's "disguise" at that time in her life. Literally dressing in little girl dresses, with a big bow in her hair. Mona was also a redhead.

But like Rowan being a brunette in the TV series instead of a blond, Mona becoming a blond Tessa doesn't seem to detract too much from the character herself. The things I tend to notice more are things in the story line that are different, rather than presenting a character in a different way than they were in the books.

There is one interesting twist, though.

Among the group of people who are supposedly the equivalent of modern day witch hunters is a couple who, it seems, lost a daughter to cancer at some time before these events. The father had worked in an automotive shop that had been in the empty building Tessa was being held in. The shop had been owned by the Mayfair family, and they had closed it while the couple's daughter was in the middle of her cancer treatment.

The implication seems to be that because the father lost his job, the family lost their insurance coverage, and subsequently, their daughter. This is a devastating loss under any circumstances. It shouldn't surprise the viewer that the parents would have a grudge against the Mayfairs for this. Unfortunately, this seems to have been more of a reason for them to find a way to seek revenge on the Mayfairs than any real concerns about witchcraft in modern day America.

Remember it was a witch judge in the books who had unwittingly taught Suzanne how to call up Lasher in the first place. It isn't really surprising that this cult of modern day witch hunters who abducted Tessa demanded that Tessa actually do some of the very things that, in their minds, witches do that make them witches. And witches, they say, are evil.

Do they really want to eradicate witches because they believe what witches do is so evil? Or do they just want witches to teach them how to do these things themselves? If so, why?

Are these people really interested in going after witches because, in their minds, witches are bad, or do they have an agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with witchcraft or anything remotely spiritual? Is it personal vendettas that drive these people rather than righteousness?

Something else the TV series addresses that brings the Mayfair Witches very much into the present day as we know it now? The Internet. Tessa had approached Rowan about this online group of modern witch hunters asking what to do about them. Rowan's advice was advice we all need to remind ourselves of from time to time: don't feed the trolls.

Rowan did not take what Tessa described seriously. So, in her mind, because she did not take it seriously, Tessa decided to go ahead and confront the group. Alone. Tessa had gone missing, and Rowan felt responsible. Through this sudden development, we learn that transferring Lasher from Rowan to Tessa had not worked.

The problem is, no one knows where Lasher is except Ciprian Grieve. Who learns in a very unconventional way that he and Rowan are about to become parents. Rowan, on the other hand, learns this the old fashioned way--by throwing up. However, she also learns this through the diagnostic sense she has that has taken on a visual element as well in the TV series.

Rowan going to the Mayfair house (to the disappointment of Tessa's mother) to ask Tessa about Lasher was how she and Tessa's mother learned Tessa was missing. During the search for Tessa, other family members somehow picked up that Rowan was pregnant. Despite her condition, Rowan felt guilt at not taking what Tessa had said more seriously. At this point in time, it has led to potentially deadly consequences for both of them.

There is one lesson to be learned, fictional story or not. Don't feed the trolls. AND. Do NOT engage with the trolls. I will be frank. Some of the people who troll online are dangerous. Trolling on the Internet is not a new thing, but it's taken on new dimensions since the advent of social media. What we're seeing in this TV series is an example of that.

The Parlor and Social Media

While this website is a website in, I guess, the traditional sense of the word, it began at a time when social media was just beginning to really take off. There is a video embedded on this website that has been here for many years, uploaded to YouTube when YouTube was a fairly new thing. Today, YouTube is not only a type of a search engine for a specific type of third-party content, it is also a social media platform.

In making the site active again, I had to consider it in the context of the present day. Because of YouTube's growth, and because its type of third-party content is one that aligns with what I want the site to be, it was only natural to set up a YouTube channel of its own. And Twitter...and Facebook (that one I'm still working on)...

But they need to compliment each other. Which is why I've been busy with this site as well.

The Parlor's Changes

I've wanted to make a navigation menu for it that is at least decently organized and user friendly instead of having lists of links on only one page. Hopefully, this will make the site much easier to navigate.

Each item you see on the menu is a clickable link and all but two have drop down menus that show the other pages of the site under that category. Having this option on each page of the site should make it a lot easier to navigate.

Many of the pages with a lot of content on them either have or will have a Return to Top button at the bottom of them. Every page has a square button at the bottom that will return you to the Parlor's Home page.

The Galleries will take you to the albums I've set up on the Parlor's own Google Photos. Images on the site up until now were hosted by Tripod, but I have had to use Google Photos instead. Some of the images will be from the Parlor's Blog, which is a blog version of this site, ready in case something happens to Tripod Lycos.

There are some differences between the Parlor site here and the Parlor on Blogspot, though, little surprises here and there, so make sure to check out both! Many of the site's original pages were rebuilt on Blogspot, so you'll also find a button at the bottom of those pages to click to see the page on Blogspot.

I had forgotten about this, but years ago, I did experiment with setting up a Parlor blog--on Blogspot! I had to remove the old blog, but I did archive what was there. There's a "whodathunkit?" moment!

If you are browsing on, say, a Google Photo search and you see images that have a link beneath them that still reads "Come Into My Parlor", those are indeed from this site! Well, when the site had that URL. But they are indeed from here! I've chosen to leave them as is for now.

