In this episode I interview Children's mystery book writer, Sherrill Joseph. She is a retired K-12 literacy teacher. Her current work is The Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries series, written for children ages 9-14. (Though I have to say, some adults will enjoy these as well) She has garnered multiple awards for these books. I won’t list them all but among these awards are: the Mom's Choice Book Awards, the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards, and a Reader’s Favorite Book award.
She says she has been inspired by the children she taught, and she uses her writing to stay connected with "kids who rock." Her stories present responsible, role-model children detective characters who provide readers with a fun mystery to solve and something to learn, while showing that being respectful and helpful citizens can be cool!
She lives in San Diego, California, in a 1928 Spanish Mission Revival bungalow. Her inspirations for her series include her historic neighborhood, the Nancy Drew mysteries she grew up reading, and her unique brain which includes lexical-gustatory synesthesia. We we talk about during the interview. To learn more about sherrill, check out her website at https://sherrilljoseph.com
In this episode I interview Children's mystery book writer, Sherrill Joseph. She is a retired K-12 literacy teacher. Her current work is The Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries series, written for children ages 9-14. (Though I have to say, some adults will enjoy these as well) She has garnered multiple awards for these books. I won’t list them all but among these awards are: the Mom's Choice Book Awards, the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards, and a Reader’s Favorite Book award.
She says she has been inspired by the children she taught, and she uses her writing to stay connected with "kids who rock." Her stories present responsible, role-model children detective characters who provide readers with a fun mystery to solve and something to learn, while showing that being respectful and helpful citizens can be cool!
She lives in San Diego, California, in a 1928 Spanish Mission Revival bungalow. Her inspirations for her series include her historic neighborhood, the Nancy Drew mysteries she grew up reading, and her unique brain which includes lexical-gustatory synesthesia. We we talk about during the interview. To learn more about sherrill, check out her website at https://sherrilljoseph.com
Hello, welcome to Dust Jackets, Conversations with Authors. I'm Maggie Lynch and my guest today is children's author SherrillJoseph. I first met Sherrill through the Authors Guild online forums. When I was starting to write my own middle grade books, I got to know her a little more as part of the middle grade writers section. We now meet once a month, a group of us via zoom to share our progress our ideas and generally support each other. So let me just tell you a little bit about Cheryl to get us started. She's a retired K through 12 literacy teacher. Her current work is the botanic Hill detective mystery series written for children ages nine to 14. So I have to say some adults will enjoy these as well. She has garnered multiple awards for these books, I won't list them all. But among these awards are the mom's choice Book Awards, the moonbeam Children's Book Awards and a readers favorite book award. I always love those readers favorite ones because you know you're reaching who you need to reach. She says she has been inspired by the children she taught. And she uses her writing to stay connected with kids who rock. I love that phrase. Her stories present responsible role model children detective characters who provide readers with a fun mystery to solve, and something to learn, while showing that being respectful and helpful citizens can be cool. She lives in San Diego, California in a 1928 Spanish mission revival bungalow. Her inspirations for her series include her historic neighborhood, the Nancy Drew mysteries she grew up reading, and her unique brain, which includes lexical gustatory synesthesia. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. So welcome, Cheryl, thank you so much for being with us.
Sherrill Joseph:Thank you, Maggie, this is quite an honor. I really appreciate it.
Maggie Lynch:So I have a few questions for you today. And we'll just kind of work through them. And you know, feel free to just talk about whatever you want. So, I know you were a teacher, could you talk about what grades you taught and how long you taught.
Sherrill Joseph:Well, I was a teacher in San Diego Unified School District for 35 years. I retired in 2013. During my career, I taught every grade K through 12. I moved around a lot by choice. I just wanted to experience different schools, different socio-economic groups, different colleagues, you know, all of the different subjects, different grades. But it turned out my very favorite grade was fifth. And so my last 10 years of my career, I got to teach fourth and fifth grade. And I loved it. So that was my teaching, and I love kids. And I think you have to when you're a teacher. It's a calling. You're not in it for the money. You're in it because you want to do something for children. I probably learned more from them than they learned for me, however.
