Review of Killer Miracle:
“. . . a murder mystery with more twists and turns than a mountain road. By turns funny, sexy, knowing, and tense, Killer Miracle’s skillfully executed story will satisfy hardcore mystery addicts, while anyone looking for a quick hit of northern New Mexico small-town life will savor the literary equivalent of a chile fix.
Late one night in the church [that murder victim] Emilio helps maintain, we find him attending the spectral image of an angel on the wall. Has he discovered a divine revelation in the storeroom, or did he paint it himself, blending pigments with natural water stains? There’s no time to speculate—as Emilio steps outside, locks the door, and heads back across the empty plaza, an unidentified assailant strikes him down. Just like that, two pages into the tale, Sanchez snares the reader with two nested mysteries. There are more to come.”--Charles Poling, New Mexico Magazine
“. . . a murder mystery with more twists and turns than a mountain road. By turns funny, sexy, knowing, and tense, Killer Miracle’s skillfully executed story will satisfy hardcore mystery addicts, while anyone looking for a quick hit of northern New Mexico small-town life will savor the literary equivalent of a chile fix.
Late one night in the church [that murder victim] Emilio helps maintain, we find him attending the spectral image of an angel on the wall. Has he discovered a divine revelation in the storeroom, or did he paint it himself, blending pigments with natural water stains? There’s no time to speculate—as Emilio steps outside, locks the door, and heads back across the empty plaza, an unidentified assailant strikes him down. Just like that, two pages into the tale, Sanchez snares the reader with two nested mysteries. There are more to come.”--Charles Poling, New Mexico Magazine
BOOKS
ADOBE HOUSES FOR TODAY'...a wealth of information about the history and techniques associated with the use of adobe.' --Library Journal
'Helpful for anyone buying, building, or remodeling an adobe house as well as for contractors, drafters, and real estate brokers.' --Book News '...a fascinating wealth of information and lore.' --The Bookwatch Since Adobe Houses for Today first appeared, interest in energy efficiency has exploded. Showing the pathway to smaller, solar tempered, easy-to-heat homes using adobe, one of the world's most energy efficient building materials, makes this book about adobe houses not only for today, but also for tomorrow. Adobe Houses for Today features 12 plans for compact, beautifully proportioned adobe homes in modern and traditional styles. The richly illustrated text shows how the basic houses, designed for today's smaller families, can be expanded and adapted to fit readers' own budgets, family sizes, style preferences, and building sites. After a brief look at adobe's rich history, Adobe Houses for Today surveys adobe's advantages as a building material, illustrates adobe construction, and gives an eye-opening tour through the facts and fantasies of energy conservation. The heart of the book details the plans, using them as examples of design techniques that increase livability and control costs in any house. The book and its minimal-cost construction drawings are valuable, enjoyable tools for those buying, building, or remodeling a house. EXCERPT FROM ADOBE HOUSESCHAPTER 5. THE PLANS
We called it "plan fever" when people showed up at our office with dazed expressions and red, irritated eyes. They had spent weeks, months--maybe years--looking through newsstand plan books, building magazines and "Home and Real Estate" sections, carefully studying hundreds of house plans without ever finding one that fit. We all need to put a personal stamp on our homes. We all need, in different degrees, togetherness and privacy. A house works if it supplies the spaces we need to follow our daily routines with ease and pleasure. The flexibility designed into the Basic Houses allows you to tailor a plan to your lifestyle. These houses do not strive for the usual architectural goal of a building as a perfect, unchangeable object. Instead, we've treated the houses as a set of interlocking building blocks that you combine to your own satisfaction. Computer aided drafting (CAD) has grown to dominate the architectural graphics field. CAD drawings are very easy to alter, whether presentation drawings like the ones in this chapter or working drawings like those shown in Chapter 6. A competent CAD operator can stretch a room with a single command. "Flipping" a set of working drawings to face east instead of west takes only a couple of hours instead of the days once required by manual drafting. For this reason, working drawings for the Basic Houses were done with a computer, producing both hard copy printouts that resemble traditional blueprints and CAD files that can be changed to fit an owner's requirements. Read more on www.amazon.com with Look Inside the Book |
FREAKING GREENJasmine Hayward’s dreams for her junior year focus on guys, friends and landing the lead roles in her high school’s plays. But suddenly Jasmine’s cashed-strapped family is forced to cut their carbon footprint by 80 percent to win $5 million. Everything Jasmine does, from getting to school to making a sandwich, puts a fortune at risk.
While Jasmine’s family of reluctant eco-warriors frantically strives and connives its way toward their goal, Jasmine fears that winning the money means losing friends, guys and her dream of an acting career. In this refreshingly funny, skillful coming of age story, Jasmine finds love in the last place she expected it. She also makes it to Hollywood but not in the way she imagined. After years spent designing energy efficient houses, Laura Sanchez began writing, guided by the notion that any subject---housing, politics, computer graphics, environmental issues—can be both understandable and enjoyable. With Freaking Green, she’s transformed teen angst and climate science into a downright guilty pleasure. Weekly Alibi Review by Barbara Korbal In a culture still arguing about whether or not carbon emissions are destroying the planet . . . young adult novels engage the debate about global warming and climate change. In Freaking Green, Laura F. Sanchez uses home space as a site for exploring these ideas with her beautifully crafted narrative. Sanchez . . . situates her story in Albuquerque and conveys it through the teenage eyes of Jasmine. Eccentric, leftist-leaning Aunt Olivia shows up in the opening scene as a dead person in a shipping crate; the plot begins to thicken as a manila envelope containing the aunt’s will offers a challenge to the cash-strapped family. If the familial unit can cut their total carbon footprint by 80 percent over the course of the year, they will inherit Aunt Olivia’s millions. If not, her estate goes to Greenpeace. Sanchez has done a marvelous job crafting the characters in this work. . . . We witness the evolution of each quirky family member. Importantly, Sanchez provides the reader with real-life facts and statistics on carbon emissions produced by a typical family. This book teaches about climate change as much as it provides an entertaining read. The humor . . . makes for an entertaining read, while addressing the serious ecological problems.
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KILLER MIRACLEMiraculous images begin appearing in the tiny town of La Cuenta, New Mexico, convincing many devout villagers that they are marks of God’s favor. Albuquerque architect Gwen Callendar thinks the images are a cynical scam. All of them are wrong.
The images bring crowds of pilgrims and reporters to La Cuenta, but the carnival turns dark when the town’s most revered citizen, elderly santero Emilio Córdova, is found dead of gunshot wounds. La Cuenta police chief Ruben Lopez detains Gwen’s lover, Mack Wilson, as a suspect, pulling Gwen into the investigation along with Elena Córdova, Emilio’s beloved grandniece. Caught up in the investigation, Gwen, Elena and Ruben struggle through a maze of art, faith and kinship, of drugs and land conflicts set against the magnificent background of Northern New Mexico. EXCERPT FROM
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