IT’S HARD TO SAY GOODBYE

Today, my dear friend, Marilyn Meredith (F.M. Meredith), writes about ending her long-running Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series. I have been privileged to edit not only this great series but also her other books. She is a wonderful mystery writer.

If you haven’t yet discovered her books, pick one up. (All books in this series as well as her Deputy Tempe Crabtree series can be read out-of-sequence.)

It's hard to say goodbye.

In this case, it’s saying goodbye to all the folks in Rocky Bluff. Reversal of Fortune, number 17, is the last in this mystery series.

Believe me, it was a hard decision to make, but I had multiple reasons. The first one being police procedure has grown far beyond what I’m capable of writing. Yes, Rocky Bluff is a small town, and the police department is woefully understaffed and underpaid. This has been a good excuse to have a lot of work done in a bigger city. In my mind, I see changes coming in the form of higher salaries and more man (and woman) power.

Another reason is I’m moving along in years and have slowed down quite a bit. Though my characters haven’t aged as fast as I have, I felt it was time to wrap up some of the plot threads which have gone on for a while.

And lastly, it’s become harder and harder to come up with new crimes and plausible murder victims and motives.

It will definitely be hard to say goodbye to the characters I’ve created and grown fond of, including my two detectives: Doug Milligan and Felix Zachary and their families. And of course, there is Officer Gordon Butler, a reader favorite. He’s probably the character who has changed the most over the years, going from a by-the-book cop, who nevertheless, stumbled along in so many areas. His love life was always troubled, too, until he met the woman who becomes his wife.

There are also many folks who have appeared from time to time over the years, sometimes playing bigger roles in what goes on in Rocky Bluff in some books than others. In my mind, each and every one is as real to me as the people I’ve been friends with in my ordinary life.

I’m going to miss the folks who live in Rocky Bluff, the good ones and the ones who aren’t so good.

F.M. Meredith will now go back to being Marilyn Meredith.

To see what happens in the final Rocky Bluff mystery check out Reversal of Fortune.

A fortune teller is murdered in the small beach town of Rocky Bluff, California. The RBPD’s investigation uncovers several suspects—all with motives and opportunity. But which one killed her?

The body of a suspect is discovered on the fortune teller’s property. Clearly, the two killings are related, but how? And who killed them?

Meanwhile, the mayor’s daughter, Kayla, whose best friend is Detective Doug Milligan’s daughter, is upset because her mother’s sister wants her to leave Rocky Bluff to live with her in Los Angeles. Can her friends convince Kayla’s aunt to leave her there with her father?

F.M. Meredith, more commonly known as Marilyn, is the author of over 40 books, mostly mysteries including the popular Tempe Crabtree series. She is a member of two chapters of Sisters in Crime and Public Safety Writers Association. She lives with her husband in the foothills of the Southern Sierra.

Check out her F.M. Meredith page on Amazon as well as her Marilyn Meredith page. And find her book page on Facebook.

Writing About Pandemic

Today my friend and one of my favorite authors, Marilyn Meredith, and I talk about writing about the pandemic.

 

Lorna: My latest book, Romance in the Time of Social Distancing: A COVID-19 Short Story, began as most of my books do with a question: How can single people meet during a pandemic? What made you decide to include the coronavirus in your latest book, Not As We Knew It (Rocky Bluff P.D. Mysteries Book 16)?

 

Marilyn: I could not write the next Rocky Bluff P.D. story without including the virus and what is going on in their community because of it since the books are more-or-less in real time.

 

Lorna: There are lots of different approaches to working during the virus. My single characters work from home. How do your characters deal with work? Do they have to make accommodations? Many are police officers, so most of them can’t work from home can they?

 

Marilyn: My grandson is a police officer, and on a recent visit, I asked him what the rules were concerning his department (big city). He said everyone has to wear a mask. And of course, being in law enforcement, the cops are out in the community. He also told me since it was my department, I could do what I wanted. One of the officer’s wives is a teacher, and of course she is teaching from home, via Zoom.

 

Lorna: You have lots of characters in your books. I don’t have very many. I decided not to include the various views about the recommendations to remain isolated. My character’s sister has decided to have some fun while in isolation by having virtual cocktail parties. How did you decide to present the different attitudes about remaining separate and wearing masks?

 

Marilyn: While writing, I used all the many different feelings and attitudes I hear from my relatives and friends concerning masks and isolation. Believe me, they are all very different. I have one friend who has remained completely isolated except for family members who live on the same property. Another includes family members who wear masks when out in public but go about their business much the same as always.

