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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Nov 18, 2020  
Today's special guest on my blog is Marlene M Bell, Author who shares her top 5 duties when feeding sheep. There's also a spotlight on her children's picture book MIA AND NATTIE: ONE GREAT TEAM! Be sure to enter the GIVEAWAY to win a Nattie plush, Nattie mousepad, a Nattie pendant, and/or a signed copy of the book - three winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/11/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-mia-and.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Nattie’s mouth was a little crooked. Her legs were a bit shorter than usual, and one horn was too straight, like a unicorn’s horn.
But Mia thought Nattie was perfect.

On a visit to her grandma’s farm, eight-year-old Mia discovers a newborn, orphaned lamb outside in the cold and takes her to the laundry room, naming her Nattie. As she tries to nurse the lamb back to health, Mia discovers that Nattie is different from the other lambs and struggles to fit in with them like Mia does with other kids her age.

When her grandmother says she will sell Nattie to a neighbor, Mia must come up with a plan to keep her friend around — one that will show the family just how special Nattie truly is.
     
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Mar 15, 2021  
Sneak a peek at the Western historical fiction novel ALL THE COWBOYS AIN'T GONE by John J. Jacobson on my blog, and enter the giveaway to win your own print copy of the book - five winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-all-cowboys.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone is the rollicking adventure story of Lincoln Smith, a young Texan living at the beginning of the twentieth century, who thinks of himself as the last true cowboy. He longs for the days of the Old West, when men like his father, a famous Texas Ranger, lived by the chivalric code. Lincoln finds himself hopelessly out of time and place in the fast-changing United States of the new century. When he gets his heart broken by a sweetheart who doesn’t appreciate his anachronistic tendencies, he does what any sensible young romantic would do: he joins the French Foreign Legion.

On his way to an ancient and exotic country at the edge of the Sahara, Lincoln encounters a number of curious characters and strange adventures, from a desert hermit who can slow up time to a battle with a crocodile cult that worships the god of death. He meets them all with his own charming brand of courage and resourcefulness.
     
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Mar 19, 2021  
Sneak a peek at the science fiction novel SCORCHED EARTH by Kathleen McFall and Clark Hays on my blog, and enter the giveaway to win signed copies of all three books in the trilogy!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-scorched.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
The year is 2188 and the Earth—long-ago abandoned for Mars by the plutocrats—is scorched by poverty, disease, and environmental collapse. What these wealthy elite don't know is that on his last trip upuniverse, Detective Crucial Larsen stumbled onto a secret that could destroy them. But he doesn’t intend to use it. Fighting back against the ruling Five Families of Mars is a fool’s game destined for failure—or worse, he thinks. Plus, he never wants to set foot on that damn planet again. Then Melinda, his long-lost love and a staff scientist on Mars, begs for his help clearing her fiancée of a murder charge. Crucial jumps on the next q-rocket, hoping maybe this time he can patch things up with Mel. His investigation ultimately leads back to the radiation-blasted sunbelt, where cannibal lizard-people—a climate change mitigation genetic experiment gone terribly wrong—hold the key to a different future, if only Crucial can stay alive long enough to unlock it.
     
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Apr 2, 2021  
Sneak a peek at the Christian romantic suspense novel HER EVERY MOVE by Kelly Irvin, Author on my blog, and enter the giveaway to win a signed copy of the book - two winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/04/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-her-every.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
He’s a cop trying to stop a serial bomber. And she’ll stop at nothing to clear her own name.

When a deadly bomb goes off during a climate change debate, librarian and event coordinator Jackie Santoro becomes the prime suspect. Her motive, according to Detective Avery Wick: to avenge the suicide of her prominent father, who was accused of crimes by a city councilman attending the event.

Though Avery has doubts about Jackie’s guilt, he can’t exonerate her even after an extremist group takes responsibility for the bombing and continues to attack San Antonio’s treasured public spaces.

As Jackie tries to hold her shattered family together, she has no choice but to proceed with plans for the Caterina Ball, the library system’s biggest annual fundraiser. But she also fears the event provides the perfect opportunity for the bomber to strike again.

Despite their mistrust, Jackie and Avery join forces to unmask the truth—before the death toll mounts even higher.
     
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Aug 3, 2021  
Happy book birthday to the Christian historical fiction novel UNDER THE BAYOU MOON by Valerie Fraser Luesse Books! Read some of the author's favorite quotes from the book on my blog, and enter the giveaway to win a copy of the book, a Flavors of the Bayou seasonings gift box, and a $10 Starbucks gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-under-bayou.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
When Ellie Fields accepts a teaching job in a tiny Louisiana town deep in bayou country in 1949, she knows her life will change--but she could never imagine just how dramatically.

