I’ve often been told that I wear these red specs my rose colored glasses tied tight ’round my neck but I don’t see it that way not that way at all I call it positivity Helping you not to fall. But sometimes it comes back to bite me real hard ’cause I ignored the true facts like a red joker card. And so I must take my glasses off to be clear that the choices I make are the ones I won’t fear. Now I know what you’re thinking old habits won’t change but I really will try to make my mind rearrange. I’ll see the true facts as they truly are shown not making them rosy making all options known. I’ll try to see clearly try to make a smart choice and stick so completely proud that it’s really my voice.
I saw a post this morning about the cheapest place to rent a home in the US. It didn’t have an option to leave a reply so I didn’t see what the city was, as it was not mentioned. Anyhow, in looking I did find the most expensive places to live. I wanted to copy and paste the article but it is 12 pages long.
50. Pacifica, California > Median home value: $882,800 > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $3,115 — 83rd highest of 1,774 cities > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 73.9% — 363rd highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 70.7% — 459th highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $125,500 — 81st highest of 1,774 cities
49. Lexington, Massachusetts > Median home value: $889,700 > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $4,000+ — the highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 65.3% — 702nd lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 81.7% — 138th highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $186,201 — 9th highest of 1,774 cities24/7 Wall St. Cheapest Cities to Buy a Home
48. Culver City, California > Median home value: $892,000 > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $2,957 — 107th highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 69.3% — 745th highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 52.2% — 483rd lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $95,044 — 315th highest of 1,774 cities
47. Potomac, Maryland > Median home value: $893,800 > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $3,893 — 30th highest of 1,774 cities > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 66.1% — 769th lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 87.6% — 36th highest of 1,774 cities > Median household income: $195,884 — 7th highest of 1,774 cities
5. Manhattan Beach, California > Median home value: $2,000,000+ > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $4,000+ — the highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 69.2% — 753rd highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 69.6% — 497th highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $153,023 — 34th highest of 1,774 cities
Source: SpVVK / Getty Images
4. Palo Alto, California > Median home value: $2,000,000+ > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $4,000+ — the highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 58.9% — 289th lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 54.6% — 593rd lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $158,271 — 28th highest of 1,774 citiesALSO READ: 50 Best Cities for Urban Gardening
Source: JasonDoiy / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
3. Menlo Park, California > Median home value: $2,000,000+ > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $4,000+ — the highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 70.4% — 634th highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 57.9% — 761st lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $160,784 — 24th highest of 1,774 cities
Source: LPS.1 / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons
2. Saratoga, California > Median home value: $2,000,000+ > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $4,000+ — the highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 62.6% — 495th lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 84.6% — 81st highest of 1,774 cities > Median household income: $191,677 — 8th highest of 1,774 cities
Source: NNehring / iStock via Getty Images
1. Los Altos, California > Median home value: $2,000,000+ > Median monthly housing costs with a mortgage: $4,000+ — the highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Share of housing units with a mortgage: 64.5% — 637th lowest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Homeownership rate: 81.0% — 151st highest of 1,774 cities (tied) > Median household income: $235,278 — 2nd highest of 1,774 citiesPreviousNext1…789101112
Welcome to the book tour for Bluebird at My Window, a dark exploration into the human psyche and deep trauma. Read on for details!
Bluebird at My Window
Publication Date: February 15th, 2022
Genre: Dark Fiction/ Psychological
When faced with trauma, how would you react?
Would you survive, succumb, or lose yourself to your own meaning of justice?
Ann was only seventeen when she died. She tried to be a dutiful daughter, to pray, to repent. But it wasn’t enough. Her mother, Diane, didn’t mean to kill her but when she found Ann consorting with devils, she had no choice. She believed the angels—that in the end, the water would save them both.
But every choice holds weight.
One death, and Arthur is thrown back into the work he wanted to leave. One death, and Richard must face the reality of his choices. One death, and Maddie and Marie are confronted with the hardest parts of love.
If only good intentions were enough to keep them from the carnage of their own decisions . . .
A dark contemporary fiction drenched in blood, this debut novel from H. Noah has an intricate true crime feeling with psychological depth.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Portland, Maine
Friday, October 14, 2016
Diane Loucks
The water swelled like a second skin around her fingers. Thick flesh-colored tendrils, clinging to the newly pure.
Light scattered through the small window, burning white hot across the chipped tile, curled wallpaper, and filth. Everything within this small house on a hill still festered with the sin of her—my daughter.
She’d fought me as she always had. Her arm draped over the side of the old claw tub, almost at ease, even bent back at an odd angle. I’d forgotten to turn off the water completely, but I couldn’t get up. I was fixed against the ground, watching as the water gathered and fell from her pale fingertips. No more rush, no more panic. Each drop reached slowly to the floor, hitting the tile with a soft pink splash.
It was done.
My naked flesh numbed to the bitter tile as I lay at the tub’s feet. Each fold of skin stretched, suctioning to the floor, holding me in place. Something had gone wrong in the blessing. I’d stripped myself in preparation but she’d refused, made me pull clothing to ribbons as I blessed the water.
When she didn’t wake up, I’d called the preacher. Tried to understand what had happened, why the angels had lied.
