Tag Archive for: Marilyn Meredith

Not a Good Start

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Though Thanksgiving itself was wonderful, delicious food, lots of family members, that evening I came down with what turned out to be the flu. (And yes, I did have a flu shot.) I truly hoped I’d be well by today as I had a procedure scheduled–but though better, I’m too sick to have what was planned.

In the meanwhile, I got the contract and the first copy of the galley proof of my next Rocky Bluff P.D. novel. I was in no shape to even look at it. I’ve got it printed out now, and hopefully will feel like checking it soon.

So, until such time as I feel much better, I am going to tell you about the first novel I ever had published. And the reason I’m tell you is because it is now available with a new title–Indian Paintbrush–and only on Kindle.

 
When it was first published back in 1982 it was called Trail to Glory which had little to do with the actual story. Based on my mother’s genealogy which my sister did, there were lot of questions to be answered. I did research to figure out why people did what they did, and what I discovered is that the women in the family often were left to make their own way during difficult times and situations.
 
I’ve always called it an historical family saga based on the lives of real people. It’s a much longer book than I usually write, but I had a great time writing and rewriting it, learning much about my family along the way.
 
And what I learned included a big family secret–one that was kept until my sister dug into the family genealogy.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Paintbrush-Marilyn-Meredith-ebook/dp/B00FWAM76I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1386004386&sr=1-1&keywords=indian+paintbrush+by+marilyn+Meredith
 
or
 
http://tinyurl.com/l66ue7w
 
I’ve learned a lot about writing since I wrote this book, but I still think it’s a good story filled with romance.
 
Marilyn
 

Thanksgiving Past and Present

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It’s that time of year again–Thanksgiving is right over the horizon.

I always have plenty to be thankful for and I think I’ll start with the actual Thanksgiving holiday. I have so many wonderful memories of Thanksgivings past–ones growing up at my grandmother’s house in South Pasadena–back when our family was still small. (Mom and Dad had no idea how their two daughters would expand the family.)

After I married, and hubby and I had our own home in Oxnard (also California), we hosted Thanksgiving several times–we had to put tables up in the living room. Later when we moved to Springville (still California), I was the one who always hosted Thanksgiving. Bigger house, more room, and relatives came from southern California bringing their signature dishes.

Now many of those relatives have passed away–my grandparents and parents, auntie–but our family has increased in size. My sister hosts her own large family in Las Vegas, NV. My daughters who live in southern California will be having Thanksgiving with their own offspring. We’re going to have a large bunch here.

I’m fortunate to have two children who live nearby as well as some of their children and grandchildren. I’m thankful that I can still and enjoy cooking–and I have a new stove this year. My old stove I had for 32 years finally gave up the ghost. Everyone is bringing something, so we’ll have plenty to eat.

In the last few years, we’ve had a new tradition come about. While some are watching football, a group of us have enjoyed playing board and card games.

And I suppose to sum all of this up, I’m truly blessed by having a big family.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you’ll share some of your Thanksgiving memories or your plans for this year. I’d love to read about them.

Marilyn

Answering the Question, How do You Do So Much?

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People ask me that question all the time, in person and online, and frankly, I don’t think I do nearly as much as some.

One reason people think I do a lot is because I post what I’m planning to do nearly every day on Facebook. I’m not doing this to impress people, but to make me do it.

I no longer have children at home (except my grown son who lives in our little house next door). I do have a huge family–one daughter, her hubby and daughter and hubby and three kids live close by so I see them a lot. Everyone else is in California but not that close. I do try to see everyone as much as possible.

And this is a biggie–I no longer do my own housework and haven’t for a long time. I pay someone to do it–over the years it has been different someone’s but usually a family member who needs the money. No, it’s not done how I would’ve done it back when I had time–but that was back when having a sparkling clean house meant something to me.

Cooking is something I still do because most of the time I enjoy it. When it seems like a chore, we go out to eat. I’m old, I figure at this stage in life I deserve it. I’ve probably cooked a million plus meals over the years having raised 5 kids, always having company over, living in and running a facility for 6 developmentally disabled women, nearly always being the one to cook the holiday meals, etc.

When it comes to writing, I try to do that first thing in the morning. The problem I’m finding these days, is that I really need to do most everything in the morning–especially shopping. I just poop out to quickly in the afternoon. Sometimes my writing has to wait.

