Tag Archive for: The Hairy Man

Some Tidbits About My Latest Book

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For the entire month of October I was on a virtual book tour where I jumped from blog to blog every day except on the weekends.

Though easier than a regular book tour in that I didn’t have to dress up and drive off to various book stores, I did have to spend a lot of time on the computer writing about Dispel the Mist and answering interview questions.

I probably had more fun writing Dispel the Mist the any of my other Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries. In every one of the books in this series there are always Native American elements both mystical and real. This latest book was conceived after I learned about the legend of the Hairy Man. The Tule River Indian Reservation is very near where I live. When I learned the Indians not only had a legend about a Hairy Man, there also was an ancient pictograph of him and his family in a rock shelter called The Painted Rock.

Once I started asking questions about the Painted Rock site I was invited to go on a field trip with the local anthropology class and take a look at the Hairy Man. It isn’t ever going to be a tourist attraction. The rock shelter is a huge boulder with other boulders piled ontop making the cave where this painting and many others are located on the rock surfaces. It is very difficult getting down the boulder to enter the cave like entrance. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the much younger college students who helped me down, I’d have never made it.

The paintings, though faded, are still quite discernible despite the fact they are thought to be between 500 and a 1000 years old. I was definitely inspired at that moment.

The Hairy Man has an important place in Dispel the Mist. The story centers on the suspicious death of a popular county supervisor who has roots in both the Indian and the Hispanic communities. There is controversy over a hotel complex the Indians want to build alongside the highway and a licensed group home for developmentally disabled women in an up-scale neighborhood.

Tempe is haunted by unsettling dreams that may or may not be prophetic.

For a look at the Hairy Man on the Painted Rock, take a look at the book video for Dispel the Mist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmZhaJgHUxo

Marilyn

http://fictionforyou.com
http://www.mundaniapress.com

An Attempt to Think Up Something For My Turn on This Blog

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Everyone who posts on this blog comes up with such clever topic ideas. For some unknown reason, my mind has drawn a blank. Not that I’m ever that clever, but it does seem like something would pop into my mind.

Because I’m so embroiled in planning the promo for my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Dispel the Mist, that’s all I can think about. Though the manuscript has been through the editing process at my publishers, I’m now waiting on the galley proof to go over. For some reason, galley proofs never seem to arrive in a timely manner. With my very first book the galley arrived on a Friday with instruction to have them back by Monday. This was long before email and it was an impossibility to get them back that fast. I sent in my corrections, but the typos were all still there when the book came out.

Last year, I had a big book launch planned for Kindred Spirits, out of town and in a Bed and Breakfast with pre-sold tickets for a luncheon. I sweated bullets. I got the books about four days before I had to leave for the event.

With Dispel the Mist, I don’t have anything quite so lavish planned–though I do have events nearly every weekend and I’m hoping I’ll have books by then.

This is the way it is with every book I’ve written. I’m told when the book will be out, I make plans, then I go through the nerve wracking process of whether or not I’ll get the galleys, have enough time to proof (very necessary) and get them back for the whole printing process.

I’m truly eager for Dispel the Mist since one of the characters is the Hairy Man, an Indian legend who may or may not still be roaming the mountains above the Tule River Indian Reservation (Bear Creek Reservation in my books). The cover has a very realistic rendition of the pictograph of the Hairy Man on the Painted Rock on the reservation.

I had a great time writing this book and my heroine’s encounter with this legendary creature.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com