 

Lorna: My characters remain separated and online, so none of them are exposed, but I know you decided to have one of your characters catch the virus. How did you decide which one and what the outcome would be?

 

Marilyn: Someone I know caught the virus, was hospitalized, and recovered. I contacted her, and she gave me the details. I used what she told me in the story. I chose the person who I thought might be most vulnerable to be a virus victim.

 

Lorna: Other than staying isolated, none of my characters is otherwise affected by the disease. You have one character who is a nurse, so she is well aware of the issues with it. How did you decide to deal with her extreme concern for her family and friends?

 

Marilyn: I have a lot of relatives. Two granddaughters are nurses. Of course, I talked to them and used what I learned in the story.

 

Lorna: My book is a romance, and it is short (actually, a long story or short novella). Yours is a full-length mystery. What do you think are the differences, advantages, disadvantages of the two genres when writing about something as impactful as a pandemic?

 

Marilyn: To be honest, I could have gotten even more detailed about the pandemic, but I didn’t want to depress my readers. I think I did a pretty good job of keeping things upbeat. I wanted people to enjoy reading what was going on with the folks who live in Rocky Bluff, the police officers, and their families.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share. As you know, I adore all your books and had the privilege of editing them—including Not As We Knew It (Rocky Bluff P.D. Mysteries Book 16).

Marilyn: And I want to thank you for all you’ve done for this series.

 

My latest book is Romance in the Time of Social Distancing: A COVID-19 Short Story.

How can two people meet when they are both stuck at home? How can romance bloom when folks are separated? Love always finds a way, but it isn't always easy.

 

Marilyn’s latest book is Not As We Knew It (Rocky Bluff P.D. Mysteries Book 16).

The challenges come one after another for the Rocky Bluff P.D. to handle―from a missing woman to a fatal house fire. Detective Doug Milligan is faced with new and unusual problems to solve, some on the job and others related to his family. Gordon Butler isn’t too happy that his wife was chosen to train the latest new-hire. With the department shorthanded, Chief Chandra Taylor must make some hard decisions in order to protect the town of Rocky Bluff. Her romance with the mayor, which had been put on hold, is refreshed when she seeks his help.

MARILYN MEREDITH is the author of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series and the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series (under the name, F. M. Meredith). She has also written several stand-alone novels, and other books.

She and her husband live in the foothills of the Sierra, much like the place where her heroine, Tempe Crabtree, lives. She once lived in a beach community, which resembles Rocky Bluff.

She loves to hear from readers who have enjoyed her books.

Visit her webpage at http://fictionforyou.com, and follow her blog at https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

 

REPUBLISHING ACHES AND PAINS

This week, my dear friend, Marilyn Meredith, writes about the republishing process. In the past several years, she has now republished almost all of her books as self-published.

It all began when my good friend, Lorna, urged me to self-publish the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series. She and her husband had already done the same for my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series when the publisher closed its doors. Lorna and I both re-edited every book in the series, and her husband, Larry, redid the new covers for publication. And of course, Lorna did the actual job of putting the books on Amazon as trade paperback and for Kindle.

When the publisher of the RBPD series passed away, another publisher picked up the authors’ books, including mine. However, I had so many, the republishing process was slow. I’d already experienced the advantage of the Crabtree series being self-published because of my ability to actually see what books were being purchased, and if the promotion of a particular book worked.

As with the other series, the process began with Lorna editing each book and then my going over it, too. This was an eye-opener. These books had first been heard and critiqued by my writers’ group, re-edited by me, edited by the first publisher, then the second publisher, but Lorna discovered many mistakes, and then, I went through them, too. Not only did I find more mistakes like simple typos, but also character’s name changes, and a few discrepancies. Despite all that work, I’m sure we still missed some errors.

Larry redid all the covers, each one in a different color, with a wonderful RBPD badge on each one. An entire set of the books creates a wonderful rainbow.

The whole series is now available on Amazon.

This may sound easy, but it was a lot of work. At times, I wondered if it would be worth it—and I’ll bet there were moments when Lorna wished she hadn’t urged me to switch to self-publishing.

I must say, I wasn’t up to doing this myself. I’m at a stage in life where I have trouble learning how to do new things. None of this would have happened without Lorna’s and Larry’s expertise, and I’m forever grateful.