Maggie Lynch:Wow. Well, I applaud you and all teachers.
Sherrill Joseph:I think I'm a kid at heart. I think I've always been a kid at heart. And so I kind of felt like I fit right in with them.
Maggie Lynch:Well, that's great.
Sherrill Joseph:I think I had more fun with them than I probably did with adults. So you know, it has worked out for me.
Maggie Lynch:Well, that's perfect for someone who's writing middle grade novels. And so can you just kind of talk about why you decided to start writing books for children, and particularly middle grade novels as opposed to picture books, which a lot of teachers start with.
Sherrill Joseph:Okay, yes. I fell in love with reading and writing when I was about in about fourth grade. And this is the book that did it right here.
Maggie Lynch:Oh,
Sherrill Joseph:This is my Nancy Drew book. I have the entire collection behind me in my bookcase there. All the copies, every copy. And this was actually the first one that I read as a kid. This was number five. By the way, the title is the Secret Shadow Ranch. And when I was reading that book, I remember thinking I want to write kids mystery books someday. So that was sort of the the seed that got planted when I was about nine years old and in fourth grade, and I never forgot that. But then you know life happens and you go on, and you have to make money, you know, get a real job. So I got my teaching credential, and basically I taught, got to teach, literacy most of my career. And I also did some curriculum editing. So I was pretty good at grammar and all of that. In fact, I branded myself a grammar nerd very proudly. So those were kind of some of the beginnings, but I also was inspired by one of my students. A couple of years before I retired in my classroom, one of my students one day, said to me...We were sitting around in a book club group, we were reading this one book, that was, I'm not going to mention the title, but it was, it was pretty awful. It was like a classic children's book redo. And the redo was not very good, in my opinion, and the children's opinion. And one of my students looked at me and said: Miss J, you could write a better book than this. Oh, my gosh. And that made me reach back to my nine year old self, and pull forward that desire that goal I had to write children's mystery books. And so right at that point, I started thinking about who my characters could be. And I knew my books would be fashioned after sort of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys kind of mysteries, because I wanted to write good, solid clean books for kids that would teach them something, but also maybe provide role models for them. And so those were the origins of my books.
Maggie Lynch:Wow. And so let me tackle it before I forget about it, that lexical gustatory synesthesia thing. Just saying it gets me tongue tied. So, could you explain to our listeners exactly what that means and how it impacts you as a person and inspires your writing,
Sherrill Joseph:Okay. Synesthesia is considered a mental ability, not a disability. Interesting enough. I suppose it can be a disability for some people, but I have what's called lexical gustatory synesthesia. Synesthesia is where you have extra connections or synapses in the brain, across senses that aren't normally connected. So lexical gustatory, the word gustatory, for example, means to taste. So when I hear or see or read certain words, I taste something. Sometimes it's, it's like a full flavor in my mouth. Sometimes it's just a little glimmer of flavors in the back of my tongue. And sometimes I can even smell the food or the taste. And I have always had this my whole life. I have a twin sister, and I remember saying to her one time, Sharon, your name makes me taste peaches.
Maggie Lynch:Oh, my goodness.
