Category: stinewriting

@stinewriting Book Blitz! fiction New Books! stinewriting

Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse Book Blitz!

To celebrate the release of the next exciting book in the Botanic Hill Detectives mystery series, Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse is going on tour!

We have an excerpt for you to read and a chance to win a signed, personalized paperback copy of the book, and some matching book swag!

Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse 

Publication Date: October 20th

Genre: MG Mystery/ Middle Grade – 9 to 12 years old (For fans of Nancy Drew type mysteries)

In 1945, Isabela de Cordoba’s great-grandfather, the famous silent movie actor Lorenzo de Cordoba, mysteriously hid a legendary, multimillion-dollar emerald somewhere on the family’s sprawling Eucalyptus Street estate. Seventy years later, the gem remains concealed. Nicknamed the “Green Curse,” the emerald is blamed for the Southern California familia’s numerous, untimely deaths.

On her twenty-first birthday, Isabela receives a secret letter with a cryptic poem. These documents from the long-deceased Lorenzo invite her to hunt for the gemstone. But first, she must decipher the poem’s eight stanzas for clues.

To assist, Isabela hires her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the four Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, and their best friends, Moki Kalani and Rani Kumar. Eerie footsteps inside the mansion, unexplained occurrences in the adjacent cemetery, and the mysterious tenant in the backyard casita challenge them. But they ingeniously make progress on the poem’s meaning with startling discoveries. Sliding wall panels, a secret room, and hidden passages reveal much. The detectives aren’t the only ones looking for the emerald. The perilous race for the de Cordoba treasure is on!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53981734-eucalyptus-street?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=IGJ784Nx8x&rank=3

Purchase Links

Paperback =  https://amzn.to/3d0iyLv

eBook =  https://amzn.to/30AXuGq

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.

She has peopled and themed the Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries with children and adult characters of various abilities, races, cultures, and interests. Sherrill strongly believes that children need to find not only themselves in books but others from different races and social situations if all are to become tolerant, anti-racist world citizens. She also feels that kids are amazing human beings who don’t tend to get enough credit from some adults for their blossoming insights and intelligence. 

The author created her detectives—patterned after her own fifth-grade students and twelve-year-old twin cousins—to be mature, smart, polite role models that will appeal to parents, teachers, but especially to kids who seek the courage and self-respect needed to realize their greatest potential.

Sherrill is the recent recipient of the Gold Award from Mom’s Choice Awards, and the Gold Award for Children’s Fiction in Mystery from Moonbeams Children’s Book Awards, both for Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets, Book 1 in her Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries series. She is a member of SCBWI and the Authors Guild and promises many more adventures with the squad to come.

Author Links

Sherrill Joseph http://sherrilljoseph.com/

Newsletter https://mailchi.mp/d194b6687f2b/sherrilljoseph

Twitter https://twitter.com/MysteryAuthor7

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BHDMysteriesAuthor/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sherrilljosephauthor/

Twitter Tags

@MysteryAuthor7 @RRBookTours1 #EucalptusStreet #RRBookTours #MG #Mystery #MGReads

Instagram Tags

@sherrilljosephauthor @shannon_rrbooktours #EucalptusStreet #RRBookTours#MG #Mystery #MGReads 

Giveaway: US ONLY

Signed, personalized paperback copy of the book, and some matching book swag (x2)

Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0e7c6a8f198/?

Book Blitz Organized By:

R&R Book Tours (http://rrbooktours.com)

©2020 CBialczak Book Blitz

@stinewriting Christine Bialczak poetry Fan Fiction Poetry to enjoy stinewriting The Sunday Whirl: Weekly Wordles Weekend Writing

Wordle 479

deny, endure, trim, laugh, stretch, grand, dry, singular, triumph, wilt, crack, foil
https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2020/10/25/wordle-479/

The Cat Wins Again

The Cat in the Hat could deny it no further  
the amount of action he endured had to stop  
 
He tried to trim time to save kids from boredom  
He’d laughed and stretched out like an old, musty mop.  
 
In the grand scheme of things, the cat sounded right  
It was his dry sense of humor that children don’t get  
 
But they still loved the cat with his infamous tricks  
And upon a high pedestal that cat was soon set  
 
With each singular joke that the cat tried to play  
the children would crack at his jovial wit.  
 
The cat he did triumph the times that they played  
Along with this cat these children stayed fit.  
 
The parents would wilt at the sign of his coming  
and try to foil his full day of plans 
 
But the children were having too much fun now to stop  
Like playing a telephone with two empty cans.  

So they kept on and had fun despite parents fear 
The cat was just innocently being a sport 

The parents bowed their heads, knowing they lost 
and allowed him to stay without any retort.  

©2020 CBialczak Poetry

Answer the questions Blog Fibbing Friday fiction Random Writings stinewriting

Fibbing Friday 23rd October

To join in, write a post with your answers to Di’s 10 questions below and tag it “Fibbing Friday” or #FibbingFriday. Then link back to this post so that others can enjoy your answers and maybe join in too! https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/10/23/fibbing-friday-23rd-october/

Ready? How’s your history?