If you’d like to start at the beginning of the series, here’s the link to Final Respects:

https://tinyurl.com/y8ggfa4r

However, each book is written as a stand-alone. There are continuing characters, but the crime or crimes are solved by the end of the book.

One of my favorites is Murder in the Worst Degree.

https://tinyurl.com/yagpv3hq  The Kindle version of this book will be FREE from today, July 24, through the 28th. If you downloaded the old version, you may want to try this one. See if you can find any differences.

Marilyn writes the RBPD series as F. M. Meredith. She is the author of over forty published books. She lived for over twenty years in a beach town with many similarities to Rocky Bluff. She’s a member of two chapters of Sisters in Crime, Public Safety Writers Association and other writers’ groups.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

Guest Blogger - Marilyn Meredith

Today my dear friend and favorite mystery writer, Marilyn Meredith, is my guest. We met at EPICon in San Antonio, Texas in 2006 when our first book, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park was one of two nonfiction finalists. We arrived a day early. The gal who was supposed to be in charge of the book room had emergency surgery, so they asked for volunteers. This was where Larry and I met Marilyn and her husband, Hap. We hit it off right away and spent several hours getting to know them. We attended other EPICons in Portland, OR, Las Vegas, NV, and a couple of others in San Antonio in addition to the ones Marilyn mentions below. When our mutual publisher died, Larry and I re-edited an republished twelve of Marilyn's books--including a couple she had forgotten about (like her cookbook). When the publisher of her Deputy Tempe Crabtree series closed its doors this summer, we again re-edited and re-published all new editions. She now owns them all and will never lose her rights again. She and Hap are very dear friends, and I am pleased to have her here as my guest.

FRIENDSHIPS

Today is my 68^th wedding anniversary. If you find that hard to believe, so do I. My husband has not only been the love of my life, he’s also been my best friend. We’ve been through all sorts of problems and wonderful experiences. The secret to the longevity of our marriage? Never giving up.

Today, I want to expound on another friendship, the one I have with the hostess of this blog, Lorna Collins. I have no idea how long we’ve been friends but I have some great memories shared with her and her husband.

An early one was at an EPICon in Virginia Beach in the dead of winter. We were in a great resort hotel with no one there but the members of our group.

Many of our times together were spent at EPICons, and I remember two special ones in San Antonio Texas, as well as in Oklahoma and other places. We had a wonderful time in Monterey for a Left Coast Crime.

However, my favorite memory is when my husband and I traveled to visit Lorna and her husband, Larry, at their home in Dana Point. It was a most special time.

Lorna and her husband are the ones who rescued my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series when the publishing house closed its doors. Lorna re-edited each one and put them up on Amazon, and her husband redid the covers.  I can’t thank them enough.

One other big link between Lorna and me is the fact that we celebrate our birthdays on the same day. Over the years, we’ve discovered we share many traits. Often I’ve called her my daughter from a different mother. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am to have a friend like Lorna.

In my latest book, Bones in the Attic, which Lorna edited for me, there are many important friendships—those between the police officers who work together, and the ongoing friendship of two teens, who both have seen trauma in their lives.

I bet Lorna can remember other places we’ve been together.

Marilyn

The discovery of a skeleton, a welfare check on a senior citizen, and a wildfire challenge the Rocky Bluff P.D.

Buy link: https://tinyurl.com/yxpd8mxy

Marilyn Meredith, who writes the RBPD mystery series as F.M. Meredith, is the author of over 40 published books. She once lived in a small beach town much like Rocky Bluff, and has many relatives and friends in law enforcement.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.meredith

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marilynmeredith/

And she’s a regular on these blogs:

2^nd and 4^th Tuesday: https://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/

4^th Monday of the month: https://ladiesofmystery.com/

Resurrection

In addition to my regular editing jobs, and trying to get back to my own writing, I have undertaken the task of helping my dear friend, Marilyn Meredith, self-publish new editions of all of her books with her former publisher, now defunct.

I started with her Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series. There are eighteen books in the series, including the most recent one, Spirit Wind. It had been scheduled for release several months before she was informed the publisher was going out of business.

Fortunately, the cover art had been produced and approved, and she had a copy.

I need to note here, Mundania Press, her former publisher, commissioned a brilliant artist, Niki Browning, to create all new covers for this series last year. They are GORGEOUS! Marilyn was fortunate in that Mundania gave her permission to use them.

