Tag Archive for: Oxnard

Erle Stanley Gardner’s Influence on Me

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Erle Stanley Gardner

Author Erle Stanley Gardner’s first book was published the year I was born. I didn’t bother to count how many books (many) or short stories (hundred plus) have been published, but there were a bunch.

When I was a kid, I went to the Lux Radio Theater to see the Perry Mason radio show being broadcast and got the autographs of all the stars.

A lawyer by profession, Gardner had an active practice in Ventura for many years. I began reading Gardner’s mysteries when I was a young mother living in Oxnard–where some of his tales were set.
I’m not sure if I started reading him because of the Perry Mason radio plays or the TV series, but both were my favorite shows for the entire time they were on.

Raymond Burr as Perry Mason

When I was in labor with my third child, much to my husband’s dismay, I wouldn’t go to the hospital until the Perry Mason episode I was watching was over.

I’ve visited Gardner’s law office and the Ventura coutrhouse where he defended his clients.

I participated in an Erle Stanley Gardner weekend in Temecula, where I learned he owned and lived on a large ranch until his death. He wrote many books while living there, four at a time. He had four secretaries he dicated too. (One he was romantically involved with.) During that Gardner weekend, I met three of those secretaries who had many intriguing tales to relate about the author.

Gardner took all of his friends (most lived on the ranch with him) on many camping trips, many into Mexico. He even wrote while he was off on these adventures.

No, I don’t write anything like Erle Stanley Gardner, but I think I did learn one big thing from him, a writer never really takes a vacation from his/her writing.

What about you other writers out there? Is there an author who has really influenced you?

Marilyn

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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One of my fondest memories is the one and only time I was in New York and while searching for a place to eat, came upon four rather inebriated Irishmen singing outside an Irish pub. Of course that’s where we chose to eat–great food and all the wait staff was Irish with wonderful Irish accents. On that same trip, an Irish conductor rescued me when I dumped my luggage when I was trying to get on the train. He scooped everything up and settled me in my seat. When I arrived at the D.C. train station, he had a cart waiting to deliver me and my friend to the taxi he’d called ahead for us. He also had a wonderful accent.

I’ve been really busy the last few days–gave a talk at a library. Fun and great crowd. While there, the librarian downloaded one of by books on his Kindle, took about 20 seconds. This weekend, we went to Camarillo and Oxnard (CA) to visit my youngest daughter and family, then the eldest and her husband. On Sunday, we had a booth at the Celebration of the Whales (I was the only author–that seems to work well), sold a lot of books, talked to many folks, and handed out lots of cards.) Great weekend–but tiring.

Marilyn
a.k.a. F. M. Meredith
http://valleygirlmusings.blogspot.com/ today’s stop on my blog tour–much easier than the physical stuff I do.

Charles Manson

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Probably one of the scariest men still alive is Charlie Manson who is spending his retirement years in Corcoran prison–not too far from where I’m living now.

Back when my family and I lived in Oxnard CA, Charlie was up in the hills with a bunch of young people. This was in the 60s during a time of major drug use. What’s so frightening about all this is at the time, is Charlie had complete control of these young people. They began by entering people’s homes and crawling around on the floor, even in bedrooms while people were sleeping.

This same bunch came into Oxnard to get food out of the garbage bins behind the grocery stores.

Of course, they went on to kill movie star Sharon Tate and four other people who were in their home and a couple named Bianco. They wrote words like PIG on the walls using the victims’ blood. The book, Helter Skelter, which was also made into a movie, tells all about what these sickos did.

Charlie and his followers holed up out on the desert, and after all these many years, the authorities are checking to see if there might be some bodies buried around their hideout.

There’s no doubt that Manson is crazy. What is hard to understand though, is why these young people were so mesmerized by him to the point of killing people by his direction.

Needless to say, while all this was going on, finding out that Charlie’s bunch had been living only a few miles away, certainly gave us the heebie-jeebies.

All sorts of weird things happened while we lived in that house in Oxnard. My husband spent three tours in Vietnam with the Seabees, and one New Years Eve while he was gone once, I babysat all the neighborhood kids along with my own five. Everyone was in the living room except for my three-year old son who was sleeping. All of a sudden he came running, “Mommy, a man is in my bedroom!” I grabbed a baseball bat and went charging into the bedroom, hollering, “I’m going to get you,” and arrived in time to see a man disappear out the sliding glass door. Don’t think I slept at all that night.

Whether that had anything to do with the Manson bunch I have no idea – but it was during the right time period.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com

Weather and Other Items of Interest … or Not

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Hubby and I just returned from the Central Coast (California) community of Arroyo Grande. The weather was wonderful! Sunny and gorgeous. As we drove down the coast, the ocean sparkled. People who want to visit California beaches would be smart to go in February when the weather is often sunny as can be. In the summer, often the fog rolls in, making it chilly.

The weather was quite a contrast to the previous weekend when we were in snowy Chicago. We loved that too, though. In fact, I thanked the organizers of Love is Murder, our reason for being there, for having such a lovely snow storm for our entertainment.

The reason we were in Arroyo Grande was for me to participate with the Central Coast chapter of Sisters in Crime in a library presentation–which I did, of course. I’m always up for talking about my books and meeting new people. A chance to go to the coast was a huge incentive. We used to live in Oxnard (which is near Ventura) about one mile from the beach, and frankly, I miss the proximity to the ocean.

It was in Oxnard that I first became interested in writing about law enforcement. Our first house was in a neighborhood with police officers, firemen, and Navy personnel and their families. We partied and had coffee with our neighbors and got to know them all very well. Years later, my youngest daughter married a police officer who loved to tell me stories about what happened on his shift–he even took me on a tour of the police station and on a rather scary ride-along.

In my Rocky Bluff series (much darker than my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series), I’ve drawn quite a bit on my experiences from the days I hung out with those policemen and their families. If you’re interested, here’s a video about the latest book, Smell of Death,

http://au.youtube.com:80/watch?v=B1Q_1YJe2XQ

And to bring this back around to the beach, the Rocky Bluff series is set in a fictional beach community somewhere on the coast between Ventura and Santa Barbara–with some resemblance to Oxnard back in the time when I lived there.

Traveling around to promote books is fun, though not at all profitable. What I truly like best is meeting new people and my travels have been a great way to do it.

Now, back to working on my income taxes. Ugh!

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com