Sherrill Joseph:You know, do you get that? You know, do you have that? Do you ever have that happen? And she goes, No, I don't, I don't have that. And she kind of looked at me strangely. I just thought, I just kind of assumed everybody had it except maybe my twin. For some reason, I just thought everybody had that. Or everybody did that. And I just kind of, you know, I never thought much about it. And then about two or three years ago, I was on the internet. And I ran across an article on synesthesia, and I thought, Oh, I wonder what that is. And I started reading and like a light bulb went off. Oh my gosh, that's me. Oh, yeah. I saw I finally had a label to attach to this ability. And it is considered an extra sensory ability. And there are some famous people who have it. For example, Van Gogh had synesthesia. Duke Ellington had synesthesia. Billy Eilish, who's the current kind of rock star has synesthesia. So I guess I'm sort of in good company. I asked my mother if she had, you know, she had anything like that. And she said, No. And I asked her if anybody in the family other than me ever talked about anything like this? And she said, No. So I didn't know where it came from. I'd like to think it came from, you know, some great great great grandmother ancestor back then or something. But most people have a really common type, which you've probably heard of, which is where you hear music and it makes you see colors.
Maggie Lynch:Yeah, I have heard of that one. And I suppose Billie Eilish has that
Sherrill Joseph:that's the most common type. But my type Gustatory, lexical gustatory, is very rare. It's only something like, point zero 2% of people in the world have it. So it's very rare, whereas the other types are much more common. Maybe 2% of the world have has synesthesia and about 4% of them have that color sound type, or you see letters in color, you know. And when I said disability, sometimes for some people who are trying to read, that could be a problem for them. So in that case, it could maybe be a disability. But mine has done nothing but enhanced my life. And I think it's made me more creative.
Maggie Lynch:Wow. So do you find are there certain words that the taste isn't very pleasant, and so you avoid them?
Sherrill Joseph:Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was dating this one guy, years ago. I went out with him a couple times. And I finally had to tell him that I'm sorry, I can't see you anymore. He asked me why, and I said, because your name makes me taste something really gross.
Maggie Lynch:I bet no one's ever had that kind of a turn down before.
Sherrill Joseph:Yeah, he thought I was nuts. But it's very real for me, you know. And, of course, when I do school visits, the first thing that kids want to do is ask me, What does my name make you taste, you know? So what I do is, ahead of time, I get the class roster. And I write down what the kids names make me taste and some of them are not pleasant. And I'll say, I'm sorry, but your name makes me taste something bad. I'm sorry. But you know, I can't control it. It's just what it is. Sure. So anyway, and then I give that list to the teacher. So I say your teacher already has the list. She'll let you know later.
Maggie Lynch:And how about your name? What does Sherrill make you taste?
Sherrill Joseph:Sherrill makes me taste cherry jelly.
Maggie Lynch:Sherry jelly?
Sherrill Joseph:Like cherry. Oh, cherry the berry jelly. Yeah. cherry jam or cherry jelly?
Maggie Lynch:Well, that's pretty pleasant.
Sherrill Joseph:Yeah, that's very pleasant. My sister, I have a sister Carolyn, and her name makes me taste popcorn. You know, it's just in my mother's name was Margaret and her name made me taste brown sugar. So they're not all that pleasant.
Maggie Lynch:That's amazing. Like, let's get on to a different name, right sometimes? Well, let's get a little more into your actual Series. I love the location of the series, Botanic Hill. And I wonder is that based on a real place that you know about or is it just completely made up?
Sherrill Joseph:It's based on where I live. I live in the area of San Diego called North Park. It's a neighborhood that was started over 100 years ago. And I also live, I'm kind of surrounded by historic neighborhoods. There's another And so that's why I have to write 26 books. My goal is to area called Banker's Hill, which is a little west of me. And that's the one that has a lot of the street names, but we have some of them here in North Park because the streets go all the way through west to east. And, you know, we have a Nutmeg Street. here. We have a Palm Street. Some of the street names like instead of Laurel Street, which is one of the streets we write one for each street.
Maggie Lynch:Wow. Well that's very clever. I think I remember have here, I renamed it to Lotus Street because it sounds more another mystery writer who did that A to Z thing. What was her exotic. And we have a Maple Street, but I renamed it Macadamia Street because it sounds more tropical. So you know, that's what I did. And in my first book I have a map. I actually see if I could hold this up. If it's visible here. I can do it. I have a map that a graphic artist did for me of Botanic Hill. And all the street names are listed right here, right down here. So it's in Book One if you have Book One. It does not make it in Egyptian Secrets. The actual map and the list of all the 26 streets A to Z books I plan towrite are literally listed there. name?