Another thing you have no doubt noticed is some new font styles. Since I have had to rebuild a lot of the site using good old fashioned HTML and CSS codes, it was inevitable that this would carry over into font styles. So I've added a list of fonts you will now see throughout the site to the Site Resources page at the bottom. In case you'd like to know which fonts you're seeing.

One of them is written as "ChocolateBoxDecorative". Just an FYI: the lack of spaces is not a mistake.

I hope this overhaul will be done soon, because I'd love to start getting more into new content for the site. Especially as concerns the new series. There's quite a bit to discuss there!

I have been busy again.

Before I overhauled this website, I uploaded each. and. every. page. to the Wayback Machine on Internet Archive. A directory for each page in the format of the site map is in progress. I have to change each. and. every. link. to the link for the page on the Wayback Machine.

I also have other formats I've backed up the site to, which is good. I might just restore the site to the way it was anyway, but I am keeping the blog format so it will be available if the webhosting here should ever happen to not be around anymore.

There are two new pages that have been done with a black background rather than a white background. I'll link those below. Please let me know which is preferable as I want to make sure the site is not illegible and/or the Parlor lighting is not too hard on the eyes.

To make your selection, I have set up a pole on the Parlor's YouTube community tab. It also has the links to The Parlor on Blogger with white and with black background. A link to the pole is beneath the page links at the end of this memo.

YouTube is probably the easiest way to reach me. But it is not the only way to reach me. If you are uncomfortable posting on social media, you can always email me privately at mayfair_95@yahoo.com.

I am also in the process of setting up this site's own image galleries on Google. I'm unable to upload new images to Tripod Lycos, probably because of the Zeeblio thing. The images still on the site since it was built can be opened in a new tab if you right click on them and choose that option in the context menu. If you just left click, you'll get an empty box with an invitation to "close window".

THAT'S not gonna fly!

So I'm going to see about fixing that.

I need to make a list...

As many might have heard, YouTube's CEO has decided to step down. After reading initial articles about it, it sounds more like it was either that or be ousted. That is my opinion only, based on when this has happened with CEOs of other companies.

It was just yesterday when I received a comment on my Gallery of Mayfair Witches video saying how glad they were that I am active again and that they appreciated my work on the series. That meant a lot to me. There are so many fans of the Mayfair Witches series, the Vampire Chronicles, and other books by Anne Rice. She put a lot into each book she wrote, so much so that every time you read one, you can find a new gem, even if you've read the book before. I built this site to explore those gems, and the more there are, the easier it is to see why people have come to love Rice's novels and characters so much.

YouTube was very new at the time I began this site, which will be 15 years old this June. Since then, YouTube has grown to what it is today, and is facing some serious problems at the moment. While I choose not to speculate on the problems that include a lawsuit that will be before the US Supreme Court at the end of this month (February 2023), I do hope YouTube will survive the challenges it faces and be willing to make reforms in the areas needed the most.

Despite that, I love YouTube. I've been able to watch silent films now in the public domain on YouTube, documentaries, episodes of old TV shows and hear A LOT of music that I wasn't able to find until YouTube surfaced. And like many, there are ASMR videos that help me to sleep, to relax. I found ASMR videos on YouTube in 2012 and since then, it has pretty much exploded in popularity. Even if it is a little--or a lot--weird. I just wish those tingles could tingle their way right through a trigger point. Wouldn't that be wild?

When I finally got to the task of reviving this site, I was glad to see a video a viewer sent me several years ago was still live on YouTube. At first, I thought I would have to take the video down, but no. I was still able to link to it, a real estate video of 1239 First Street, by embedding it. I also think there are some things that would be even better in a video format.

So, already familiar with YouTube and with a verified channel on hand already, I decided to turn it into a channel for the Parlor. Even before the Mayfair Witches finally made it to the screen, many have put their artistic talents to use in the form of fan art to bring the Mayfair Witches to life.

Doing so in a video format is, of course, not a new idea, but one where I thought I could possibly make something that puts them in a new frame. I've also begun to learn to do some 3D modeling using Sketchup, and had the beginnings of the double parlor begun when Anne Rice died. That was used for the memorial video I did at the time, and then revised when this site became active again. Both videos were and are on the Parlor's YouTube channel. The revised version has its own page on this site.

However, I've had some concerns regarding YouTube's future, and the occasional glitches it has was only a small part of the reason why. Recently, there was a rather large glitch that happened at about the beginning of the second week of January. When it was resolved, even established creators with large followings noticed their analytics had dropped drastically. It is in this environment that the Parlor's YouTube channel has had to really begin from scratch.

If you look below, the last several short videos of the Mayfair Witches gallery that were uploaded to YouTube were shared on Twitter. It has been years since I used Twitter, but I cleaned out my old account and the Parlor is now on Twitter as well. Twitter was recently acquired by Elon Musk (who hasn't heard about that?!), and also saw a CEO step down.

Twitter also allows media uploads, I recently learned, and I've uploaded a few short videos there as well. I've turned ideas over in my head as to what would really work in a video format, such as the Mayfair Garden as a virtual tour rather than a photo gallery or series, that sort of thing.

