Tag Archive for: F. M. Meredith

Can a Police Procedural be a Cozy? by Marilyn Meredith

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In the true sense of a police procedural and the term cozy–probably not. However, I’ve had both my mystery series described in reviews as bordering on being cozy.

Though there is no tea drinking (to any extent) involved, neither series has any bad language (maybe a tiny bit in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series), all bedroom doors close, and the bloody stuff is kept to a minimum.

The real reason though, in my opinion, is because both series are set in small towns and revolve around family.

Rocky Bluff focuses on the police officers and what is going on with their families while they are solving murders and other crimes. The beach community is fictional and located between Ventura And Santa Barbara.

In my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series, Tempe, a Native American or Indian as she prefers to be called, lives and works in and around the mountain community of Bear Creek, located in the Southern Sierra. She is the resident deputy of Bear Creek and married to the minister of the community church. Through the years she’s been a widowed mother of a teen, met and married Pastor Hutch, and solved many crimes while keeping the peace, the drunks off the road, and from time to time, helping out at the nearby Indian reservation.

My next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Seldom Traveled, is scheduled for August.

The latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, A Crushing Death, has been out for awhile.

I’m now writing the next RBPD and planning the promotion for Seldom Traveled.

Not as it Seems the latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree is available now and Tempe is at the Central Coast to attend her son’s wedding.

Both books, and the rest of the series, are available as paper and e-books from all the usual places.

Marilyn Meredith aka F. M. Meredith

Busy Times, Last Day for a Freebie, and a Scare

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Because I have a new book out, I’ve been busy promoting it–of course. As all the authors on this blog know, promoting takes lots of time. I’ve got a blog tour planned starting April 15, https://bookbrowsing.wordpress.com/ and I begin by answering the question, “Why with all  your experiences did you choose to write mysteries?” At the bottom of the page of each blog is a link to the next stop on the tour.

I’ve got several in-person events set up which I’m looking forward to beginning with a book launch at a local craft and second hand store in my home town for A Crushing Death.

And today is the last day of another of my Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries being offered free on Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Worst-Degree-Rocky-Bluff-ebook/dp/B00JFKAH9A/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1459435059&sr=8-1&keywords=Murder+in+the+Worst+Degree+by+F.M.+Meredith

Of course the reason for doing this is to get readers interested in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

Yes, this is a police procedural, but it as much about the officers private lives and what is going on with their families as it is about whatever mystery needs to be solved.

This brings me to my scare. I just finished going over the next in my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery when I did something, and the whole manuscript disappeared. Yikes! I tried to find restore–but it wasn’t there. Went to the Internet and asked what I should do. Advice was to close the file, then reopen. I did it and got the message do you want to save changes?

I’d been saving right along, so said “NO” because I didn’t want to save all I had left, which was two blank pages. Woo hoo, the whole manuscript returned just as it appeared before I did whatever made it disappear. I do have Mozy–an off-line place that saves everything on my computer once a day, but that doesn’t happen until afternoon and all the work I’d done with the editing that morning wouldn’t have been there.

Fortunately I had a happy ending.

Marilyn who is also known as F. M. Meredith


So How is Your 2016 Going?

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Mine is starting fine. I’ve learned through the many years that I’ve been on earth that my attitude has a lot to do with how things are going. Of course, I have my frustrations. Hubby and I both are feeling our age which has made some things we used to enjoy doing now impossible like taking long trips on airplanes, dancing, driving into and through big cities.

However, we’ve made up for it in other ways. If we really want to visit someone who lives somewhere the driving will be difficult, we ask the daughter who lives closes to us to do the driving. She loves to drive and it gives her a break from all she does as a preacher’s wife.

Instead of dancing, we enjoy watching all kinds of movies and TV series together with the aid or our Roku.

My biggest joy is spending time with family–and we have a big one. Lots of grands and great-grands to enjoy.

And I’m still able and enjoy writing and reading.

At the end of 2015 one of my publisher put out a list of which books did best: http://otpblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/otps-most-popular-books-in-2015.html
Two older books in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series ended up on that list.

As a Christmas gift, I offered a free Kindle copy of either of my series to 25 readers, and I’d like to offer the choice of one of my series to anyone on this list, either the Rocky Bluff P.D. series or my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. I’ll send a Kindle copy of your choice to the first 5 who contact me via email. mmeredith24@ocsnet.net

You can check our the books on my website; http://fictionforyou.com/

Wishing you all a great year and plenty of good reading.

Marilyn who also writes as F. M. Meredith

Here are the latest in each series:

Why Do I Keep on Writing?

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That’s a good question, one I must ask myself periodically.

I spend a good percentage of each day in front of my computer either working on a new book, editing, or promoting whichever book is out now.  And guess what? I don’t make much money. And what I do make is spent on promotion.

No, my publishers do not send me out on book tours, though they both do some promotion, the greater share is up to me. I’m the one who arranges my in-person events and does the majority of the on-line promotion.

So what do I get out of all this work?