Sherrill Joseph:Susan? Oh gosh, her name just went out of my head. She just passed away a year or two ago. And she got all the way through Y before she passed. But anyway, yeah, I know who you're talking about.
Maggie Lynch:So you have a ways to go there. Because you're on book four, right?
Sherrill Joseph:I might, yeah. Number five is kind of coming into my head now. Number four is coming out this October.
Maggie Lynch:Wow, so do these straight names, does each name relate to something within your book, or is it just kind of a way to, to have a starting point,
Sherrill Joseph:It's how the books get launched. I just randomly pick a street name. And I'll tell you why I chose Nutmeg Street in a minute as my first one. I just randomly pick a name off of the list of my 26. And then I put a colon. So that's like the title, the street name, and then a colon. And then I have a two word, little descriptor that usually has some kind of like a, I call it a spooky word like secrets, or curse, or phantom, or, or danger or something like that. There's always that kind of a provocative word in the subtitle. But the books always start on that street. So chapter one is always called Invitation on Nutmeg Street, or Eucalyptus Street or Walnut Street, etc. And so the children are at a home or a business or wherever it is on that particular street. And then they either encounter a mystery or they're invited, they're told about a mystery and kind of were sent there on purpose, because the person wants to hire them to solve the mystery. So that's where that comes from.
Maggie Lynch:Oh, great. Yeah. And I know, in the one book that I read, I was pleasantly surprised that someone actually hired the children detectives, to solve something for them. I don't think I've seen that anywhere in a chilren's detective series. You know, usually they're solving little things around the neighborhood, or, like Nancy Drew often encountered a question or mystery.
Sherrill Joseph:That was, ya know, that was sort of from Nancy Drew as well. Because in chapter one of every Nancy Drew book, you know, she stumbles upon a mystery. But then there's always somebody to talk to about it. And, and then they say, you know, would I really like you to try to help me with this, you know, and so she's basically hired at that point to solve the mystery. And then within that chapter, she'll use the narrator to mention, Nancy just finished solving the case of the you know, whatever, you know. And so that's where I got my idea to, you know, number one, have the kids hired. And second, was to say which one that they just got done solving. So I put that in my first chapter, as well.
Maggie Lynch:Yeah, I really love that whole invitation and then someone kind of hiring them. That was really wonderful. Do you find that one of the things? Again, I've only read one book, I apologize. But I was really surprised by the amount of research you do, you know, for the book, and I'm glad. I wonder if for the other ones that I haven't read that's the same case. And as an adult, you know, I actually learned some things because it was a historical piece. Do you find that children really love learning these intricate details along the way?
Sherrill Joseph:I do. Like my fifth graders that I had those last 10 years, really, really loved history. And I had some eyewitness, they're called eyewitness books. They're sort of large picture books that I had in my class library. I could not keep any of the historical ones on the shelf. They were always out. I used to say, who's got the World War Two book right now, you know, I'd always have to ask. The kids were fascinated by history, and especially history that they hadn't learned yet, like World War Two, you know, they hadn't learned that yet. And they were always asking me about World War Two. And so I decided for Book Four I was going to write about Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese internment camps. So all of that is meshed into the mystery of the book that's coming out this October. And my birthday is Pearl Harbor Day, by the way. So, oh, my gosh, um, what something that was another little, little piece of attachment that I had to that topic. That goes way back, of course, to my childhood, when people would say, oh, you're a Pearl Harbor baby. And I'm like, What's that mean? You know, and so over time, I learned about those things and I want the kids to have know them, too. Once a teacher always a teacher. That's part of the answer to your question, too. I just kind of always feel like I want to impart something to kids that they might not get otherwise. You know, so like in Book Two,
Eucalyptus Street:Green Curse, I talk a little bit about old Hollywood, because I love the old Hollywood movies. And so there's a little aspect of that in the story, too, you know. So that's where that comes from. And my fifth one is going to have some elements of, I'm not going to say who yet, but a famous American author from the 19th century. I'm going to have some elements. I'm going to wrap the mystery around that particular writer.