Whatever I do decide, I don't think we'll all wake up one morning this year only to find YouTube wiped off the face of the World Wide Web. I'd like to see YouTube improve in some areas, like being able to contact customer service regardless of whether or not the caller's channel is monetized. They could do more to make their Terms and Conditions and their Community Guidelines more clear than they are.

They should most certainly keep their Content ID system. People who make videos tend to rely upon this system to let them know if their use of, say, a certain piece of music will either make the video ineligible for monetization, or result in another copyright related issue. This is the part where I clarify something myself.

While I love fan art, that love doesn't extend to fan fiction specifically. Anne Rice herself did state that she does not allow fan fiction as her characters are copyrighted. Yes, they are. So when I look at or generate fan art, it is based on what Rice herself described. Any errors in interpretation would then be my own.

Fan fiction is something I've never been crazy about. Not that there aren't good writers of it out there; there are. But for me, a character is something that only the creator knows best. While I might speculate on what direction a character's story could take, it's just not the same as what the creator of that character could or would envision. I hope that makes sense.

Oddly enough, one thing that YouTube's Content ID system does for the Parlor's YouTube channel is to help ensure that the Parlor does NOT generate income for itself from someone else's work. I toyed with the music for the Gallery of Mayfair Witches video and decided to make it a sort of digital survey of Anne Rice's work in popular culture. So I decided to use the opening music from Interview With the Vampire (1994), which is definitely copyrighted. The label, if it runs ads on the video (we don't get a say in what ads they run or at what point), will make money from the ads, but the Parlor does not.

That is how I want it. This site is really a labor of love, but it is not my "job" or "career". This is a hobby, very much a fan site, that is about commentary. I do this because I enjoy it, because there aren't very many authors who could write a book the way Anne Rice did. Well, actually, she was unique in that. She could include a lot in a book, in the telling of a story, and readers could still relate, and enjoy reading the book without being overwhelmed. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by a lot of "stuff" when reading a book, but Anne Rice was an author who had a unique gift. She made it all WORK.

And at the end of the book, readers finish with "You mean it's finished? I want some more!" (I'm grinning here)

Anne Rice's characters were relatable because of their humanity. Those characters who are, in their own eyes, no longer human are relatable in spite of their presumed lack or loss of humanity. The world they live in is the world we live in.

A world that includes things like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and all the other social media platforms (YouTube is also considered a type of search engine). Like anything else in this world, they will have problems that are human based. Some of those problems need to be addressed now.

One thing social media can do for humanity, I've always believed, is to raise awareness of something. In one of the Mayfair Witches episodes, Rowan sees Cortland's hand shaking and can sense the reason why: ALS.

ALS is also referred to as Gehrig's Disease, after baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died of this disease in 1941. Nearly one year ago now, my mother's sister also died of this disease. No one in our family has had the disease up until now. I did not learn of my aunt's diagnosis until a few months before she died, right after my mother began cancer treatment. She thought I knew about the diagnosis, but I hadn't.

When my aunt was first diagnosed, it was after months of going to doctors about her drop foot. She was finally referred to a specialist at Oregon Health Sciences University, where she was finally diagnosed with ALS. That was a little over three years before she died of the disease.

What I learned in a very short amount of time is that there isn't a cure for it. The disease just storms through the nervous system, impairing function until it gets to the autonomic nervous system, which controls our essential bodily functions: heart beat, breathing...and the patient dies.

To say I was stunned would be an understatement. Not because my mother didn't realize I didn't know until the end...that tends to happen in our family, just usually not to this degree. I was stunned that since 1941, research has made headway into things that used to be just as much of a mystery, like cancer and even HIV and AIDS. This is something we know for what it does, but why it happens, its cause, is there a way to treat even the symptoms, slow or stop its spread...do we know what we need to know to get to where we can do something about it? If not, what do we need to do to find out?

Anne Rice often spoke of issues she was passionate about on her Facebook page. There were things I either had not been aware of or was aware of but unsure what to make of it, like the issue of authors being personally attacked in reviews on Amazon.com, until she would discuss it. The one about Amazon.com I said, "Oh, yes, I have noticed that, and it IS ugly."

ALS is something I have wanted to do more of what is called a "deep dive" into. I'm actually glad the TV series made mention of it because perhaps it will help lead to more awareness of the disease, which in turn could possibly help fund more research into areas we need to know more about to better understand this disease and how we can fight it.

Thank you for taking several moments of your time to read this rather long memo from the Parlor. And thank you to everyone who has enjoyed the site over the years. I truly think it is ultimately a testament to the truly enduring quality of Anne Rice's work.

*The Parlor has removed these posts.

February 8, 2023

Those of you paying a visit to the Parlor might notice it looks a little...different. Again.

I decided that even though this site is still here as mainly an archive, it could still use some freshening up. Tripod has had so many changes that there really isn't a lot available that I can do with the site, but there are some things I can still do. Tripod also does not allow importing sites built on their platform to be imported to other web hosting services, so I'm trying to design it in conjunction with the new Blogger version.

Blogger, Blogspot...

