Tag Archive for: Violent Departures

Haunted Places in Real Life and in My Books

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Over the years I’ve had a fascination with haunted places and have stayed in a few.

The Queen Mary is supposed to be haunted–and has a tour with some special effects added. However, I once was there for a conference and many of the photographs taken during the awards ceremony showed that we’d been visited by tiny orbs of light. When I went down to my room after the ceremony and got off the elevator, nothing looked as it had before and I couldn’t find my room. I had to go to the center of the ship and come back–and then all was returned to normal. Something to do with the haunting? I have no idea, but it was definitely weird.

The historical  Menger Hotel in San Antonio is another place that’s haunted. No, I didn’t see any ghosts, but I may have heard one. While trying to sleep, someone kept knocking loudly on the door or another room, I finally poked my head out and though the knocking continued, no one could be seen.

The Bella Maggiore Inn in Ventura CA is another haunted spot–Room 17 in particular. Yes, we asked to stay there and were warned it was haunted. This old bed and breakfast was once a boarding house which you can tell. A previous time we stayed there, the room we had once had a Murphy Bed which is now the closet and the bathroom had obviously once been a kitchen.

The haunted room was much smaller–and our ghost didn’t show up. However, my daughter said that was because I was there–the ghost is supposed to be a prostitute and I guess hubby would have had to be alone to be visited. However, the whole place has the ambience of being haunted.

Then there’s the Santa Maria Inn. It has two parts, a modernized hotel on one side, then the old hotel where the movie stars once stayed. We’ve stayed there several times. In the old part, the rooms are small compared to what we’re used to today, but each one is different. No, didn’t see any ghosts, but it certainly seems like there might be one or two lurking just beyond the next corner of the long corridors.

No wonder I like to write about ghosts and haunted houses–and I’ve written quite a few.

My Deputy Tempe Crabtree series always has many ghosts and spirits. The only one about a haunted house is Spirit Shapes.

I even included a haunted house in my latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Violent Departures.

What about you? Have you ever visited a haunted place or encountered a ghost?

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Excuse my Split Personality by Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

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I suppose it all begins with having two names: Marilyn Meredith for my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries and F. M. Meredith for my Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries.

Violent Departures, #11 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series recently became available on Amazon as a print book and on Kindle. This means I’m in the throes of promotion.

I’m nearing the middle of my blog tour–which means promoting each new blog on as many sites as possible very day. I also must visit the blog several times during the day to respond to comments and also keep track of those who commented because of the contest I’m having. (The person commenting on the most blogs can either have a character named for him or her in the next book, or choose an earlier book in the series.)

At the same time, as I’m doing several in-person presentations, two this month at libraries and I’ll have a booth at the Jack Ass Mail Run in Springville near the end of the month.

I’m also planning to give a way a Kindle copy of the first book in this series, Final Respects, beginning May 1. Promotion for this type of giveaway must begin very early, so I’ve been working on that too.

And–yes–there’s an and–I’m writing the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, as yet untitled. It’s a much different type of book than Violent Departures, so when I’m working on that I must draw from a different side of me.

If that was all I had to do that would be a cinch–but I am a wife, run a household, am the chief cook and laundress, and have grandmotherly duties too. All important roles.

What I don’t do is housework–I find some relative who’d like to make some extra money to do that for me. And in the meantime, I’ve learned not to mind the mess.

Forgive me if I seem a bit scattered these days, but that’s the reason.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

My Latest Book by Marilyn aka F.M. Meredith

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Though I haven’t seen a copy yet, Violent Departures, the latest in my Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series is now available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Violent-Departures-Rocky-Bluff-P-D/dp/1610091817/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1426344244&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Violent+Departures+by+F.+M.+Meredith

Blurb for
Violent Departures:

College student, Veronica Randall,
disappears from her car in her own driveway, everyone in the Rocky Bluff P.D.
is looking for her. Detective Milligan and family move into a house that may be
haunted. Officer Butler is assigned to train a new hire and faces several major
challenges.



I am expecting copies and hope to have them by the time this blog post appears.


As always, I have events scheduled and hoping to have books available by them.


On line, I’ll be doing a blog tour, and here is where I’l be and what I wrote about the first week:

What’s Happening
with Gordon Butler?

            Introduction
to the Rocky Bluff P.D. Mystery Series

            My
Writing Process

            Research

 What’s Up Next?

The Importance
of Place

            Coming
Up With New Ideas for an Ongoing Series

Contest:
Because
it has been popular on my other blog tours, once again I’m offering the chance
for the person who comments on the most blog posts during this tour to have a
character named for him or her in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery.
Or
if that doesn’t appeal, the person may choose one of the earlier books in the
series—either a print book or Kindle copy.

For those of you who haven’t read one in this series, it isn’t necessary to start at the first one as I’ve written each as a stand-alone–whatever the crime is will be solved by the end. Yes, of course, the characters grow and change through out. This has been called a cozy police-procedural though it really doesn’t have the criteria for a cozy except that the setting is a small town and it is a bit milder than most police proceduarls as the members of the police department and their families are more tlike the men and women that I know.

Marilyn aka F.M. Meredith