Maggie Lynch:Oh, great. Well, I know when I was a child, anytime I could learn something that no one else knew, was like, really special. And I get that in every one of your books, you can learn something that most other people don't know. So you can even impress your parents.
Sherrill Joseph:Well, yeah, I've had some adults say, oh, I really love your books, too, because I learned from them. And then my child and I can have a conversation about her. Uh, well, that's exactly what I want. You know, how that warms my heart when I hear things like that.
Maggie Lynch:So, um, could you just tell us a little bit about the primary characters? There's a group of them. I think it's four but I'm not sure. You know, kind of what are their backgrounds? How did they meet and become friends?
Sherrill Joseph:All right. Well, I have four detectives, two girls and two boys. Kind of all in Nancy Drew Hardy Boys kind of thing. And Lexi and Lanie are twin brother and sister, and they live on Quinn Street. And right behind them literally sharing a fence from around the block on Palm Street is Mochi. But Mochi Kalani moved to Los Alamitos, California when he was eight, from Hawaii. And then there's a character named Ronnie Kumar, and she's from India. She moved to Los Alamitos when she was five. And Lexi and Ronnie are best friends and Mochi and Lani are best friends. So it didn't take the the four of them long, of course, to partner up. And they became detectives accidentally, because when they were in Paris, France on vacation with the twins' parents, a few years prior, they were walking by a jewelry store and out charged two thieves who had just stolen a bunch of diamond bracelets. And they slammed right into the kids and the diamonds, of course, scattered all over the street. And the crowds came and the kids, and some of the members of that crowd held the thieves down while the police were called. And so the news kind of went viral, of course. And so when the kids came back to California, they were famous. That's how the neighbors found out that they were you know, we're able to help the police. And so that's where the started getting hired by their neighbors at that point.
Maggie Lynch:Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. And they're what age?
Sherrill Joseph:They are all 13 years old, and they will be 13 years old forever, by the way. Just like Nancy. Teens forever, they will be 13 forever. Yeah.
Maggie Lynch:Well, that's, that's really cool. So books happened in one year. Kind of Yeah. So something that struck me while reading the book that I did was how polite your characters are. And I know you made a comment earlier about how you want them to be role models, and I found it unusual because it seems that so many people portray children as, you know, some of them kind of talk back or have tantrums or they get in trouble. You know, part of the story is them having to learn to be more polite. So can you just talk about why you chose that and, and how polite they are?
Sherrill Joseph:Well, of course I wanted role model characters, so they weren't going to be little hooligans, by any means. But I modeled them after my students. You know, I had every kind of student. There were, I had hooligans, all the way up to these like little polite kids that could probably write, you know, etiquette books. And my last year of teaching, one afternoon, I was sitting at my back table. I always had a few kids stay after school who were just like, their their friends would come and they just played around the room or helped clean up the room or whatever. And I was watching them one day and I realized how polite they were to each other. How much they really cared about each other as friends. And as classmates, these were kids who were willing to do anything to help their classmates. It was like we were a big family. And I remember just watching them one afternoon thinking, I wish all kids could be like this. Maybe it takes role models for kids to embrace their inner kindness, or to discover that being kind is going to get you a long way in the world. And so I decided that was why I wanted to bring that out in my four characters. And believe me, I've gotten slammed by that by some reviewers
saying:"I don't know anyt kids like this." And I think how sad that you don't know any kids like this, ya know, because I knew a lot of kids like that. That's why I say kids rock. I knew a lot of kids like that. They could teach adults a few things about being polite and respectful. And so that's why I chose that aspect for my characters.