I even started a blog for this site on Blogspot years ago, and now it looks like it will be how I continue to maintain the content on the site. It is also going to be what is hosting most of the media content on the site.

I added new page title graphics that keep the Navigation menu at the top of each page. And keep the menu from cluttering up the content on the page. It was my brother, who does graphics professionally, who went over the site and advised on ways to make it user friendly as well as not so heavily bogged down by the sizes of files on it. I changed the format of the site years ago so the basic layout would be the same across the site.

There is more to do. Some of the images that were once on the site are not there (but they are on the Blog site!), and the font size is absolutely tiny!. Those are next. In the age of smartphones and tablets, and eyes that aren't getting any younger, the font needs to be visible and easy to read.

If you have questions or suggestions, or you know what to put in an html code to center align something, I can be reached at...a few places. I am building the site's presence on social media, and the links for YouTube and Twitter are on the home page. I am also in the process of setting up a Facebook page for it as well.

You may also contact me at mayfair_95@yahoo.com.

That email address is nearly a decade older than this site, no joke! However, the address was inspired by the Mayfair Witches and the year I first read the books. I was 19, but I've been a book lover all my life, and at the time, I really needed to read something that would entertain, inform and inspire me all at the same time. So it's only appropriate that I assign it to this site, as Tripod Lycos no longer hosts my former email address for this site.

So please keep checking back as I refresh and restore the site, and connect it to the main Blog site. And again, a huge thank you to everyone who has enjoyed my site over the last nearly 15 years and continued to visit it. That means a great deal to me, and makes it clear how much readers love the work of Anne Rice and will continue to do so for generations to come.

Before publishing the updated site, I saved .html files and metadata of each page, directories and media. I have also been archiving the pages of the site on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

I went ahead and put all the page links back, but added a link to return to the page the link was accessed from. Just making it a bit more user friendly. Hopefully, it will still be possible to create a dropdown menu on these pages instead of lists that clutter things up.

There are some new things on some of the pages to update the site. Hopefully, those who have enjoyed this site over the nearly 15 years it has been online will continue to enjoy it, and also take a look at the Blogger rebuild of the site...

Oh, my goodness, it's been a minute!

As you might have already noticed, the site looks a little different. That is because I've basically rebuilt the site to prepare it for future content. Some of the graphics have already been removed, along with the image galleries.

Come Into My Parlor is now on YouTube and Twitter!

There is still a lot to do around here, but I do want to let people know that I have also been watching the new series, Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, on AMC+. It will be on the blog where I plan to discuss that.

Finally...

I've had to bury quite a few love ones in the last few years, and it became increasingly difficult to handle. However, I want to take a moment to say that I dedicate Come Into My Parlor to the memory of Anne Rice through her extraordinary work as a novelist. I hope her work will always be recognized for generations to come, I hope that by continuing this site, I can help do that for Anne.

There will never be another author like her.

Rest in Peace, Anne.

The Parlor Remembers Anne Rice

Anne Rice's Message to the People of the Page

March 4, 2015

Bad Webmistress. In the "Running OUt of Excuses" department, it seems Tripod is migrating to something other than what I built this site using. That means all grand plans for redoing the site will have to be put in motion. Not that I'm complaining or anything. It will truly be a joy to go over everything again, and rearrange it so it is easy to find things and looks great at the same time.

In the meantime, I have been doing a little research in the form of genealogy, which led to a crash course in the history of a little bitty state called Rhode Island. Way back when America was still "the Colonies", some of my ancestors married into some families that are more than mere footnotes in the history of Rhode Island. The history has it all: long gone saltbox houses typical of New England, revolutionary disputes, who owns what, and a few creepy but fabulous old cemeteries rumored to be haunted just to keep things interesting.

Now, Rhode Island isn't that big. It is, in fact, the smallest state in the Union. By "small", I mean it can take something like 40 or 50 miles to get from the Connecticut border to the west to Providence to the east. Somewhere between there, in Exeter, is perhaps the most famous vampire legend in the United States. It isn't the first or only vampire legend in America, or in Rhode Island, for that matter. But people to this day still drop in at Chestnut Hill Cemetery to get a glimpse of either the vampire or the ghost of Mercy Brown.

This is a perfect example of the legends and lore surrounding what people believed vampires were. Mercy Brown was the third person in her family to die of tuberculosis (then called consumption) in just under 10 years, and her brother Edwin wasn't far behind. People then had little understanding of the disease we now know as tuberculosis and even less understanding of the process of decomposition after death. Despite what is now known, the legends persist and Chestnut Hill Cemetery habitually goes into lockdown mode around Halloween because of this.

Certainly, there are other cemeteries in Rhode Island sporting ghost stories, and at least one of them involves a reputed witch. For the vampire fans out there, I highly recommend looking up the Mercy Brown case. It gives a lot of insight into the power of belief and why legends and lore persist long after we think we've found the answers.

Now. Where's my brother...?

You may copy and paste the link below into your browser to see the post:

Anne Rice Facebook Post, October 23, 2014
https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/posts/when-i-wrote-the-witching-hour-i-made-the-house-i-was-living-in-in-the-garden-di/10152862531085452/

November 13, 2014

 

First, let me apologize for such a long absence.  It has been a very busy year, which I started by doing something long overdue.  I moved.

