Mill Creek Entertainment; 174 minutes; $9.98

Now available on DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment is the Murder 101 Collection, featuring the made-for-television movies Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses and Murder 101: The Locked Room Mystery. There are no special features or extras on the single-disc.

The Murder 101 was a series of made-for-television movies that aired on the Hallmark Channel between 2006 - 2008. The movies starred Dick Van Dyke and his son Barry Van Dyke, who both also played together in the long-running mystery series Diagnosis Murder. Instead of playing father and son again, Dick Van Dyke stars as Dr. Jonathan Maxwell, a criminology professor, who teams up with an old friend's private detective son, Mike Bryant (played by Barry Van Dyke), to solve murder cases. A total of four films were made - Murder 101, College Can Be Murder, If Wishes Were Horses, and The Locked Room Mystery.

Directed by David S. Cass Sr., Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses centers on the Barwley family's prize racehorse being kidnapped. Being a friend of the family, Professor Maxwell takes up it upon himself to investigate the kidnapping. Unfortunately, what starts out as a simple ransom, quickly turns to murder. Maxwell teams up with Mike Bryant to solve the mystery.

Once again directed by David S. Cass Sr., Murder 101: The Locked Room Mystery (also known as Murder 101: New Age) centers on a spiritual "healer" named Samuel (played by Charles Shauchnessy) being murdered in a locked room with four students. The twists is that all the students were will in a deep trance while Samuel was murdered. Professor Maxwell, Mike Brant, and Mike's nephew Ben (played by Barry Van Dyke's son, Shane Van Dyke) team up to solve the mystery.

Zondervan; 112 pages; $15.99; Amazon

Now available from Zondervan is the adult coloring book called The Beautiful World: Creative Coloring & Hand Lettering, featuring illustrations & lettering by Megan Wells and interior designs by Mallory Collins.

The idea that there were coloring books for adults seemed a bit silly to me at first. However, after I looked through several titles at local Walmart a year or so ago, I can easily see the appeal. Actually, coloring is no different than any other craft hobby.

Zondervan has jumped into the adult coloring book world by releasing a series of titles under the "Coloring Faith" line, which typical contains Bible Verses along with beautiful illustrations for you to color.

At a whopping 112 pages, The Beautiful Word: Creative Coloring & Hand Lettering features a variety of different illustrations, from abstracts to landscapes, which are all paired with a Bible Verse page. Some of the lettering can be colored in, and normally these pages have an illustrated border.

Now available from Fiery Seas Publishing is the romantic novel Where On Earth? An Alaska Adventure by David H. Minton.




When did you become interested in storytelling?

My mother was a librarian and she always brought home interesting books from the library. So as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in stories, both fiction and non-fiction. My father liked Robert W. Service and Rudyard Kipling, and through those writers, I became interested in poetry—especially descriptive poetry.

What was your first book/story published?

My first book was a non-fiction book about the history of the Boeing 737. It was published by McGraw Hill in the Aero series. I’ve always been interested in planes and writing about an airliner seemed natural to me.

What inspired you to write Where on Earth? An Adventure in Alaska ?

For some years I’ve had an idea of a novel with a male and a female protagonist on opposite sides of the environmental/climate debate. I plan for more of these books with the same characters, including the French-speaking dog, in other locations in the world. Over the last several years I’ve worked on outlines of these various stories. I don’t know why Alaska floated to the top first.

What character in Where on Earth? An Adventure in Alaska is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Dan Richardson, the male protagonist and I share have a lot of common experiences, war veterans, helicopters, survey work, and environmental impact statements. I think he is most like me in that he is very solution oriented, much more interested in solving problems than being stymied or frustrated by them. I think it is pretty common among writers in that you write best about which you know best, like yourself.

What is your favorite part in Where on Earth? An Adventure in Alaska ?

After nearly a month, I finally finished reading Into The Water by Paula Hawkins, which I was extremely disappointed with it. Read my review here!

I had planned on returning the book to the library on Saturday, but it was closed due to weather damage. There was a horrible thunderstorm with 60+mp winds on Friday night & early Saturday morning and the part of the library's roof was torn off. There was also water damage to the inside, mostly on the office side of the building.

Anyhow, the book drop was reopened, so I returned the book today. Repairs to the library are currently underway. Visit the library's Facebook page for their most recent update.

As for my current read, I'm reading Alien Covenant: The Official Novelization by Alan Dean Foster.

If you're in your 30's, like I am, then you mostly likely grew up watching cartoons every Saturday morning. You know, back way before the Federal Communications Commission mandate, which required networks to air at least 3 hours of educational program per week - aka, killing Saturday Morning Cartoons forever.

Yes, you can still find plenty of new cartoons on cable channels; some even have 24 hours of animated programs, but it just doesn't feel the same as it did in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Thankfully, many of our cartoon favorites are now available on DVD, so we can watch them anytime we like. We can even have a Saturday Morning Cartoons Marathon, if like.

14 hours 20 minutes: $19.98; Mill Creek Ent.

Now available from Mill Creek Entertainment are 'the complete series' sets of Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego? and Archie's Weird Mysteries.

Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego? is based on a series of computer games. It aired on the now defunct Fox Kids block from 1994 to 1999, lasting for only 40 episodes. The series won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Animated Program in 1995.

The series centers on the ACME agents Ivy and Zack, whom happens to be brother and sister. In each episode, the duo tries to track down Carmen Sandiego, the leader the organization V.I.L.E, who is always stealing a historical artifact. With the help of the Player (a live-action kid who is playing  a computer game), Ivy and Zack follows the clues left behind by Carmen to solve the mystery and retrieve the missing artifact.

The DVD set has 4 discs (10 episodes per disc). There are no special features or extras, though there is a bonus episode from the short-lived series Liberty's Kids.

14 hours 52 minutes; $19.98; Mill Creek Ent.

Way before Archie and his pals were rebooted in the hit CW series Riverdale, there was a short-lived 1999 series, titled Archie's Weird Mysteries, that aired on PAX (now known as Ion Television).

Lasting for only 40 episodes, the series centered on Archie (now a school reporter) and his friends, as they investigate strange occurrences around Riverdale. The episodes were basically spoofs of low-budget B-movies from the 1950s, involving encounters with Frankenstein's monster, werewolves, mad scientists, UFOs, zombies, and vampires.

The DVD set has 4 discs (10 episodes per discs). There are no special features or extras, though there are bonus episodes fro Sabrina: The Animated Series, Sabrina's Secret Life, and Mona the Vampire. It comes with an instant digital access code that be redeemed at www.millcreekent.com/redeem.

Riverhead Books; 400 pages; Amazon

If you've been following this blog for the last few weeks, then you would know I've been reading the new novel Into The Water by Paula Hawkins, the author of The Girl On The Train. I had checked out the book from the library and it has taken me over three weeks to finish it.

From just looking at the cover art, you can clearly tell the novel is a murder mystery, and that's exactly what it is, well, sorta. The plot centers on the mysterious death of a woman, Danielle Abbott, who was found at the bottom of the river, otherwise known as the Drowning Pool to the locals.

Over the years, many people have died in the Drowning Pool, so it was no shock to anyone that Danielle died there. However, she isn't the most recent death there, as the body of a teenage girl was found in the Drowning Pool earlier in the summer. Are the two deaths connected?