1. What is a pince nez?
The title of the Prince News except told by the guy with a really bad speech impediment
2. Who had the original telephone number Whitehall 1212?
Well, George Washington of course! It was the kind on the wall, placed in the hall of the Whitehouse.
3. Who reportedly lived at 221B Baker Street?
Basil the Mouse
4. What happened in Pudding Lane in 1666?
The baker wanted to make the cake but forgot the flour so he inadvertently invented pudding!
5. Who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
An orange, evil troll who takes children and doesn’t like many people besides his own friends.
6. What happened on the 8th August 1963?
The backlash of the incident on the 7th of August 1963
7. Who lost their head on 16th October 1793?
One of the witches that lived in Salem Massachusetts, to be rid of her before Halloween.
8. What was in operation between April 3 1860 and October 24 1861 but failed due to bankruptcy?
Probably a famous official that couldn’t go back to work after the operation.
9. What is the significance of The Golden Hind?
It is the king’s or queen’s ass, but in a polite way of saying it.
10. Who was Spencer Perceval?
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Perceval

©2020 CBialczak

100 Word Wednesday @stinewriting Christine Bialczak poetry Photo Challenge Poetry to enjoy Ronovan Writes stinewriting Weekly Writing Prompt

100 Word Wednesday: 171

100 WORD WEDNESDAY, BIKURGURL, WRITING CHALLENGE

a 10×10/Vocabularicon poem: https://ronovanwrites.com/2020/10/22/daddys-baby-boy-a-10×10-vocabularicon-poem/

Our Land is Life

We walk down the rows together tonight  
 
To find the treasures that grow in the field  
 
To bring us all out to the working land  
 
To support those who rely on the ground  
 
As the workers are sent quietly home 
 
The growers stand out to provide for us  
 
The ground offers golden life to enjoy  
 
The sun offers us health for life and growth  
 
We will praise the land for what it gives us  
 
We can all come together with nature.

©2020 CBialczak Poetry

@stinewriting flashfiction Pepper Day! Random Writings stinewriting Weekly Writing Prompt

Pepper Day Contribution!

https://rarasaur.com/2020/10/22/self-check-in/

Flash Fiction Challenge

October 22, 2020, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a spooky tale told around a campfire. It doesn’t have to include the campfire; it can be the tale. Go where the prompt leads!

Respond by October 26, 2020. Use the comment section below to share, read, and be social. You may leave a link, pingback, or story in the comments. If you want to be published in the weekly collection, please use the form.  Rules & Guidelines.

For: https://carrotranch.com/2020/10/22/october-22-flash-fiction-challenge-2/

The Popping Cinders!

We sat close to the flames. With each pop a cinder would be released; we would hold our breath to see where it landed. My grandpa had told me that when a cinder pops and lands on the skin, it is landing on the skin of a vampire. No one believed me. With each pop we jumped a little, hoping the cinder didn’t land on our own leg.  
Pop! 
The bright, burning cinder popped up into the air, made an arc and started coming straight back down, ready to land on….  
All I could do was hold my breath… 
(99 words)

©2020 CBialczak Flash Fiction

Photo Challenge Random Writings stinewriting Three Line Tales Weekly Writing Prompt

Three Line Tales 246

three line tales, week 246: a pile of plastic toys
photo by Nareeta Martin via Unsplash for: https://only100words.xyz/2020/10/15/three-line-tales-246/

We stared at the bin of toys, completely mesmerized with the variety of toys and the memories many of them invoked.
It was a shame that so many toys would be thrown in the trash when there are probably thousands of children who would love them like they were brand new.
It would take more than just my dream or desire to share these things to make sure the toys got to the right kids, where they could be enjoyed, even though they weren’t brand new.

©2020 CBialczak 3LT

@stinewriting Blog Photo Challenge Simply 6-Minutes stinewriting

Simply 6 Minutes—Welcome To The Challenge: 10/20/2020


Welcome to the 6 minute challenge!

Today’s prompt is:

Christine Bialczak



*****For any participants that do NOT like restrictions, please feel free to participate in any way you would like. It is great to read the contributions!****

  1. Set up a timer or sit near a clock so you can keep track of the six minutes you will be writing.
  2. You can either use one of the prompts (photo or written) or you can free-write.
  3. Get ready and write for 6 minutes, that is it! Can you write a complete story? Can you think of a new Sonnet? Can you write 400 words? 400? 500? There are no restrictions on what kind of writing you do, but you should try to be actively writing for six minutes.
  4. After you are done writing, include your word count and then post back to this page #Simply6Minutes or include your link in the comments section. Pingbacks are enabled.
  5. *Feel free to leave your work completely unedited. I believe it is good to see, especially for new writers, that even very seasoned writers don’t write a perfect first draft.*
  6. Have fun, challenge yourself if you’d like, read and respond to others’ posts.

Thank you for participating!

**************************************************************************************************************

My Contribution:

Mom! Mom! Where are you?

I’m in the kitchen, what’s wrong?

Who is that singing?

I don’t hear singing, David…Where is it coming from?

Mom, it sounds like it is coming from the bathroom.

Hmmm…there isn’t anyone here but you and I, maybe I left a radio on in my room. I will go check.

a few moments later…..

David! Are you trying to trick me?

What do you mean?

I hear singing now too! I hear it in the bathroom.

Mom, go look….

As mom slowly opened the door, we peeked around the edge of the door. There on the sink was Sophie, our silly cat, singing her heart out! My jaw dropped and I saw mom just staring.

Mom, did you know the cat can sing?

No, did you?

Um, no, but maybe we should just leave her be since she looks pretty happy.

©2020 CBialczak Fiction

@stinewriting Blog From my desk Random Writings stinewriting

From my desk: 10/19/2020

I have this “thing” that all of a sudden words just randomly come to my mind.

The other day I woke up and just said: doppelganger

I can hear myself saying: diabetic ketoacidosis even when the commercials are not on for medications.

Sometimes it will be a random name…

I also have a “problem” that I don’t necessarily hear what people are saying and I am the first to tell them what it is I actually heard. Usually what I hear has absolutely nothing with whatever the person is saying.

Does anyone else do this? Is there a name for it (besides crazy)?

Anyhow, I thought I would share because sometimes I would like to share my thoughts so it would make more sense where the stuff comes from!

Peace to you all!