Maggie Lynch:Well, I think it's wonderful. Actually, I found it really refreshing. And I have known some kids like that. I've known the hooligans, too. Some of them are cousins.
Sherrill Joseph:Adults too.
Maggie Lynch:Right, right. Sure. Exactly. Yeah, but I think that's part of the coolness in your books. It also gives kids who are like that, polite and caring you know, a bit of rock star notoriety.
Sherrill Joseph:Yes, because they have enough confidence in themselves. Right? Yeah. Then they discover pretty soon that, hey, instead of being teased, they're looked up to. So that's what I'm trying to do with my kids. I'm trying to get the kids to think, oh, you know, this can be cool to act like that.
Maggie Lynch:I love it. So I ask every author on the program this, because we do have a lot of authors who watch or listen. Can you talk about your writing process? Are you a pantser, or plotter. or something in between?
Sherrill Joseph:Mostly a pantser. Mostly, I started out with book one trying to outline. And I soon discovered that the outline became a mess. I was pulling things out, I was rearranging. And it was frustrating me more than anything. So now what I do is, I come up with the kind of kernel of the idea of the mystery. I'm not, I'm often not sure how it's going to end when I first start to write. I allow for the creative process to take over. I also allow for my detectives to tell me what to write. And that might sound strange. But when I'm actually in the zone, writing the story, I feel like I kind of leave the planet and I enter their world. And I feel like I'm sort of a bug on the wall, listening to their conversation. And I'm just like the scribe, and I'm just writing it down. And I find that absolutely thrilling. And sometimes I'm not sure how the chapter is going to end. And then suddenly, it just kind of answers the questions. Like, Oh, that's really cool. I like how they ended that. I give them credit for it, you know? So in the beginning I come up with the kernel of the idea. And then I try to come up with a stop. And I think about what are some escapades that they could get involved in? And what are some clues that I want to bring out to lead them to this magic end of this mystery, which I'm not sure what it is yet. Then I try to come up with 20 chapter titles. And not everybody uses chapter titles, but I found as a teacher, and I noticed my students too, I liked it when there were chapter titles, because it made it an easy place to refer to in a book, to teach and say, Oh, that chapter, you know, number 10 , you know, entitled so and so. And the kids would know, they could go right to it because of the chapter title. And it also is a hook for kids. A chapter title can be a hook, like, oh, I want to read this next one. Then you know, oh, to read the next one, read the next one. But anyway, so I come up with like 20 chapter titles, and most get moved around and some will get deleted, some others get put in instead. But that's what helps me get through a book. So that's more pantser than plotter, I'd say.
Maggie Lynch:I see what you mean. I understand all the pantser parts because that's kind of how I work. But it's at what point, you know, because you said you kind of get them started. But at what point do you then start doing the chapter titles and all of that. Is that like after a couple chapters or is that more in the beginning?
Sherrill Joseph:That's more in the beginning. Like I like I said I just basically think of what are some clean, fun mischief they could get into , see, that can lead them to a clue. Or it's a clue that they want to try to resolve and then that clue takes them somewhere. It gives them a destination. So those are sort of the way I work it. And that, that helps me. I'm a visualizer. So that helps me visualize what's going on. And that's, that's where I can get my escapades in my chapter titles from one to the other.
Maggie Lynch:Yeah, so you kind of have an idea. You don't outline at all, but you have an idea of what the escapades are going to be. And the titles reflect. Nice! So you do know where you're moving forward? Do you ever get to a point where you say, you know, well, the title for number four, that's not going to happen now and have to change?
Sherrill Joseph:Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And if I had it down, like in a big, major, long outline, like I did for my first book, and then I was starting crossing out or writing arrows, I mean, literally on a piece of paper, you know. Writing arrows and stuff like that frustrated me with it. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to do more of the pantser thing, you know, where I'm just going to try to put like, my outline now is just my chapter titles. And if an idea comes to me, I might write a little note off to the side of that, on that piece of paper. But I don't really plot things out too much anymore. I just find that for my creative process that doesn't work so well.