I have a new Deputy Tempe Crabtree books soon to come out, Spirit Shapes, just sent in the final edits, and have been busily planning both a blog tour for October and a lot of in-person events that same month. Should be interesting to see how well I hold up and if I can get any writing done.

My next Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel is done, but I’m still reading it to my critique group. Then it will have to be edited before I send it to the publisher. And it’s time I started the next Tempe mystery. I have some ideas but have yet to type Chapter One.

To be honest, I’ve been promoting some books that have just gone up on Kindle and that’s taken some of my time. I also had to read and judge some books for a contest. Have one more to go. And I don’t have to do that in the morning.

One thing I’ve noticed is that it takes me longer to read the books I’m reading for fun. I used to read at least a book a week–no longer.  Hubby and I like to go to the movies–and we usually do that early in the day too.

And one last reveal…I often go to bed at 8 p.m. (the only time I don’t is when Dancing with the Stars is on) and I get up around 4:15 and 4:30 every day.

So there is the answer to the question–and I think the short version is I don’t really do nearly as much as I’d like to.

Marilyn

http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Feast-ebook/dp/B00E8K05WQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1378042986&sr=1-1&keywords=Deadly+Feast

This is one of the older books that is now on Kindle–and began life as a Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, but I realized it really wasn’t Tempe and changed the characters and the setting a bit. And for Kindle and the other e-book formats, I updated it too.

What I’ve Been Up to in the Writing World

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I’m a great believe in not putting all of your eggs in one basket. This belief comes from experience. I’ve had two publishers die, three close their doors, dealt with three crooked publishers, had agents who did nothing and I truly mean nothing (when I asked to see rejection letters was given one after 4 years of my thinking the agent was busily working for me).

Because of that past history, at the moment I have three publishers.

My Rocky Bluff P.D. series is published by Oak Tree Press, a small independent publisher. The latest book in that series is Dangerous Impulses. I’ve already written the next one and my critique group is hearing it (and critiquing it) chapter by chapter. Next I’ll have it edited before I send it off.

My Deputy Tempe Crabtree series is published by Mundana Press, also an independent publisher, but much larger than OTP. The next book is called Spirit Shapes and should be available in early fall. I don’t have a cover yet–but I am busily working on a blog tour for October.

The previous book was called Raging Water. I’ll soon be planning the next one.

In the meantime, I’ve been rewriting and editing some older books for Kindle. No, I’m not doing them myself, just don’t have time right now. I’ve gone with a brand new ebook company for these. They approached me and I thought, heck why not.

The first one out, and only .99 is Deadly Feast. It had another life another a different title. That publisher is no longer in business and rights reverted back to me. None of that publisher’s books were on Kindle.
Deadly Feast is a mystery and began as a Deputy Tempe Crabtree tale–however when I was through, I knew it wasn’t Tempe so I changed the main character and the setting, but Tempe fans will recognize some similarities.

And then, I sent them what I call a YA Christian horror–Deeds of Darkness, and it now available for Kindle too. It is a very scarey tale and the young heroine is a Christian. This was written a long time ago, so I had some updating to do, but It was fun. Though the book does have witches in it who cause all kinds of havoc in the small town of Yokut Springs, the cover is more sensational than the content of the story.

It is a great story for Halloween.

And last, I am editing and updating yet another horror novel–this one for adults–with Christian overtones and really scary. It’s called Cup of Demons.

And that’s what I’ve been doing lately.

Marilyn

This is My Birthday Month

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This is going to be a really big birthday for me–I’ll be 80! I can’t believe it, I sure don’t feel 80. (Well, maybe physically. I don’t really look forward to flying anymore–and I can’t pick up some of my heavier greatgrands.) However, in my mind I still feel young.

Being honest though, how on earth could I have all these memories without living 80 years on this earth?

My childhood holds memories of World War II, scary stuff we saw on the newsreels at the movies, air raids where we kept blackout curtains over the windows and hid in an inner room with no windows and played board games by the light of a lantern, playing hide ‘n go seek with friends while our parents were at a block warden meeting, making poison with a girlfriend to poison the enemy when they came to shore and we would be child spies, telling everyone my sister was a princess from Europe we were keeping safe (poor kid thought she was adopted for awhile), not being able to get bubble gum.

