A New Book by Marilyn Meredith

My guest today is my prolific friend, mystery writer Marilyn Meredith. She produces two books every year, one each for two different series. I don’t know how she does it. And they are all TERRIFIC!

After Writing So Many Books, Where Do I Get My Inspiration?

That is the question Lorna asked me to answer. What first popped into mind was this: I haven't got a clue.

Usually when I finish a book in my other series, I'm already thinking about what I might write about in the new one for the next series.

With River Spirits, I had no idea what I was going to write at first. I remembered once when a movie was being made in the mountains and the crew and stars were staying in and around town. The major stars were housed at the Springville Inn. When we had dinner at the local Mexican Inn, it wasn't hard to pick out the folks who were working on the movie—besides being strangers, they had on new clothes that they thought people wore in the mountains. Brand new outdoors outfits from places like Lands’ End and J. Crew, instead of normal clothes like all the rest of us wore.

That gave me the idea to write about a movie being made on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation. Once I started writing notes (my version of brainstorming) I knew that I wanted to revisit the legend of the Hairy Man, the local Indians' version of Big Foot.

Because I write mysteries, I began to figure out which of the new characters I should kill off and why. What could this person be guilty of that would be enough of a motive for someone to want him or her dead?

One idea just builds on another until a plot begins to develop.

Marilyn

Blurb for River Spirits:

While filming a movie on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, the film crew trespasses on sacred ground, threats are made against the female stars, a missing woman is found by the Hairy Man, an actor is murdered and Deputy Tempe Crabtree has no idea who is guilty. Once again, the elusive and legendary Hairy Man plays an important role in this newest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over thirty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest River Spirits from Mundania Press. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

  

Contest: The winner will be the person who comments on the most blog posts during the tour.

He or she can either have a character in my next book named after them, or choose an earlier book in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series—either a paper book or e-book.

Tomorrow you can find me hanging out at Mason Canyon’s place, http://masoncanyon.blogspot.com/