 

I suppose a certain nostalgia was lurking in the background when I picked the place.  Not only was it the right place for the right price, oddly enough, it was in the same complex I lived in when I started reading about the Mayfair Witches.  Not the exact same address; I'm around the corner.  So if I'm seen wandering about near my old place and it's not on the street, that's just because I live there and I'm probably walking to a store or something.  It also means that, should I be so inclined, I can perhaps indulge in the random moment of nostalgia, look at a back corner of the old place and do a bit of "remember when...?"

 

So when I looked on Facebook and saw that Anne Rice had posted a link to a site that had photos of her home in New Orleans, the Mayfair house, I thought "Oh, fanTASTIC!  Wonder what that site has?"  So I looked.

 

Turns out it was this site!

 

I have to admit that once I got past being totally flabbergasted, I was humbly pleased.  She mentioned that even now, she visits the home in her dreams.  I was happy I was able to create something that allowed people a "virtual tour" of the Mayfair house, and one that allows Anne Rice to visit her old home again even when she's so far away.  I think we all have certain tender feelings toward homes we lived in when we were much younger, or maybe even the recent past.  Houses are like people in that respect; they have the same effect on you that even your parents have.  When its an historic home, with generations of family living in it over the decades, the house is like the bridge that connects them all to each other. 

 

I'm hoping to finally give this site the attention I've been wanting to give it, and I'm hoping that things will quiet down soon so I can. 

 

Thank you all for the visits.  And thank you, Anne Rice, for your kind words about my site.  I'm glad I could give you the chance to visit your home again, even if only online. 

 

Please, everyone, make yourselves at home here!

Back to The Archive

 

March 25, 2014

It has been a long winter at the Parlor.  I have recently moved, and my Internet is down for the time being.  But enough about that.

First, allow me to answer a rather interesting question I got.  I was asked in an email if I thought the Mayfair Witches were real people.  The short answer is "No".  

The Mayfair Witches are fictitious characters created by Anne Rice, who is the author of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches and the Vampire Chronicles.  They are also copyrighted characters whom Anne Rice does not allow "fan fiction" about because they are copyrighted.  This is not a fan fiction site, nor is it an attempt to convince anyone that the characters are real people whose supernatural experiences are real events in the literal sense.

However, there are places and events in the novels that are indeed real places and real events both historical and current.  There is a great deal of material in this site about these things, because there is a great deal of them in the novels.  For example, the witch burnings that both Suzanne and Deborah Mayfair were victims of were actual events in world history at the time they happened in the novels.  Other examples include the Haitian Revolution, which was the catalyst for the Mayfairs fleeing to America and to Louisiana in particular.  The French Revolution, which many will recognize as the time when Marie Antoinette was executed, is also a real event.  

The history of New Orleans and Louisiana is rich with events and people from many parts of the world, many cultures, many spiritual and religious beliefs and practices that this site can only hope to scratch the surface of.  I have been fascinated with this history, Mayfairs or not, since I was about 16 years old.  To a girl, the more romantic aspects of New Orleans history was appealing, and as I learned more later on, that the place is so much more than romantic stories and places, my picture of this part of America broadened a great deal.  

In The Witching Hour, when Rowan Mayfair returned to New Orleans to bury her mother, she saw the children in the street, poor children, and many sights that made her realize how little of America she might actually have seen and it is quite striking to her.  

But the Lives of the Mayfair Witches is not just about history and time and place.  They are not just about human beings with supernatural or paranormal abilities, however they may have come to have them.  They are not just about what the Mayfair family can do with these abilities, nor are they merely about malevolent spirits like Lasher or an anthropomorphic species like the Taltos.  This is a family of people in the modern world, with a very interesting family history and who possess abilities that are, well, "extra".

Anne Rice has done considerable amounts of research into everything she has written, and it shows well.  What also shows well is her understanding of the dynamics of human relationships in response to events they do not entirely understand whether they want to or not, but which they do their very best to make fit into the fabric of their very human world.  While the Mayfairs themselves are not real people, everything they think, feel, believe, want, need...those things are very real for all people.  

It is generally known that authors often use things from their own lives that have inspired them and affected them, and Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches is no exception.  She does this tastefully and respectfully, because had she mined her own life for less honorable intentions, would we be able to discuss the richness of her work today?  Doubtful; this site would never have existed had she done it that way.  

My aim when I created this site was not only as a labor of love for a series of books that found a place in my bookworm heart, but to bring the world of the Mayfair Witches to life for people.  There are so many gems in Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches that you cannot read them only once.  Every time I have another reading, I find more to thrill me and inform me.  Every time, I come away with the sense that while the Mayfair Witches themselves are not real people, the world they live in is very real, to them as much as it is to us.  In this way, we come to love them as if they were real people because we can identify with them in so many more ways than that part of them that adds the word "witches" to their description.

Speaking of the supernatural part of people, I am just thrilled at the prospect of the Return of Lestat.  While he is entirely supernatural, his persona is more human than even he might like to admit.  I am rather curious--okay, I admit it, I am chomping at the bit--as to whether or not Lestat pays a visit to Rowan Mayfair again.  And if so, will Julien Mayfair have a new haunted house of tricks to heckle Lestat with?  I loved the interaction of Julien Mayfair and that "perfect lout", Lestat.  Will Quinn and Mona appear?  Oh, so many questions!

Now, where was I on the site?  Oh yes.  This site was built in 2008 and technology has advanced since then.  Even so, I still want to give it an overhaul and a new look to make it more efficient.  The double parlor needs new drapes and the grand piano needs a good dusting.  The elevator is creaking again and I need to do something about that thing on the front door that says "Never Mind the 404; Beware of Bandwidth".  

I hope to get this going--FINALLY--very soon.  In the meantime, please enjoy the site and feel free to visit whenever the neighbors aren't hitching a trailer to your Broadband.

Back to The Archive

2013

Once again, I had to go back in and make the font size bigger for guests who have trouble reading smaller fonts.  I have just recovered from having my gallbladder removed (all went well and I return to my job tomorrow!), so I either had lots of time on my hands or felt supremely unmotivated to do anything but make animal sounds from soreness and other pain but that's almost gone now.

The next task will be more about other ways to make the site more "user friendly", including a change of color background from the pages with white backgrounds to reduce glare and a slight darkening of the text to make it visible but not a strain on the eyes.  I want you all to enjoy the site, not end up at the eye doctor.

For those of you with slower connections, as noted on the The Mayfair Witches Parlor Home page, there is a lot of media that may slow down page loading to the point of choking browsers and Internet connections.  Currently, photos that can be opened to see the full size will remain in place for this reason and of course, there are the photo galleries that will also open in a new window.  You can set your browser to open these in a new tab under the Options (Internet Options in IE under the Tools menu) if you don't want your browser be open several times, which just kills the memory in computers. But there are little things, like the background music, that I am considering altering a bit to ease connection speed and time.  My cursor, which is the whirly thingy, is usually a good gauge for telling if a page is loading, so I am considering keeping that.

Anyone getting a Quicktime screamer when trying to load a page--tell it no, and it will continue to load.  My own experience is that telling it yes will choke things up and that's just no fun.

I also would like to make the site more "fun looking" by adding little bitty bits of graphics here and there, the "Easter eggs" I've mentioned previously.  They are tiny little .jpeg or .gif or .png files; nothing big, but I still look for user friendly presentation with less drag on memory, connection speed or browser speed.

Of course, comments, suggestions, and kudos are always welcome.  You may send these to webmistress@comeintomyparlor.com.

Yes, you can download photos but please remember that many of them have other sources, including www.annerice.com, so if you use them elsewhere, please do not remove anything on the image that shows where it came from.  The Webmistress has a strict policy regarding the work of others, especially since this website is about the work of Anne Rice, which is that anything and everything that comes with a reference retains that reference or is noted in the Site Resources and Bibliography.  Anything that I do not identify as being my own is automatically assumed to have been from another source and while it is not always possible to name each and every little one, there are sources that cannot be overlooked.  For example, photos of the Mayfair house that came from the cookbook Lee Bailey's New Orleans are noted as such.  It's also why my copies of the books are listed in the bibliography in Site Resources and Bibliography as I rely on them as my primary sources for much of the content on this site.  Films and music, same thing.  Any photos I have that came to me with watermarks will come to you with the same watermarks; no Photoshop here for watermarks.  Copyrights are serious business, folks, and the Webmistress is tired of seeing them violated intentionally.  'Snot nice.

Now, the Webmistress knows visitors to the Parlor are largely fans of the books and uninterested in sidestepping copyright laws.  Parlor visitors are here to enjoy themselves and to learn fascinating facts that make these books so rich and just so darn good.  The Webmistress gives these rules and regs periodically so that anyone with less honorable intentions will not spoil the fun of learning and enjoying for everyone else.

Since I am returning to work tomorrow, I will have to be ready but there are some tasks as yet undone.  Therefore, I am off to do something about it.  Hopefully, I will return before long to implement some of the easier changes but until then, please enjoy the mermaid on the Guest Book.  I couldn't find an aquarium.

Previously...

I have gotten the chance to fix the weirdness on this site since I've had surgery a couple of days ago.  The link to Amelia Street, folks! Enjoy.

I've been catching odd little bits and pieces around the site like tiny font size and other irksome things that I mean to edit just to make things more user friendly (meaning "visible").  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the most current offering of all things Mayfair...

As you can hopefully see now, I have increased the font size of the Reception Area.

Ordinarily, it is a joy to manage this site and find new things and bring new goodies from the world of the Mayfair Witches.  But haggling with the hosting service over things like email and formatting, and having to crank things up to very unpleasant levels just to get something fixed...that's ridiculous when we're talking about a service I pay for.

But enough about that.  Guess what?

I'm all sorts of excited.  Still kicking myself for missing this the first time around but...for your viewing pleasure, I have created this fascinating new page Amelia Street: The Fontevrault Outpost. Yes, it is.  Mona Mayfair's childhood home (and I can't believe I missed this a year and a half ago...).

I have also restored my email address at last and visitors to the Parlor can once again reach me at webmistress@comeintomyparlor.com.

Please note that the underlined items above are links only because someone told me I had to learn at least a little bit about HTML (shush).  It's the long way, the scenic route, the workaround but I have no choice since editing of this nature using the handy dandy change this or fix that buttons no longer work for me.  This and other formatting nightmares plus the fact that Internet Explorer does not seem to like Lycos or Tripod for some reason (or maybe just Trellix) have made my site editing experience perturbing at best lately.

I've updated everything I can think of just to make sure everything that needs to always be accessible and correct is available while I'm doing more housekeeping.  Again, if you find a dead link, please let me know so I can either repair or remove it.  Thanks!

And enjoy!

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2012

Previously...

And so I am full of delays again.  I am now working on not one but two new pages for this site.  The first is the one I commented on previously in connection to Michael Curry's initial drowning and Rowan Mayfair's rescue of him aboard the Sweet Christine.  The second has more to do with keeping up with "the times" by adding a cautionary note about popular culture--but within the context of this website, of course.

Speaking of keeping up with things, that is what is on the general agenda.  You see, I missed Christmas decorations, which would have been totally unacceptable to Michael Curry, but also skipped out on Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, New Years', and Valentine's Day.  But, I understand that when we paused between honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Presidents, the groundhog outdid me in keeping to schedules.  That, folklore tells us, means spring is coming early this year.

Spring is the season of Easter, and though it is not here yet and I still cannot BELIEVE I skimped on Mardi Gras, I can still create a festive, holiday atmosphere, right?  So, I thought I could at least honor the holiday I haven't missed yet by inviting all you honored guests of the Parlor to conduct a good old fashioned Easter Egg hunt.

Free hint: look up...there.

I guess this means I had better not even THINK about forgetting St. Patrick's Day.  When you think about it, such a slip is almost a mortal sin considering the subject matter here.  I've got this really funny St. Patrick cartoon my cousin posted on Facebook...

But seriously folks, I've been going through the site with my brother.  He is still in the process of redesigning the layout of the site but there are still things that can and probably should be fixed now.  I'm on the lookout for dead or broken links, or links that take people somewhere other than the original intended destination.  Technology has changed in the last five years, and I now have to take into consideration the use of iPhones, iPads, Smartphones, widgets and apps, and web vs. mobile versions online.

I have added a new page to the site to make it easier to find things.  This site is huge, and it's got to be frustrating to wonder "where in all of this can I find...?"  And so the pages that are likely to have what a person is looking for are included in the search parameters.  The search results will display in a page that is outside the website and I intend to fix this since this is not a search of the entire Internet but of this site only.  You can find the new page here:

You will see on the The Mayfair Witches Parlor home page above the greetings and Guest Book that I have added some new goodies.  They are the now universal Facebook "Like" button, the Twitter "Tweet" button and the Google+ "g+" button.  This website does not have profiles on any of those sites but a "Like" simply adds the site to your Facebook list of "likes", with similar results on Google+ and Twitter.  I am tentatively considering a Facebook page but I am still unsure about it.  Clicking "Tweet" for Twitter just recommends the site but does not add it to your "following" list. I also want to let you know that the buttons for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ come directly from those three services and not from a third-party HTML creator.

Due also to the fact that many pages on this site tend to be word-heavy, this means text is likely to fit a miniature book for a 1" scale dollhouse in its entirety.  This means it is almost impossible to read it on a handheld device, especially one that doubles as a cell phone.  Then again, it may also be that places in the text that indicate a shift of topic aren't easily spotted, so I've been putting things in that hopefully make the user interface less tedious.

Did someone say "Easter Eggs"?!

It's back to work I go--LUUUUUUUUUCY!!!!  You have some explaining to dooooo!!!!

Previously...

Guess who?  I know, folks.  It's been just over six months since I've been here.  First, I got reacquainted with pneumonia (well, it started as a flu, but then it turned into bronchitis...), which I hadn't had since I was a two week old newborn.  Then, I went back to work full time at the beginning of May, and have been doing well there.  Considering the shift in what kind of work I do, it brought to mind...

Rowan Mayfair is quite the skipper.  Granted, she isn't the captain of a cruise ship but still, the function of the Sweet Christine is more or less for play.  It is a sea worthy, double engined Dutch-built cruiser, a small yacht.  These are the boats that are bought by the wealthy to enjoy their cruises in private, unless your name is Rowan Mayfair.  Graham Franklin bought the Sweet Christine for her as a birthday present but that didn't stop him and Ellie Mayfair from entertaining their wealthy friends on her decks.  I have to check back but I seem to recall one of Michael's visions upon putting his hands on the boat's deck was of people standing on the same deck and of sounds of a party going on.

Everyone knows about the RMS Titanic, and many are aware of more luxury liners that capsized and/or sank in the 100 years since (insert shameless plugs and a reference to theCosta Concordia here).  In The Tale of the Body Thief, Lestat and David Talbot sail on the Queen Elizabeth II.  Mayfairs of centuries past traveled on liners just to get somewhere across the ocean.  While it would be fun to put together a list of history's most scandalous sinkings, that's already been done.

