 |
| From our house to your house. |
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Friday, December 18, 2015
The Joys of Art
A word about my art club and why I am celebrating it. Well, it's on my mind, for one thing, because yesterday we had our last class until January 7th. And it's just a wonderful group of kids. They make my week!
I volunteer at a local community center one day a week and teach fine art to kids ages 7-14 after school. This year. though, a couple of 6-year-olds got in, and they are wonderful little artist--focused, attentive, and passionate about art. The class goes for an hour and a half, and all of the students use the time well.
During the course (November through mid-April, we use acrylics, watercolors, soft pastels, oil pastels, drawing pencils, colored pencils, and charcoal. We cover landscape, portraiture, and still life, work with Native American themes, use bamboo brushes during Asian New Year, and we study artists like Turner, Van Gogh, Monet, Georgia O'Keefe, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and William H. Johnson (a Harlem Renaissance artist). Here are some samples of their work so far this year:
 |
| El Día de los Muertos |
 |
| More El Día de los Muertos |
 |
| Plains Indian Themes |
 |
| Landscapes Inspired by Monet and Van Gogh |
 |
| Landscapes Inspired by Turner. |
I took pictures of yesterday's work in colored pencils (baby animals), but those are still in the camera.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this little "gallery."
I won't be posting until after New Year's Day. Until then, Best Wishes from our house to your house for a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year ahead.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Celebration Time.
Hats off to co-hosts for this blog hop, Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog You can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links.
1. I'm almost finished with my new Imogene story. Just one more scene to go.
2. Last Monday evening, we were privileged to hear Morris Dees and Richard Cohen speak at the Crest Theater in Sacramento. Morris Dees is the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the wonderful organization that fights racism and intolerance and pursues justice through the courts. The topic last night was Hate in the Mainstream. (Many of the recent "lone wolf" shootings are a result of hatred being fomented on websites and poisoning individuals who already feel alienated for one reason or another.)
This was a high point in my life: hearing Morris Dees and Richard Cohen and actually meeting Morris Dees and being able to shake his hand. Likewise for Rajan.
Many people were having their pictures taken with Morris Dees and he kindly let us do the same. As you can imagine, this is a picture moment I will treasure!
 |
| Morris Dees is one of my heroes! |
Friday, December 4, 2015
Time to Celebrate Again
I am finally back to celebrating again, but first, hats off to co-hosts for this blog hop, Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog You can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links.
Meanwhile, what am I celebrating? Two things:
1. The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators' Book Launch. The actual kick-off day was Tuesday, December 1st, but it will be going on until the next launch in spring.
You can go HERE to see a wonderful collections of children's books, from picture books to MG to YA novels, all of which would make great Xmas or birthday presents for a reader you know of the appropriate age. (My MG mystery, Imogene and the Case of the Missing Pearls, is being launched there, too. You can go directly to that launch HERE.)
2. My second thrill was going to Pacific Grove and Carmel last week-end to celebrate my birthday. My husband and I love that area. He's into black and white film photography. I take my little point and shoot digital camera. You can see pictures I took of that beautiful area next door on my 4th Wish blog.
A few questions for you: What is your favorite type of children's book? Are you into picture books? YA? MG? Fantasy? Mystery?
What is your favorite spot for special occasions?
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Two Book Reviews for Sherlock Lovers
Two books for Sherlock lovers. The first for children, the second for adults:
The first book is Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur, written by Derrick Belanger and illustrated by Brian Belanger. 7-to-12 year-olds will enjoy this latest adventure starring Emma and Jimmy McDougall, twin sleuths that work with Sherlock Holmes.
You can order Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur at:
It’s
Christmastime, and the McDougalls have just finished decorating their tree,
when they are visited by none other than Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older
brother. Their services are needed by Sherlock, as well as those of Toby, a dog
who has helped Sherlock before.
At 221b Baker
Street, the twins meet Jonas Bogswell from a farming village in Surrey. He has
come to Sherlock for help because a dinosaur – that’s right – is killing sheep
on the local farms. Because of an old legend the local fortune teller
remembers, the Bogswell family is being shunned for bringing bad luck to the
village. The entire McDougall family accompanies Sherlock and Dr. Watson to the
village. They stay with Bogswell family. One by one, events unfold that make
the McDougalls believers in this dinosaur.
Several things
make this a pleasurable read: The author has a good sense of pacing and
suspense. Clues are believable and scattered like bread crumbs to keep a reader
turning the page, and tension heightens all the way through. Despite Mrs.
McDougall’s insistence that the twins cannot join the dangerous hunt for the
dinosaur, Emma and Jimmy encounter
the beast in some really scary scenes that kids will love. The twins are well
drawn in ways that demonstrate why they are good detectives and in ways that
complement each other, and the climax is a satisfying surprise.
A nice touch
Belanger includes in his books is the use of footnotes in the form of “fun
facts” at the bottom of pages involved. These really are fun facts, and they
don’t interrupt the flow of the story.
At the end of
this satisfying adventure, a reader is promised more to come. With Christmas
near at hand, this book would make a nice gift under the tree.
Contact information:
Website: Belanger Books
Harry deMaio's A Case of Scotch, as even the title suggests, is a book for adults, not children -- and for adults who like word play and clever allusions to people and places. It's the author's third book in this one-of-a-kind” series.
