Book Review: Bitter Tastes by V.B. Rosendahl

Title: Bitter Tastes

Written by: V. B. Rosendahl

Ages: 8 to 12

Publisher: Stargazer Press

ISBN: 0-9734940-9-3

Published: January 2007

Softcover: 108 pages

Price: $15.00

Kathy Harmon struggles with her parents new found wealth after they announce they are to move from their home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey to paradise…Warner, North Carolina. Her attempts to come to grips with being the new girl in sixth grade and living in the “grandest” home on the Outer Banks are overshadowed by the death (or is it murder) of her new friend and cooking class instructor, Janine McCallum.

At first all Kathy wants to do is “blend-in” and not be noticeable to her new classmates. However, an unexpected friendship is developed with Martha Cunningham. Kathy’s need to put the so called jigsaw puzzle together to discover the identity of the murderer is pushed further along with Martha’s adventurous personality. Before Kathy knows it she is lying to her parents to go on her investigating journey with Martha. The girls meet many obstacles along the way, but their determination is not to be thwarted.

V.B. Rosendahl takes the reader for an unforgettable ride of acceptance for who you are and a mystery of murder and deception. Told through the eyes and thoughts of Kathy Harmon, you will find yourself cheering for Kathy and Martha with each step they take. And with the hair-raising events throughout you will be surely disappointed when the story comes to its conclusion. A must read for mystery lovers.

Visit V.B. Rosendahl at http://www.vbrosendahl.com/.

Guest Author ~ V.B. Rosendahl

What Inspires You to Write?

By VB Rosendahl
Guest Blogger


Hi everyone! I’m honored to be guest blogger today and want to say thanks so much for the invite.

When I saw the topic … inspiration… I had to sit down for a minute and think. It’s kind of an ethereal subject, really. Its substance can be both filmy and light and then heavy as a 100 pound block of concrete.

I write stories because, well, that’s what I’ve always done. I wrote when my parents were getting divorced and I was a 13 year old in 1969 (stories about a girl in a happy family), when they both died when I was 18, and when I was searching for more meaning in my life.

Where the real inspiration part comes in, I think, is in linking ideas and possibilities and molding them into something someone else might be interested in reading. Sometimes it’s the details – a character with a deformity, a school with sand in its front yard, a cool little out of the way island restaurant with a huge kitchen garden – that increase inspiration for me.

Bitter Tastes, my first mystery for kids, came from a short story I originally wrote back in 1995. I love the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the way of life on Ocracoke in particular. I wondered what it would be like growing up there and going to a school that had all 12 grades in one small building. Then I thought about what it would be like to be in a new school (where they get maybe one new kid every 5 years or so) and have a secret you’re desperate to keep hidden.

Once in a while inspiration is churning along just fine but momentum grinds its gears and all you can do is wait. That’s what’s happening to me right now. I’ve been working on a rewrite of Mudder, the second book in the Kathy & Martha Mystery Series, for over a year. Yeah, you read that right. About 15 months now.

Some would say it’s writer’s block but I don’t believe in that. I’m right at that crucial point where everything in the mystery needs to pick up to a furious pace but I wasn’t sure how to do that – until this past Sunday when I saw an article in my local paper.

Then inspiration and the muse joined up and started dancing on my head again. Let me explain: the climax of my new novel revolves around a treasure hunt. But I didn’t want it to be just any treasure hunt. Then I saw the article in the paper about a local treasure hunt that included brain teasers as well. Ah! Now I have something.

See? That’s what inspiration is for me. The neat part is that I’m never sure when it’ll happen, it just always does.

What inspires you to write?

VB Rosendahl

The Muse Book Reviews - Bitter Tastes by V.B. Rosendahl

My book review of "Bitter Tastes," by V.B. Rosendahl is now published at The Muse Book Reviews - http://themusebookreviews.tripod.com/ - once you arrive at The Muse Book Reviews please click on the book cover to read.

Please sure to cruise on over to check it out and all the other wonderful book reviews.

Also, stop back tomorrow when V.B. Rosendahl will be my guest author for the day.

Thank you.