Radio was the big nightly entertainment for a long time–and the best radio shows were on: Let’s Pretend on Saturdays (and I can still sing the commercial for Cream of Wheat), One Man’s Family on Sunday’s (and a friend of mine grew up playing a part on that show), and of course many great mysteries and scary shows: Inner Sanctum, The Shadow Knows, and much, more. I did my homework while listening to them. 

We were the first in our neighborhood to get a television because my dad made one from a Heath kit. My sister and I helped all night as he asked us to bring him this wire and that. We also helped hold guide wires when he installed a huge antenna on the roof–as did almost every kid in the neighborhood. We watched whatever was on the one channel–Beannie and Cecil (hand puppets), wrestling (my favorite wrestler was Argentine Rocca), roller derby–and frankly, that’s what I remember best from that time period. Of course the whole neighborhood came and watched with us. 

In sixth grade, I came down with rheumatic fever. In those days, you had to stay in bed for 6 weeks, so no school for me. My teacher brought me work to do. I graduated with my class and got all A’s on my report card.

We went to the movies almost every Friday night and it didn’t matter what was playing. Always two features, one a first class movie, the second a B movie, a newsreel, a cartoon, and of course a game played at intermission time where some lucky person won dishes. The B movies I remember were about gangsters and I had lots of nightmares about them.

I had my own little Philco radio and for some reason it picked up police calls. I wasn’t supposed to listen to them, but I often did long after I was supposed to be asleep. I heard the police calls when the Black Dahlia’s body was found–and what was said by the officers was graphic and detailed. In the night, I reached down and found what I though was a leg and screamed. My mom came in, turned on the light, and the leg belonged to my sister who had been frightened by what I’d been listening to and climbed onto the bottom of my bed.

And that’s only a small part of what I can remember–so I guess I have lived for nearly 80 years.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

My Writing Took a Back Seat

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The last two weeks have not been good for my writing at all. I’m about 1/3 into my next Rocky Bluff but many, many things have interfered with the writing.

I had to judge some manuscripts for a contest–and that was interesting. The first one I read was marvelous. Excellent writing, different plot and a joy to read. Second book was great too, some minor errors but not much. Then came the not-so-good–and one that’s was just plain awful.

I’ve judged a lot of books and unpubbed manuscripts over the years. Some of them make me wonder if they’ve ever read a book–or even the guidelines of how to format a manuscript. Did they look up words to make sure they used the right one for what they meant? Have they ever heard that an exclamation point after nearly every sentence doesn’t make things better? And elllipses covering every page–what’s that about?

Using every synonym in the dictionary for said and asked drives me crazy.  And boring dialogue that does nothing to move the story along.

And of course, the biggest problem so many new writers have, point-of-view. Head jumping from one character to another–and none of the characters have been developed enough to be more than a name.

Anyway, that took up lots of time. I had to decide which ones would win  and write something encouraging for each–and tell them what needed to be fixed.

And then family events came along. Not complaining about them because they were beautiful, heartwarming and fun. Grandson Nathan (youngest son’s oldest boy) married his love, Amanda, weekend before last.

This was a three day event in a beautiful mountain setting. Family and wedding party stayed in the lodge and cabins. We had a great time.

This past weekend, we headed to the coast for another grandson’s wedding: Gregg (youngest daughter’s middle son) and his love, Caitlin.

This was in a gorgeous garden in Montecito (Gregg’s uncle’s backyard). Beautiful wedding and like the one before, got to see lots of relatives. Loved every minute of both weddings and receptions.

Now it’s time to put my fanny in the seat and get to work on my own book.

Marilyn

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

Everything Has been on Hold Because–

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Our granddaughter, Jessi, her hubby Jerry, and their baby girl Aleena came to visit for a week. (Our pear tree is blooming in the background.)

Jessi lived with me and her grandpa off and one for most of her growing up years and for a short while after she and Jerry married. Then they moved to North Carolina because Jerry got a great job there.  Needless to say we spent as much time with her as possible while she was here.

Here she is with her dad, Matthew, our youngest son. He is recovering well from his near-death experience and this visit helped a lot.

Aleena at Lake Success, near our home.

This one is Jessi with her brother, Nick, and Aleena and his two kids, Julius and Kay’Lee.

