WITH A LOT OF HELP FROM A FRIEND

My guest this week is my favorite mystery writer and good friend Marilyn Meredith. She has a brand-new book in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series called End of the Trail. She’ll tell you all about it.

My latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, End of the Trail, is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. The friend who made it possible was none other than my host for today, Lorna Collins, who did the editing and publishing. A big thank you to her and her hubby, Larry, who designed the cover.

When I started writing this book, I had lots of ideas of how it should unfold. However, when the coronavirus struck, it became harder and harder for me to write. I had plenty of time but lacked motivation. Not because I was worried about getting the sickness, but because the venues where I had planned to promote this book and others started to cancel their events.

The best part of any writing conference, or other such gathering, is seeing old friends and making new ones. The first event canceled was writing conference put on by Writers of Kern. Bakersfield is an easy drive, they had some great speakers lined up, and I paid for a table to have my books on display. It was scheduled for March.

The second event to go was a conference put on by the Central Coast chapter of Sisters in Crime. Because I’d already made hotel reservations, they offered me the opportunity to be their guest speaker at their regular meeting which they planned to hold the same day. When their meeting place, a library, closed, that was the end of that.

I’ve already received notice a book fair I’ve attended regularly scheduled in October will not be happening this year.

I’m still hoping other upcoming events written in on my calendar will go ahead as planned.

So, I guess disappointment was my biggest hurdle to finishing End of the Trail. Encouragement came from Lorna as I sent her the manuscript, which certainly helped.

Now that it’s published and available in paperback and for Kindle, I will find other ways to promote it.

Here’s a short blurb:

Deputy Tempe Crabtree joins the search for a missing hiker which results in a murder investigation, a near death experience, an unexpected rescue, and an unhappy ghost.

An important P.S.: Lorna Collins, the ghost hunter, makes an appearance in The End of the Trail.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over forty published books. She lives in a mountain community, much like Bear Creek, the one where Deputy Tempe Crabtree is the resident deputy. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys being with her family.

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.