Maggie Lynch:Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you 100%. Because I'm the same way. I'm probably a little more involved in my characters because I'm usually the protagonist in the story. And so yes. So I'm kind of feeling what she's feeling and doing what she's doing. And so I'm more connected than being a fly on the wall. But you have so much amazing information that I can see how that fly on the wall thing is, is a better way to approach it.
Sherrill Joseph:I just want to mention, I do the research. I'm really adamant about doing the research, because I don't want to pass off information that isn't true to kids.
Maggie Lynch:Oh, that's really, yeah, very important.
Sherrill Joseph:Yeah, very important, I think for kids. Always make sure what you're saying is true.
Maggie Lynch:So you did talk about that you actually plan a total of 26 of these books, which is quite a bit. Have you thought about or even played with the idea of writing a different series? Or do you kind of think, well, this is, you know, the rest of my life here,
Sherrill Joseph:This is literally the rest of my life. I just, I'm really involved in these characters and in the stories, and I think that's where I'm going to stay.
Maggie Lynch:Well, it makes sense. If I had to write 26 books in a series, it would be the rest of my life as well.
Sherrill Joseph:Some people really do three, four or five, and then they're on to a new one. But this is , you know, gonna last a while.
Maggie Lynch:Oh, I think it's wonderful. Thank you! So we're kind of getting towards the end of our time together. Can you talk about if you have any events coming up, where you're going to be in person, and particularly if any of my listeners live near you, they may want tomeet you. Also any virtual events that you may do?
Sherrill Joseph:Okay, well, I've done a few book festivals already. But I really enjoy doing school visits. And I have one coming up in September, in about three weeks, right here in San Diego, a couple miles from my house, which is great. It's an in-person one. We didn't get to do too many of those the last few years. But I also do virtual class visits. And if anyone wants to sign me up, you can go to my website, sherilljoseph.com/school-visits. And there's information there and the little contact button. And if you're in San Diego, you know, we could probably arrange an in-person thing. Anywhere else, we probably could just do it virtually. I've done virtual events in Michigan and New York and Washington DC and places like that. So it's really fun. So we're not limited anymore by that, and I do these for free, by the way, because I don't believe in charging teachers. As I mentioned, I used to be one and I used to put a lot of my own money back into my classroom every year. Even if there's a PTA and they give you money, I'd rather the teachers spend that little bit of money they might get on their own classroom and their children with their kids' needs. Not on me. And so that's what I do. And so I my reward is just meeting kids.
Maggie Lynch:That's very generous of you. And I'm sure a lot of teachers will thank you for that.
Sherrill Joseph:Well, to me, it's the only way to go. It just makes the most sense to me to do that, right. Yeah.
Maggie Lynch:So you said that you have your fourth book coming out in October? Do you have a big launch plan for that or something that listeners should know about? Like, any special deals or anything like that?
Sherrill Joseph:I believe I'll be in the Cozy Mystery Village, I'm going to have something around that time. I'm not sure how many of them are actually connected into social media, you know, that can be readily available right now. I have a newsletter. If people want to subscribe to my newsletter, which is sherrilljoseph.com/newsletter. I always put my information in there as to where I'm going to be. I have a new section as well, an event section. I usually put it in the events section. You could go to my website sherrilljoseph.com/events. It's there as well. So I would try to post things in advance so readers know where I am and can tune in.
Maggie Lynch:Perfect! Well, thank you so much for being my guest today, Sherrill. And thank you, listeners, for tuning in. As always, I will put all of Sherrill's contact information for her website and social media in the show notes associated with us. Her website is easy to remember. It is sherrilljoseph.com. This has been Dust Jackets: Conversations with Authors. See you next time.