** Today is Day 12 of #septemberspookyseason24 on Instagram. Daily posts and some giveaways via @wyrdworldminiatures. (Click photos for full size.)
And nothing fits the season better I'd say than a book with a skeleton! Well, this skeleton does a lot of things including helping solve mysteries, in author Toni L.P. Kelner's latest collection, The Skeleton Rides a Horse and Other Stories.
* Get the paperback on Amazon and B&N, and get books and e-books at publisher Crippen & Landru.
The collection of 12 stories range from the title-inspired story "The Skeleton Rides a Horse," based on Toni's six-book Family Skeleton mystery series written under the name Leigh Perry, to stories, with curses, werewolves, pirates, a carnival, elephants, and more.
** Another fun fact is the author has a mini version of the skeleton named Sid that is her traveling companion on a lot of her book-related excursions! Read more about that here.)
This is an eclectic collection, sure to give readers a chuckle or two as they pick a favorite. The title-inspired story is especially fun if you're not familiar with Toni/Leigh's animated, re-living skeleton character, Sid, who travels around with main character, adjunct professor Dr. Georgia Thackery in pieces, in her bag. (See the cover photo.) And yet, Sid can still see, hear, talk, think, and reassemble himself as needed. Btw, he's a great help when there's a mystery at hand to solve as in this story involving a retro TV show reunion.
I also enjoyed the story, "Where Does a Herd of Elephants Go?" I love elephants, especially watching videos of the playful babies and the wonderful rescue groups in Africa for orphaned elephants, so I hoped that this little mystery where the long-time owner of a small circus is killed isn't because of the elephants. I won't say what happened but there's a satisfactory ending and there's a good clue buried if you spot it.
If you prefer a story with an interesting name, then the Agatha Award-winning story "Sleeping With the Plush" will have you going, huh? until you understand that it's set at a carnival. With a murder. And an ingenious way to get rid of the body and solve the crime.
There's more, much more, like werewolves, a sleazy bar owner who gets what he deserves, and other shenanigans. You'll enjoy the ride. I did. Giving this 💀💀💀💀💀. (Hey, it's as close to skeletons as I can get here.) 😊
#SEPTEMBERSPOOKYSEASON24
Today is Day 9 of #septemberspookyseason24 on Instagram. Daily posts and some giveaways via @wyrdworldminiatures.
* Follow me also - @cwrite12. I'll try to post my daily (hopefully) Halloween inspiration here also with a reminder. Join in!
Remember that rhyme? Lizzie Borden took an axe...
Today is Day 8 of #septemberspookyseason24 on Instagram. Daily posts and some giveaways via @wyrdworldminiatures.
* Follow me also - @cwrite12. I'll try to post my daily (hopefully) Halloween inspiration here also with a reminder. Join in!
Today is Day 5 of September #septemberspookyseason24 on Instagram. Daily posts and some giveaways via @wyrdworldminiatures. * Follow me also - @cwrite12. I'll try to post my daily (hopefully) Halloween inspiration here also with a reminder. Join in!
Through alternating perspectives presented by two sisters, the Thornton saga unfolds in a whirlwind of surprising revelations, unexpected drama, adventure, and glamour. Just imagine beautiful models, pin-up girls, Hollywood royalty—Thornton was a true trendsetter. This book unveils the captivating story of Thornton's rise from an orphan to a charismatic male model, to a visionary who transformed advertising by founding the first-ever agency for advertising models. But hold onto your hats because there's more! Get ready for dramatic twists, encounters with models who transformed into Hollywood legends such as Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, and Grace Kelly, and a hint of McCarthy-era intrigue—it's a gripping tale worthy of the silver screen itself!
** Purchase a copy of The Merchant of Venus: The Life of Walter Thornton on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org. You can also add it to your GoodReads reading list.
They can be boring, self-indulgent and short on any unique facts. Don't stop reading here because I said that. This book is different.
I was drawn to The Merchant of Venus, The Life of Walter Thornton by Nancy Thornton Navarro and Adriana Thornton-Cornejo with Philip Mershon, as I love old Hollywood, like history, and this is a topic and subject I didn't know much about. I'm glad I agreed to read it.
This is definitely worth reading ,with tidbits about such people as the beautiful Susan Hayward and even the legendary Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly's beginnings as Walter Thornton models... to a sprinkling of other lesser known stars.
An intriguing, fun fact is that Robert Thornton---the subject of the book and originator of the well known and well regarded modeling agency, which started the trend for managing and advertising models--- was a model himself. And pretty well known. Remember seeing all those vintage magazine ads with the dapper guy in the spiffy hat? Yup, that was him. Thornton's near-perfect classic features put him in the place of being the most requested and highest paid hat model in the industry.
What I found amazing was that after the daughters were grown, they were lucky enough to find their father's papers and photos still hidden away in the former family home.
There's also a unique family mystery his daughters try to solve along the way about why their father was in a Depression-era photo with a sign saying his car was for sale as he needed money. It turns out they found he never went broke and in fact seemed to weather the Depression well.
If you like old Hollywood, history, and more, you'll enjoy this book. It's an interesting, compelling, and easy read. Hat's off! I give it 5 stars, or more appropriately, let's give it 5 hats. 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩
About the authors:
Nancy Thornton Navarro is a former trademark and copyright attorney who has also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Irving, Texas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Nancy currently lives near Dallas with her husband and is a proud mother of three.
For fun: (Click to see full size.) #SEPTEMBERSPOOKYSEASON24
Another month and a new post! Where does time go?
I've been working on making some furnishings and decorating the half-scale Greenleaf Van Buren Halloween dollhouse I finally got back to last month. It had been sitting awhile so I decided to finish the trim and top roof trim, and I have to admit, it looks pretty nice. I realize I still have to add some cobwebs to the inside ceilings, too. (See last post - abandoned room. Click photos for full size.) ** See end for the Instagram #septemberspookyseason24 game photo!
I kept looking at it (or was it peering at me?) and finally decided to start adding some art/pictures, which really makes a difference. We'll see how well I can get photos as some may be hard to see. I make a lot of pictures like the eerie landscapes below as they're fun to do and just to have them on hand, even if I don't use them all right away.
Sadly, I just heard that a favorite author, Victoria Thompson, passed away. I enjoyed her Counterfeit Lady 5-book historical mystery series, beginning with City of Lies, and have been reading gradually through my favorite series of hers, the Gaslight Mysteries.
The Gaslight Mysteries focus on midwife Sarah Brandt, who also is daughter of one of the richest men in the city, and is one of the founding Knickerbocker families in 1890s New York. Her somewhat unconventional life of supporting herself after the death of her late non-society doctor husband has Brandt now helping women in childbirth and occasionally helping Police Sgt. Frank Malloy solve crimes she may hear about or come across in her work. While fiction, the books do focus on realistic events of the time period.
The series starts with book 1, Murder on Astor Place, where Brandt discovers a girl from a prominent family has been killed and helps Sgt. Malloy uncover who did it before another death occurs.It's a fascinating series, with each book (27 in the series) often featuring crimes related to different issues of the period and societal problems that are still relevant today. It's been interesting to read about the suffragettes, to the prejudice against the early Chinese settlers and mixed marriages, to drug abuse (opium/laudanum), other crimes, and more.
It's nice to read a multi-book series and I'm glad I have a ways to go until the end, though it's sad that it will end with book 27, A Murder in Rose Hill, which just came out in April. Unless.... I wonder if she did write another?
I'm just sorry I didn't email her to say how much I've enjoyed these books. A lesson: contact that author you love reading. I know I appreciate when someone lets me know they like something I've written.