1. I love to write. I enjoy visiting my characters and finding out what is going to happen to them next. The only way to do that is to write the next book. My writing is not confined to my novels, believe it or not, I get a kick out writing blog posts, like this one, and others where I guest.

2. I love meeting people and making new friends. Of course this happens at book events and at conferences and conventions. (Going to a mystery con is very much like attending a huge family reunion.) The Internet has given me the ability to make many new friends, many I’ve known now for a long time.

3. And of course my books have fans–fans that enjoy my books, have favorite characters, email me, read my newsletter and comment, fans that encourage me to write the next book.

4. Because of the conventions, conferences and places I’ve been invited to teach and speak, I’ve traveled many places I’d never have visited otherwise from the West Coast to the East Coast, many cities in-between, and Hawaii and Alaska.

5. I’ve learned how to do many things I might never have tried if it hadn’t been for my writing career from many computer skills to giving presentations and classes about books, writing and publishing. For ten years I taught writing for Writers Digest Schools, and I just recently retired from many years of being the program chair for the Public Safety Writers Association’s annual conference.

6. And most of all, I’ve met many challenges, grown as a writer and a person, and had a great time doing what I wanted to do.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Some Tidbits About My Ongoing Blog Tour

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No one ever said doing a blog tour on your own would be easy. I’ve done it enough to know how much work it is.

Now that I’m in the middle of it, it should be easy, but it’s not.

When I sent the requested blog posts out, I asked for a reply that they’d received the material–everyone let me know they did. But, guess what? At least three people said I never sent them anything. I quickly resent.

Even though I sent reminders out to everyone the day before the tour began, a couple have forgotten.
What I don’t understand is why, when someone gets the material, they don’t set everything up with the proper date and time right then? If they did, they wouldn’t have to rush to do it on the day or forget about it all together.

I’m not thrilled the codes that people have to read and copy–like the ones we have on this blog–but it is a necessary evil for those who get a lot of spam. Some of them are not so bad, but when I have to write the code three times to get it right and post, I know that some people will not bother to comment when it’s so difficult.

Worse are the bloggers who insist on moderating every comment before it’s posted. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if the comments were moderated often, but when you are on a tour you need to reply to questions and at least acknowledge people who leave comments which is not easy to do when the comments don’t show up for hours.

I know that this discourages people from commenting. One of the moderated posts had way fewer comments that any of the rest of the blogs I’ve visited so far.

On the whole though, things have gone well. At this point in my tour I’ve had nearly 60 unique commenters. Many have commented multiple times–trying for my contest, I’m sure. (The person who comments on the most blogs has the opportunity to have a character named after him/her in my next book.)

Here are the rest of the stops on my tour for Murder in the Worst Degree:

How Rocky
Bluff P.D. Became a Series
How I Get
My Titles
Review
How
Romance Plays a Part in the Book
Review
Several Romances
Review
Social Issues
How I Do My Research
Not a Hard-Boiled Police Procedure Nor a Cozy
Ways I’ve Murdered People
Review
Choosing Names for Characters
and
How My Books Have Changed
My Experience with Killers
Hoping for the remainder to go smoothly.
Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Murder in the Worst Degree

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Under my other name, F. M. Meredith, I write the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series.  Murder in the Worst Degree is number 10 in this series. Though the characters are ongoing, each mystery is complete so it isn’t necessary to read the whole series to know what is going on.

My goal with this series has always been to show the private lives of the officers as they go about their jobs. There have been romances, lost spouses, marriages, children born, a relative with Alzheimer’s–a true spectrum of real life.

Yesterday, I embarked on a month long blog tour beginning with Dru’s Book Musings  

http://wp.me/p3nHH-4Pb where I showcased a day in the life of Officer Stacey Milligan. And today, I wrote about how I researched cop culture for http://thoniehevron.wordpress.com/

At the bottom of each post is a link to the next stop.

I do hope some of you will follow along, and perhaps even enter my contest to have a character in my next book named after you.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith 

Day Light Savings Time, Love it or Hate It?

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It is very weird getting up at my usual time of 4:15 a.m. or so. (I know, you question is why do I do that? I got in the habit when I had my care home for developmentally disabled women and never got out of it. This gives me plenty of time to do my Bible study, answer emails, check-in with Facebook, before I settle down to writing or whatever plan I have for the day.)

Why is it weird? When I sit down at my computer in my office and look out the window the sky is black. And it stays that way until around 6 or so when it begins to lighten to a pewter color. Right now, at 6:55 a.m., it’s a pale blue with a mass of gray-blue clouds over the mountains, and scattered gray clouds elsewhere.

Everyone I know is thrilled it stays so light in the evening, but for me it often means that it’s still light when I’m climbing into bed. Well, when you’re old like me and you’ve been up since 4:15, 7:30 often seems like a good time to crawl into the sack. I might read or watch some TV–but I never stay awake long.

So do I love it or hate it? Frankly, I’m neutral. What I really feel is that there is not enough time in the day to do all the things I want to get done. Changing the time makes no difference to my day, I just adjust–something I’m good at.

