What are your primary sources for news these days? Are you confident that your sources present the news accurately, fairly, and without bias? Or have you given up trying to keep up with the news anymore?
I gave up before even starting! I used to watch the news, growing up, because my dad had it on. Then I never watched it…At some point I think my late husband used to come home and turn on the local news, so I would watch that. Now, whenever David has it on I watch and listen but I know there aren’t many times that I myself have turned the news on. I get tired of hearing the same thing over and over. The programs are so short that they really just seem to give the same information over and over. I admit I have watched it for the weather. Even they’ve been wrong so many times!
Christine over at Stine Writing is our host for the Simply 6 Minutes challenge.
Check it out here
How could I not join in this week! This picture is a riot! That face!!! Whatever were you thinking?
This is not a good look for me,
I do not look remotely cute,
And how am I supposed to pee?
This woolly thing is way too tight,
I can hardly take a breath,
And please don’t show me a mirror,
I’d scare myself to death!
My fur is flat and matted,
I’m angry, embarrassed too,
I mean, how would you have liked it
If I’d done this to you?
So to show my acute displeasure,
Having lost all my grace and street cred,
I’m going to ruin your best upholstery
And shed, and shed, and shed.
Okay, I endured the dressing up. I endured the humility of wearing a piece of people clothing. Notice I didn’t say human, because there is no humanity in dressing up a dignified animal, moi, in human attire. You may wear anything you choose and sometimes remain naked. Should not I have the same privilege? And now we’re in the car, hallelujah! Time for a vet appointment? Another no choice option. How long has it been since you had a physical? See? No equality here, madam! Wait till we get home and I’ll show you how I appreciate my outing.
One time, Mary and I saw a stray cat walking around the neighborhood, took her in, and later discovered that our new arrival was pregnant. Judy, a brown-pointed tabby, had five kittens: a gray tabby, an orange tabby, a tortoiseshell, and two medium haired calicos: Tuffy, a muted calico, and Li’l Linda, a bright-colored calico.
(Sadly, I can’t seem to find pictures of them, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.)
The care of a long- or medium-hair cat requires that the cat be brushed at least once a day, sometimes more, or their hair gets matted and tangled and, if it gets very bad, needs to be shaved off. Which is fine, if you can get the cat to sit still long enough to be brushed. Which, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do with Tuffy and Linda. They were born apparently believing that humans…
The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard is a psychological thriller set in Dublin, where the truth comes out, but at whose cost?
Allison is going back to Dublin, reluctantly. She hasn’t been back there in ten years, not since her boyfriend was found guilty of being a serial killer; one of the victims having been her best friend. Now for some reason Will wants to try and convince Allison that he is innocent, that he always has been. This might be possible now that girls are being killed again, in the same fashion as all those years ago. Is it a copycat or Will’s partner coming back to take more lives?
Flipping between Allison’s rendition of the past, along with what she is doing now, we see Allison’s world and how it was shattered all those years ago. We join her in questioning whether Liz really was a good, best friend and whether there is any point in dredging up the past, whether Will was who he seemed when he was the love of her life, and if coming to terms with the past can help her move forward in the future.
I give this story five out of five stars for its in-depth plot, believable characters, and surprises that leave you as confused as Allison and the Dublin police. Howard has written a horrific tale of murder, deceit, and the mayhem that go along with both of those.
I’m thrilled to share the beautiful cover of another exciting Botanic Hill Detectives mystery! This one is called Walnut Street: Phantom Rider and its coming late this Fall!
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Walnut Street: Phantom Rider (A Botanic Hill Detectives Mystery)
Expected Publication Date: November 9th, 2021
Genre: MG Mystery/ Middle Grade (For fans of Nancy Drew type mysteries)
Objects of value have been disappearing from the Mayfield family’s rural California horse ranch. The Botanic Hill Detectives—Moki Kalani, Rani Kumar, and twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt—are hired to come for a week to investigate.
Legend has it somewhere on the Mayfields’ forty-acre property is a long-lost gold mine. It was supposedly staked by thirteen-year-old Ben Mayfield’s five-time great-grandfather, “Papa” Mayfield, in 1875.
Adding to the excitement, a nervous Ben reveals a frightening secret to the detectives. At the ranch, he alone has seen a threatening black-clad figure on horseback whom he calls the Phantom Rider. Who is this mysterious person? Is he responsible for the thefts? Where is the lost gold mine? And what’s going on in the nearby, snake-infested ghost town of Rainbow Flats? The four intrepid detectives aim to find out.
Coming Soon!
About the Author
Sherrill Joseph will be forever inspired by her beautiful students in the San Diego public schools where she taught for thirty-five years before retiring and becoming a published author.
The author has peopled and themed her mysteries with characters after her own responsible, role-model students, of various abilities, disabilities, races, cultures, and interests. She believes that children need to find themselves and those unlike themselves in books for developing accepting, anti-racist world citizens.
Sherrill is a native San Diegan where she lives in a 1928 Spanish-style house in a historic neighborhood with her adorable bichon frisé-poodle mix, Jimmy Lambchop, who blogs.
Her books are recipients of two Gold Awards from Mom’s Choice Book Awards, a Gold Award from Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, three awards from Story Monsters Approved, and numerous other children’s book awards. She is a member of SCBWI, the Authors Guild, and Blackbird Writers. Watch for many more adventures with the Botanic Hill Detectives!
Stine Writing 
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