In
the alternate universe of Octavius Bear, a solar flare rendered Homo Sapiens
extinct and made all other mammals evolve exponentially. Octavius Bear, the
wealthy Kodiak scientist and leading detective in each book is writing an
erudite history when he is not solving cases with the help of his team -- a
meerkat (African mongoose) named Maury who plays Dr. Watson to the bear’s
Sherlock, two wolves, a porcupine, and an otter, among others.
This particular case kicks off with an R & R
visit to Bearmoral Castle in the Shetland Islands in Scotland. (Thus the
title.) The castle was inherited by Octavius’s new wife, Belinda when her first
husband, Bearon Byron Bruin, passed away. But strange things have been
happening lately on the premises and in the nearby oilfields, doing away with
the anticipated R & R. Mysterious power outages occur. Platforms appear and
disappear among the oil rigs. An elevator shaft seems to go nowhere but turns
out to have lethal destinations. When a family member is found dead, the game
is “apaw”.
Other characters who figure in this adventure is a
slinky cheetah (named Chita) with an unsavory past who owns a North Sea oil
rig, Belinda’s obnoxious bruin in-laws, and a group of wildcats who hang out at
a local pub, drowning their sorrows over the fact that their oil production is
down.
There is lots of action in this complex mystery,
and all the characters are truly humorous. The author tells the story “tongue
in cheek” all the way, with allusions and puns that kept making me smile, even
while I was trying to figure out “who dunnit”. Maury the meerkat is the main narrator.
His narration is supplemented by excerpts from Chita’s memoir and Octavius’s
rather pedantic history of the world. Each chapter begins with a clever
limerick that sets the tone for unfolding events.
Occasionally there was a point-of-view bump, and the
huge cast of characters kept me flipping back to the roster at the beginning to
make sure I knew who was who and what their role was. That said, this is a real
romp of a book readers will enjoy.
Contact
Information:
Website TheCasebooks of Octavius Bear
You can buy A Case of Scotch at:
Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan? If so, what are some of your favorite tales from both the canon and pastiches? Are you a mystery fan? I love a good mystery and am always looking for a good recommendation.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Has it been two weeks????
So, what am I celebrating:
1. I'm writing a new Imogene story for an anthology, and it's going well. Tons of research, as usual, but that's going well, too. And, as a matter of fact, I love research, especially historical research.
2. Art Club at the community center started 2 weeks ago -- well, three -- and I have such a wonderful class. The class is mainly for 8-to-12-year-olds, but I have two 7-year-olds and three 6-year-olds. Normally I don't take students that young, because the class is an hour and a half long. But these little sweeties are so focused, they are in like Flynn, as the saying goes.
Two weeks ago I attended Stories on Stage in Davis, (there's one in Sacramento, too). A writer friend of mine was there, and I took copies of his mystery to sign. And Catriona McPherson, one of my favorite authors, was there, and I won a copy of her latest book! I couldn't believe it, but there you are!
Have you ever won something that you didn't expect to win? Do you enjoy doing research?
Friday, November 6, 2015
Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer at Scotney Castle
At last I can get back to the Sherlock Holmes and one of the many good novel pastiches that abound at MX Publishing.
Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer at Scotney Castle, is full of surprises, even for the great detective himself.
The adventure begins in early summer of 1904. The President of the Kipling League, David Siviter, sends Sherlock Holmes a telegram, inviting him to Crick’s End in Sussex that afternoon to give a talk to the League as an expert on “the criminal mind.” The League includes Siviter (poet and children’s writer), Alfred Weit, Sir Julius Wernher, and Viscount Van Beers, all rich and powerful men, devotees of Kipling and adamant believers in empire. Pevensey, a famous, if mediocre, painter will also be on the premises.
Holmes
accepts, but is suspicious. Ignoring the telegram’s instructions as to times
and stations (and the promise that a chauffer will be waiting for them), he
makes his own arrangements for a different train route that allows him and
Watson to arrive at their host’s mansion three hours earlier than Siviter
planned.
Following a
long and effusive introduction by Watson, Holmes gives his talk, explaining his
methods and giving examples from cases that Watson has made famous. After
meeting Pevensey, who has completed two paintings commissioned by Siviter, the
two are taken to Etchingham station for the trip home.
At the
station, news headlines again arouse Holmes’s suspicions. The unclad body of a
man has been discovered in a wagon pond at Scotney Castle, not far from Crick’s
End. Watson thinks the death may be accidental or self-inflicted. Holmes feels
the Kipling League is behind the death and hires a carriage to take them back
for a confrontation, which leads to a serious quarrel between him and Watson.
To tell why Holmes is convinced of what he calls “the smack of a great crime,”
would create spoilers for the reader. Let me just say that his suspicious
involve a discrepancy between two paintings, a strange hatband, an ill-fitting
hat, and linseed oil, among other clues.
There was much
to like about this story. Symonds captures the flavor of the early Edwardian
era in the settings and furnishing and the language of the time. His characters
are interesting, and for the most part, Holmes and Watson feel true to
character. There were times, however, when I felt they were a bit overdrawn.
And there were some sections where too much detail slowed the story. That said,
a reader will find this an intriguing case and will enjoy trying to put the
facts together that explain who the dead person was and how his body ended up
in a wagon pond at Scotney Castle.
Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer at Scotney Castle is available at:
and all good bookstores and e-bookstores worldwide including in the USA.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)