I am getting eager for my latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Murder in the Worst Degree, to become available. I write that series under the name of F. M. Meredith.

And I’m scrambling to get a lot done because I’m off to Monterey and Left Coast Crime tomorrow. That’s one of the big perks, as far as I’m concerned, of being a mystery writer. Besides being in Monterey, I’ll get to see many of my writer and reader friends, attend some super panels and interviews, and my RBPD publisher is having a get-together of all her authors who are attending.

Any spare moments I’m devoting to my work-in-progress, the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.

What about you, do you love or hate day light savings time, or are you neutral?

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Coming really, really soon!

Okay, Here’s What’s Happening

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As usual, I’ve been busy.

My latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Murder in the Worst Degree, is due out in March. I’ve been busy planning the promotion for it. I’m doing another blog tour in April and had fun writing all the different posts–though it was a lot of work and took a long time.

Also in April I’ll have the official launch at our local Art Gallery, and I’m scheduled to speak at the library during National Library Week.

During the week this post appears, I’ll actually be in Temecula visiting my daughter, two of my grandkids and a slew of great-grands. In face, I’ll be visiting one of the greats third grade class to talk about being a writer and how to write a story. (Love talking to kids about writing.)

The photo is some of the kids I’ll see-but missing the boy whose class I’m going to visit.

March is Left Coast Crime and it’s in Monterey this year–and yes, I’m going. Can’t pass up one that is so close. Years ago the first LCC I attended was in Monterey and it was wonderful. The same folks are organizing it again so I’m sure it’ll be great. Though LCC is big, it isn’t as big as Bouchercon. Most of all, I’m looking forward to seeing old friends.

(And yes, we did get more rain and snow in the mountains. Everyone says it’s not enough yet, but the rainy season isn’t over.)

Marilyn who writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. series as F. M. Meredith

More About Titles

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Bethany’s post about title made me think about my own titles.

For my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries, I’ve used a lot of quotations from Native Americans and plucked a couple of words out of them for titles such as Invisible Path, Wing Beat and Dispel the Mist. The one that I’m working on now has a title from an Indian quotation, Spirit Shapes. However, I don’t always do that, last year’s was Raging Water which came from the fact that most of the troubles going on in the little town of Bear Creek were because the river had swollen to flood conditions.

This series I write as Marilyn Meredith.

F.M. Meredith is the name I use for my Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

I never seemed to have any problem coming up with title for my Rocky Bluff P.D. series because the story itself seemed to create it.

Final Respects The story of the death of a popular police officer, a mortician and a mortuary, and a funeral.

The many bad tidings that police officers must deliver was easily named Bad Tidings.

A bad cop uses his job for nefarious means in Fringe Benefits.

Smell of Death has three gruesome murders and is the beginning of the romance between Officer Stacey Wilbur and Detective Doug Milligan.

Two churches, two ministers and two wives and murder made No Sancturary  a logical title.

An Axe to Grind besides being a play on words also refers to the murder weapon.

And Angel Lost is also a play on words and refers to two plot threads.

The reason for the title No Bells isn’t revealed until the end.

The latest book in the series was harder for me to name–in fact, one of the members of my critique group came up with the title Dangerous Impulses.

I am working on the latest and I had the title before I really had an idea for the plot. One of my fans suggested it, and it’s a great title and immediately let me know what my Rocky Bluff P.D. detectives would be faced with. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Planning Ahead for a New Rocky Bluff P. D. Mystery Debut

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I don’t have a cover yet, but the the title is Dangerous Impulses. This follows No Bells which centered on Officer Gordon Butler, whose romantic interest is the major suspect in murder case. He risks his life and his job to prove her innocent.

For those who might be interested in catching up on the series, my whole idea when I wrote the first one, was to show how the job of being a police officer affected the family and what was going on in the family affected the job.

When I wrote, Final Respects, I had no idea it would be the beginning of an on-going series.

When I’d finished writing, I realized that I wanted to know more about these people who lived and worked in the small southern California beach community of Rocky Bluff.

Though the characters continue, different ones have starring roles. In Bad Tidings, Lt. Gilbreath often has to be the bearer of bad tidings and receives one of his own.

Fringe Benefits is about a very bad cop. It is also the introduction of Officer Gordon Butler, who has become the favorite of fans of the series.

Officer Stacey Wilbur plays an important role in Smell of Death and it is the beginning of the romance between her and Detective Milligan.

No Sanctuary is about two churches, two ministers, two wives and one murder. Officer Stacey Wilbur, Detective Milligan and Gordon Butler play interesting parts, and Stacey begins her extra job in vice.

An Axe to Grind is about the death of a stalker. For those following Stacey and Doug Milligan’s romance, things are definitely heating up.

Stacey is so busy planning her wedding she isn’t paying enough attention to the job–and there almost isn’t a wedding in Angel Lost.

And of course, No Bells, where Officer Gordon Butler puts his job on the line in his efforts to prove his lady love innocent.

Of course all these books are available in the usual places in paper and ebooks.

Just remember, I wrote them as F. M. Meredith, which is a whole other story.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith