Congrats to author Sherrill Joseph on the release of the next exciting book in her Botanic Hill Detectives mystery series, Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse. Here’s her interview, and she also has a Giveaway for one of her paperbacks!

Tell us about yourself! What would you like readers to know about you?

For me, life has been all about kids. I’m a mom, grandmother, and a retired teacher turned kids’ mystery book author. I think kids are the best people on the planet and too often don’t get enough credit for their blossoming intelligence. I write to entertain kids but also to show them, through my mature, polite role-model detective characters, how to approach challenges with courage and teamwork. (My detectives were based on my fifth-grade students and twelve-year-old twin cousins). In my books, I strive to present positive characters of varying ethnicities, abilities, and disabilities to help grow anti-racist kids who can feel comfortable wherever they find themselves in the world.

Also, like my detective character Rani Kumar, I have lexical-gustatory synesthesia. That’s where we taste or smell something when we hear a word or name. For example, Rani says her name makes her taste raw green beans. My name Sherrill makes me taste cherry jelly. My last name Joseph makes me taste a Mounds candy bar (coconut and dark chocolate). Not all tastes are pleasant, however. We were both born with this mental ability (not a disability) and can’t control the tastes we get. We also can’t turn it off, so you might say that we experience the world in a different way from most people. I know that it has enhanced my ability to write descriptively.

What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

Nancy Drew (The Secret of Red Gate Farm; The Password to Larkspur Lane were faves) and Phyllis A. Whitney mysteries (The Mystery of the Green Cat; The Secret of the Samurai Sword) enthralled me as a child. I still read those for fun and inspiration. As an English major in college, I came to love the classics and still do, especially the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (“The Hound of the Baskervilles”) and the mysteries of Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone; The Woman in White). In this century, I am awed and inspired by the writing style of Hazel Gaynor (The Cottingley Secret), in particular, her use of metaphor and descriptive language. For children’s authors, I enjoy Steven K. Smith (The Virginia Mysteries) and Nancy Springer (The Enola Holmes Mysteries).

What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

Nancy Drew (The Secret of Red Gate Farm; The Password to Larkspur Lane were faves) and Phyllis A. Whitney mysteries (The Mystery of the Green Cat; The Secret of the Samurai Sword) enthralled me as a child. I still read those for fun and inspiration. As an English major in college, I came to love the classics and still do, especially the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (“The Hound of the Baskervilles”) and the mysteries of Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone; The Woman in White). In this century, I am awed and inspired by the writing style of Hazel Gaynor (The Cottingley Secret), in particular, her use of metaphor and descriptive language. For children’s authors, I enjoy Steven K. Smith (The Virginia Mysteries) and Nancy Springer (The Enola Holmes Mysteries).

What are you doing to de-stress during the pandemic? Is there any coping mechanism you’d recommend (or NOT recommend)?

As a writer, my daily routine hasn’t changed that much since the pandemic began. I spend most of each day at my desk pounding away on the computer. This keeps me out of harm’s way. My work and routine also keep me grounded. I would recommend to others to find something create, positive, and other-focused to take your mind off the current world situation and your potential fears. And when my dog and I go out to walk, I always wear a mask and socially distance. The precautions we take protect others, too.

Tell us about a mystery/urban legend from your hometown (or another place you’ve lived).

Here in San Diego, California, my hometown, there are still some sidewalks downtown with inlaid pop-bottle-glass tiles. Occasionally, if you look down at just the right time, you can see someone or something moving below! Even some lights flashing. Legend has it that aliens from outer space are down there conducting experiments on humans.

What’s your favorite animal?

Ever since I was a child, I have loved lambs. I had a collection of lamb figurines in glass and plastic. I had rubber lambs, stuffed lambs, books about lambs, and pictures of lambs. Maybe lambs are the inspiration for my currently owning a dog who looks like one!

Do you have pet(s)? If so, share a picture of your pet!

I have an adorable poodle-bichon rescue named Jimmy Lambchop. (There’s that lamb again!)

It shows him with his glorious, fluffy winter coat, which is my favorite look on him. He’s also my cowriter, watching me at my computer and cheering me on while he half dozes on the bed behind me. He’s my little precious boy who takes me for two walks every day. I prefer him to most people! He provides me with unconditional love. That’s hard to find.

What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

Just start writing. Don’t let anyone dissuade you. Write first for yourself, getting inspiration from people, places, books, movies, music, artworks, and topics that interest you. Find ways to bring those into your writing to make it enjoyable and authentic. Set aside time daily to write. Carry something so you can make a quick note if an idea hits you. If literary agents turn you down, self publish. Share your work with the world on your own terms.

How do you choose what books you want to read?

They choose me. I gravitate toward mysteries, but I find that whatever book I’m reading has something special to offer me at just the right moment.

What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

Just start writing. Don’t let anyone dissuade you. Write first for yourself, getting inspiration from people, places, books, movies, music, artworks, and topics that interest you. Find ways to bring those into your writing to make it enjoyable and authentic. Set aside time daily to write. Carry something so you can make a quick note if an idea hits you. If literary agents turn you down, self publish. Share your work with the world on your own terms.

How do you choose what books you want to read?

They choose me. I gravitate toward mysteries, but I find that whatever book I’m reading has something special to offer me at just the right moment.

More about Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

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!

More About Sherill Joseph

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. In addition, 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 to realize their greatest potential with courage and self- respect.

Sherrill is a lexical-gustatory synesthete and native San Diegan where she lives in a 1928 Spanish- style house in a historic neighborhood with her poodle-bichon mix, Jimmy Lambchop. Other loves include her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. She can’t leave out dark chocolate, popcorn, old movies, purple, and daisies. Having never lived in a two-story house, she is naturally fascinated by staircases. Sherrill is a member of SCBWI and the Authors Guild and promises many more adventures with the squad to come!

Books: Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets and Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and BookBub