But in addition to the well known fact that the wealthy like to include among their many toys private yachts, did you know that sailors are some of the most superstitious people in the world?  And did you know that floating vessels like yachts and cruise ships are rumored to be as haunted as their military peers?  The Queen Mary notwithstanding, there are famous stories about the ghosts of passengers and crew members, and of phantom ships galore.  Indeed, the coastline from Washington State, Oregon, and Northern California is not called 'The Graveyard of the Pacific' for nothing.

Why is this important?  Because in light of this illustrious seafaring history, it becomes even less of a surprise that Michael experienced actual death and came back to life--but not before the Mayfair ghosts had a chat with him about a few things.  It seems natural that he was saved by Rowan Mayfair, the skipper of a private yacht, who is herself a witch for whom the vale between this world and the next is far thinner than it is for most people (who are not witches but that doesn't mean a non-witch can't ever see through that vale themselves).

So, new page idea, just in the beginning phases of development.  Sailing vessels owned or occupied by the Mayfairs at any point in their history, and an informative and possibly ghoulishly entertaining survey of history's most famous haunted luxury vessels.  I'll be back--promise.

Previously...

For about sixteen days now, I have had the worst progression of cold & flu season I can recall in a long time.  I have been down for two weeks exactly with bronchitis, which I can only guess came from the flu, which was after the sinus infection, which came after the cold...

I still haven't had much time to find the new Anne Rice book to read during illness--all my spare cash has gone to filling prescriptions left and right.  As soon as I get back to the world of the living, the meds will be traded for a book...

I'd like to take a moment to talk about...Whitney Houston.  I haven't been up all week to address this, in an attempt to avoid the obvious media plugs, but listen, this was a lady worth thousands of words.

Many of us, myself included, have been aware of her talent since she released her first album (what was it, 1985?  1986?).  We remember "How Will I Know" and "Saving All My Love For You".  We especially remember "The Greatest Love of All".  My fourth grade class was made to rehearse that and sing it for the whole school.  Me, I was honored.  One of my teachers thought, or hoped, that the song meant that we as a society were in a state of flux, where "the pendulum is swinging back", that we as a society, as a culture, were remembering what it was to love one another again.  I don't know about that, but a song like that made you hope for it.  Who wrote the song is important but also...the singer made it important, and she did.

I remember when I was still very young, hearing "Didn't We Almost Have It All", and thinking that this was a singer with phenomenal talent, who could sing anything she wanted and touch people on a deep nerve.  That is something that has always impressed me, and I don't think I'm alone in this assessment.  Whitney Houston was very young when she started releasing albums, and wasn't even 30 when The Bodyguard was released.  That is talent.  That is a gift.

Before we assign blame, before we start speculating on who or what was the "real" cause of Whitney's death, let's remember that the world has lost an incredible talent and gift.  Let's remember that a family has lost a daughter, a mother, a niece.  Many have lost a friend, a mentor, a guidepost.  Let's give our condolences to the Houston family, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Brown, and Bobbi Kristina Brown, the ones who have lost the most. 

From Come Into My Parlor and all over the world, deepest condolences and prayers to the family and friends of Whitney Houston.  Rest in Peace, dear soul.

OMGawd...Internet Explorer does have some usefulness after all...I can only edit my site properly through Tripod on IE, so...oh well.  Alrighty then.

Guess what?  I have just fixed the Parlor Blueprint: A Site Map on the site.  More than half the links were taking people to some other page they did NOT click on.  So, I fixed more than half the links.  It's also slightly updated.

There is a new quiz up on the  page.  My sudden brain burst tells me to put some graphics on that page for your visual appreciation...because it's fun!  The quizzes I make are of medium to difficult level, which means if you read the books ten years ago but not recently, you're not likely to be able to answer some of the more obscure questions, which is really what this site is about.  No problem...I probably did put some of the answers somewhere in this site!

Big news: Anne Rice's new book, The Wolf Gift, comes out on Valentine's Day, February 14.  Ah, how appropriate.  I'll be in line at the last bookstore standing in my locality to buy it.  This is encouraging.  I hope when I read it, I'll be inclined to think the Mayfair Witches may make a comeback right along with Lestat!  Now wouldn't that be something?

I have had a hiccup with my contact email for this site. Apparently Lycos has changed a lot of stuff, so now, the email is mayfair95@lycos.com.  That isn't a link (apparently making it a link isn't working, either).  But it's there.  Rats.  I liked the other one.

Happy New Year!  I didn't get around to decorating on the site for the holidays like I usually do, but hopefully this year will be better.  However, I have taken down the Site Map for repairs as the links are absolutely nuts.  I found this all by myself.  Please, if anyone sees links that go to a place they weren't supposed to go, contact me.  Thanks!

Anne Rice is coming out with a new book this year, The Wolf Gift.  It should be very interesting.  I'm anxious to read it!  Of course, we are still awaiting the final installment in the Christ the Lord series, but it will be very difficult to write of the Crucifixion in the first person voice of Jesus. Hmmm, what a dilemma.

I have more or less been worried about practical issues, such as finding work. I hope I will have some luck very soon, and then I will have more time to concentrate on this site. I have plans for it. TTFN...

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