And this one is with Jessi and her grandpa (my hubby, of course.)

Sadly, they left Sunday afternoon and now it’s time for me to get back to work.

Marilyn

I Miss the Elegance of the Oscar Ceremonies of Old

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When did the powers that be decide that crass and obnoxious should be be the theme of the Oscars?

Needless to say I was not impressed with the young man who was chosen to be the master of ceremonies this year. I don’t enjoy people being made fun of–and even though the audience laughed, I’m not sure they did either.

I miss the David Niven kind of host who can be sophisticated even when a streaker ran across the stage. Surely we still have some of those celebrities in Hollywood.

The female stars did look elegant in their beautiful gowns. Those who won were gracious in their thank-yous. And there was some marvelous entertainment. I loved Les Miserables, the movie, and the presentation at the Oscars was wonderful. And how great it was to see and hear Barbra Streisand and her wonderful voice.

I had to chuckle at Daniel Day Lewis’s comment about all the different men his wife has had to live with when he’s playing a role. Years ago, my husband was in community theater and he stayed in his role through the duration of he play. I lived with a gangster, a detective, a black man (hubby was in A Member of the Wedding playing a part none of the blacks would play because it was too Uncle Tom), and he placed a Chief in the Navy in Mr. Roberts when he was a Chief in the Navy. The easiest of these men to live with since it was type casting. He even wore his real uniform.

I love the Oscars even when I’m critical of the hosts or actors who have to throw in political comments.

My father worked for Paramount Studios when it was one of the top studios. He was a master plumber and as such got to know many of the stars. There were only a few he respected because of their lack of morals and kindness towards others. Besides finding and fixing broken pipes and other such problems, he often had to figure out how to make something that involved water could work in a movie. He knew exactly how things worked and when we were at the movies pointed out things like vapor trails in the sky that shouldn’t be there, telephone poles before telephones, painted backgrounds, toy trains instead of real ones, an ocean scene that was done in a tank on the back lot. Of course filming on location and computers have changed all that.

We always watched the Oscars as a family once they were on television. My dad told us his opinion of each star as they appeared. My sister and I loved it. He made us feel like insiders.

I liked the winners this time. I loved Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of Lincoln.

What was fascinating about Argo is that though everyone knew it was going to end well, it didn’t keep our hearts from beating faster and wanting to urge them to hurry as they headed for the grand escape–and that’s what made Argo Oscar worthy.

What was your opinion of the Oscars this year?

Marilyn 

Christmas Past

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I’ve celebrated a lot of Christmases. As a child, we had great ones despite my parents not having much money. My sister and I always had surprises when we woke on Christmas morning. Some of my favorites were a two story doll house built by my dad with furniture my aunt made. One year I received a Shirley Tempe doll with a carriage. (I broke the doll not long after Christmas, but that another story.) My dad made me a two-wheel bike during the war when no one could buy one. I always received books, which I managed to read before the day was over. Storybook dolls were also a wonderful present. When I got older, clothes and books were the presents I wanted.

With my own children, I tried to carry on some of the same gift giving habits–even making some items. Hubby built a Barbie doll house for our oldest daughter and I made the furniture. When the kids were little I only worked off and on–but usually before Christmas so I could pay for the presents.

When we lived in Oxnard and my folks were still in L.A. and the kids were small, we often spent Christmas at Grandma’s house–doing things much like we’d done when I was a kid.

One Christmas I wasn’t around for the gift opening because I had to work an early a.m. shift for the phone company. That was not fun.

When my family grew and grew, we had Christmas at home and I cooked the Christmas dinner.

Kids grew up, got married and for awhile we managed to have a Christmas celebration at either my house or my sisters with our combined families. Eventually there were way too many of us.

As time went on, and grand kids and great-grandkids arrived, each family started their own tradition.

For the last few years, we’ve had Christmas Eve dinner for a few of the grandkids who wanted to come with a present exchange. On Christmas morning, we headed over to the daughter’s who lives nearby and watched her grandkids unwrap givfts.

This year, I think hubby and I will go to the movies on Christmas Day, something we’ve never done before.

What this all proves, is nothing stays the same.

We will enjoy our Christmas no matter what. I’m thankful we’ve had the blessing of so many past Christmases.

I wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season no matter what or how you celebrate, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Marilyn