But he was useless.
That’s when I slid to the floor, streaking the wall behind me with her blood. Ichor that still clung to my skin and the floor beneath.
Fraud. Liar.
You did the right thing.
It should have worked.
It did.
Pure!
Why didn’t it work?
She’s clean now. The preacher was unholy.
Why hasn’t she risen?
You were the unclean one.
The scream ripped from within me. I wanted quiet, needed it. I scratched my ears, ripping my body from the tile.
The pain worked, but not well enough.
I slammed knuckles into my skull.
Not enough.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
My skull reverberated against the hard ceramic. The sharp ache purified, but didn’t silence. So I kept crashing into it as skin split across my forehead, turning my vision burgundy. It gave me something to focus on, to control.
The demons didn’t like that.
I could hear them in the walls, closing around me. Devils playing tricks as they reached from beneath the wallpaper, touching. I thrashed against them all, gouging holes into the small space. Drywall fingers ripped through flesh as my blood seeped and spilled to the floor, covering hers. The air was suffocating, poisoned, thick, and sandy.
They wanted to silence me.
But still I screamed.
They wanted me quiet, malleable to their will.
Everyone did.
I wanted to fracture the foundation.
Thump
Thump
Thump
I tasted the blood, metallic on my tongue, as it sieved through teeth. Even my voice betrayed me in the end, as screams rasped silent.
My body calmed as shame rippled through me. My eyes trailed back toward the tub, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. I watched the drops instead as they spread beneath.
“Liars . . .” My throat, raw and unyielding, graveled to the forced whisper.
The angel said she’d be reborn if I cleansed her with word and water. The passage in question still echoed mockingly.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from your idols I will cleanse you.
I looked back down. The water was staining the floor poppy pink, clear but iridescent as it swelled to reach me. I shrank from its edges, slipping slowly in my own blood as I pushed back, cornering myself. The water couldn’t hide what I did, couldn’t erase her blood, only magnified each feature in rose-colored hues.
This morning had been like the rest. Peace within the daily observances. But the angels knew. Whispered. Prodded me to spy. Helped me catch her as she talked to that unclean deceiver.
I’d warned her how evil hides in the pure things, but she persisted. Fed and entertained that bluebird, but I knew better. It’s why I hadn’t questioned when the Good Book appeared in my hand or why I beat the demon within her again and again. The word of God turning fat and satiated with her penance.
I wanted to stop, but the angels whispered. Pushed me to finish.
They’ve been a massage therapist, social worker, poet, teacher, and more. Picking up a B.A. in Criminology and an M.S. in I-O Psychology. They’ve also lived in Alaska, Maine and many places in-between. They are currently still trying to find a forever place as they travel the US.
Congratulations to author Alex Callister on the release of the highly anticipated prequel in the Winter series, Winter Dawn! Read on for more info and a chance to win a $25 Amazon e-gift card and some book swag!
Winter Dawn (Winter #3)
Publication Date: January 24th, 2022
Genre: Thriller/ Spy Thriller/ Strong Female Lead
It is darkest before the dawn..
A hunt to the death. An all-seeing executioner. An unlikely hero.
From the author of the #1 best selling Audible Thriller of the Year comes a totally gripping crime thriller with heart-pounding suspense.
A New York Senator is being hunted.
With the world watching, she has been chosen as Colosseum’s next victim. No one can look away from the chilling new reality show, which awards a huge cash prize to the first person to assassinate its target. No-where is safe. No-one can be trusted. But just when her brutal death seems inevitable, an arrogant 21-year-old arrives from London to protect her. Now Winter is all that stands between the Senator and Colosseum. As dawn creeps in, time is running out for Winter to unravel the riddle at the heart of this sinister game: who is the shadowy Adjudicator of Colosseum, and what is his ultimate purpose?
Meet Winter: she’sthe audacious, hyper-intelligent GCHQ agent with more notches on her bed post than James Bond and more hacking cred than Lisbeth Salander. Winter Dawn is the beginning of the Winter series, journeying back to the start of her story. This time, she’s grappling with Colosseum: a sinister online phenomenon that has gripped the world. It promises a massive cash prize to the successful hunter of its victims, unleashing an unstoppable tide of violence – and the world’s authorities are powerless to prevent it.
When a New York Senator is targeted, Winter is called in to protect her. But with all the world watching, there’s nowhere to hide. No one has ever survived Colosseum. It’s the winter solstice, and as they journey together into the dark heart of the longest night, they soon discover that nothing about Colosseum is what it seems. There are rules, and there is a purpose, if only they can solve the riddle in time. Colosseum is more than a hunt: it’s a challenge. Targets must face their darkest fear or die at dawn.
Alex has spent her career charting the rise of the internet and is fascinated by the dark web and its potential to facilitate crime. An action movie fan, her books are full of cult references. Her kick-ass heroine, Winter, was inspired by Bond, Bourne, John Wick, Vin Diesel, Jack Reacher and many others.
Alex has a history degree, a certificate in creative writing and a murderous imagination. She writes when she gets a chance, which is mainly at night between 10pm and 2am at home in London, with her three Bengal tigers.
WINTER DARK was the Audible Thriller of the Year 2019.
Stine Writing 
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