Larry is creating the spines and back covers for these. They are a tremendous challenge because he has tried to replicate the mottled backgrounds so the covers flow seamlessly to wrap the book. He is doing a superb job!

We started with the new book because it needed to be available for purchase. Then I began the process of re-publishing the rest of the series.

Wingbeat had not been available for several years. Fortunately, Marilyn had her final draft and the new cover. It is now available, too.

Next, she wanted one of her personal favorites, Seldom Traveled, done. She wants to do some promotion using this one, so I put it at the top of my list.

This one posed a particular challenge for Larry since the cover file we received contained some additional text—behind the title! He had his work cut out to remove it, but he did.

Next, we tackled Intervention. Copies of previous editions were available—with the older cover—but none with the new one. I love the stylized great blue heron on this one.

At Marilyn’s request, we took on A Cold Death next. This was the last book published by her former publisher. (She writes two different series and creates a new title in each series every year.) The spine was a particular challenge for Larry, but it looks seamless—and beautiful.

Now, I am working on the first two: Deadly Trail (the prequel to the series) and Deadly Omen. 

Since the editing on this series was very inconsistent, I have re-edited and re-formatted all of the interiors. I have also tried to standardize the fonts and overall look so they feel like a coordinated set. Fortunately, Marilyn has always written well, so her edits go pretty quickly. (I spend a couple of days on each one.)

We’re making great progress, and Larry is keeping up with the print covers. I can’t wait to see the whole series on a bookshelf with all the books in the same format (trade paperback) with the coordinated covers.

Many thanks to Mundania Press (especially Dan Reitz) for allowing Marilyn to use all of the artwork and responding so quickly to the requests we’ve made, and to Niki Browning for her extraordinary talent. Her covers make the series come alive.

Still a lot of work to do, but I am excited about being able to help my dear friend and favorite mystery writer make this complete series available for the foreseeable future.

Marilyn Meredith - Tangled Webs

Today I host my good friend, Marilyn Meredith. She writes two different mystery series. Today, she will tell you about her long publishing journey with her Rocky Bluff PD series. Welcome back, Marilyn.

A Sane Person Would Have Given Up

Yes, I’ve had that thought many times as I’ve lost one small publisher after another, but I’m one of those “never-give up” people.

I’m going to tell you about my publishers for the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. It all began when a few people were talking about electronic publishing. I’d written Final Respects and was trying to find a publisher for it. During that time period, authors perused the large book of publishers put out by Writers Digest. It’s where I found a publisher looking for police procedurals, and my mystery was accepted. But—this publisher was only going to publish it in electronic form. I accepted the contract. The book looked great, but it had to be read on a computer, and the process to buy a copy was difficult. The publisher failed.

Time passed, and the Rocket eBook reader came on the scene. The next publisher I approached with the book did paper and ebooks. He published Final Respects and Bad Tidings, and though I knew books were sold, no royalties came my way until I complained. We parted company.

A publisher recommended by a friend accepted the next two books in the series, Fringe Benefits and Smell of Death, and did a bang-up job producing paper and ebooks but decided publishing was not what she wanted to do.

I met Billie Johnson, the publisher for Oak Tree Press. We became good friends, and she took on the next books in the series. The books looked great, I received royalties, and we were both happy for a long time. Then something unexpected and terribly sad happened: the publisher had a stroke, and the company could no longer continue.

What now? Mike Orenduff of Aakenbaaken and Kent is in the process of republishing all the books in the series. The latest is Tangled Webs. I am delighted to be with this new company.

As an aside, some of my stand-alone books were also published by Oak Tree Press. My host for today, Lorna Collins, who is also a dear friend, volunteered to edit and publish them on Amazon for me. I’m so grateful to her for doing such a huge job for me.

Am I bit crazy for not giving up? Maybe, but I don’t think so.

You can purchase Tangled Webs here: https://tinyurl.com/yabj9z9f

Too many people are telling lies: The husband of the murder victim and his secretary, the victim’s boss and co-workers in the day care center, her stalker, and Detective Milligan’s daughter.

Marilyn Meredith writes the RBPD series as F. M. Meredith. She once lived in a beach town much like Rocky Bluff and has many friends and relatives in law enforcement. She’s a member of MWA, 3 chapters of Sisters in Crime, and serves on the PSWA Board.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Facebook: Marilyn Meredith

Twitter: @marilynmeredith

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about speaking engagements: https://www.susantuttlewriter.com/