Though rightfully suspicious of outsiders, who have threatened both their language and their unique culture, most of the residents come to appreciate the young and idealistic schoolteacher, and she's soon teaching just about everyone, despite opposition from both the school board and a politician with ulterior motives. Yet it's the lessons Ellie herself will learn--from new friends, a captivating Cajun fisherman, and even a legendary white alligator haunting the bayou--that will make all the difference.

Take a step away from the familiar and enter the shadowy waters of bayou country for a story of risk, resilience, and romance.
     
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Allan Arkush recommended The Lady Eve (1941) in Movies (curated)

 
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Lady Eve (1941)
1941 | Classics, Comedy, Romance
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I feel about The Lady Eve the same way I feel about A Hard Day’s Night. Both movies are on my all-time top ten list of favorites. The first time I saw them, I had the same impression of comic density. Enormous energy that I was running to keep up with. I felt like I had to see this movie again, if only to have another shot at laughing at the hundreds of jokes. I love movies that make you feel like you are not getting it all the first time, that there is much more to be had. Eve is my favorite Sturges. I love the chemistry between Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda—like when she takes him back to her stateroom, manipulates him into making a pass, and shuts him down with “Hopsie, you ought to be kept in a cage.” On a pure filmmaking level, the honeymoon night on the train when Eve confesses to all her premarital dalliances is a tour de force of writing, acting, and editing, and it’s one of the best musically scored comic sequences in any movie ever! Sturges’s mother was an adventuress, a confidante, and traveling companion of Isadora Duncan. I like to think there is more than a little of his mother in Eve."

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Hunting for an Inheritance on a Haunted Lake
Nancy Drew and her friends are traveling to Misty Lake. It’s supposed to be an overnight stay, but they quickly extend it when they hear that an old tour boat that sank is now haunting the lake. Meanwhile, they meet a young woman who is searching for a family inheritance that was lost over 100 years ago. Will they solve these mysteries?

This is one I know I read years ago, and parts of it came back to me as a reread it. I quickly got caught up in the action and danger again. There is a lot going on here, and I knew it would all tie together. The biggest mystery to me was how. I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes a bit at all the coincidences involved, but I was having fun. Nancy and her friends get a bit of time to have some character development early on, but they are still pretty thin characters. Some of the elements in the book are dated since the version I read came out in the 1960’s. Still, I think kids of all ages will enjoy the action and mystery of this book.
  
The Radio Tisdad Sessions by Tinariwen
The Radio Tisdad Sessions by Tinariwen
2001 | Blues, Folk, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This is a record that I found from trawling the racks. It was the cover that intrigued me – a guy playing electric guitar in desert robes in a tent. I had to find out more. Tinariwen were a band that had an extended tribe, so people would come in and take over the vocals. They had different players. Later I learnt that the leader would take his guitar and go off into the desert and write the album under the stars. Years later I met up with them and discussed me and Brian Eno going out and spending time with their tribe, the Tuareg, and recording with them in the hills of Mali. We talked about it and started to plan it out, and then Underworld went on tour and that was that. Brian and I still talk about it. I listen to a lot of African music, that fantastic polyrhythmic, joyous tumbling sound which, for me, was techno. They did it so beautifully and made it sound haunting. They are a phenomenal group. This album was their first – it was recorded by a French group who had heard about their music and just went out to the desert and found them. It’s crudely beautiful."

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Mark Arm recommended Duck Stab by The Residents in Music (curated)

 
Duck Stab by The Residents
Duck Stab by The Residents
1978 | Alternative
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I guess it was originally two EPs, put together in one record. I don't have the original versions but the songs all feel like one record and it's kind of them at their catchiest. They were always a little bit creepy. Some of the other things that came out on Ralph Records like Renaldo and The Loaf were wackier but there was a creepiness to The Residents that I found very, very appealing. Do you know Long Gone John, the label boss from Sympathy For The Record Industry? I went down to visit him at his house in Long Beach. This band I was in, Bloodloss, was on tour and we all went over there because he released a couple of our records. We went to his house and he was just a massive collector of crazy rock stuff and also that kind of juxtaposed art, like Robert Williams paintings. The Residents came up and his eyes lit up. He was like, ""Come here, follow me"" and he took us to this back room, opened up a safe and pulled out a copy of Santa Dog their first record. He prized that so much he kept it in a safe!"

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