WE SHARE A BIRTHDAY―AND MORE

 

Today my dear friend, Marilyn Meredith, shares everything we have in common.

Tomorrow, the 24^th of August, is Lorna’s birthday—and it is also mine. I’ve come to think of her as a close friend, almost as another daughter. We’ve known each other for a long, long time. The majority of time we’ve spent together has been at mystery conferences all over the country, for EPICon we’ve been to Virginia Beach, VA, Las Vegas, NV, Portland, OR two or three times, San Antonio TX three times, and New Orleans. [Possibly others.]

EPICon 2008 in Portland with Marilyn & Hap Meredith

My husband and I also spent a weekend with Lorna and her husband Larry in their beautiful home in Dana Point. While there, we did a book event with them at their church and one in their home to celebrate the launch of Larry and Lorna’s mystery novel.

The more often we’ve been together, the more similarities we’ve noted. We like many of the same things. Of course, we are also different in many ways, but when we’re together it’s like we’ve known each other forever.

For obvious reasons, we haven’t seen each other in person the last couple of years. However, we’ve spent a lot of time together through emails. Lorna convinced me to become self-published, though I knew I couldn’t do it myself. She offered to help—which meant she became my editor and did all the work of publishing my books on Amazon. Her husband, Larry, did the covers—even redesigning the ones for the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, and creating the last few of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series including the latest, The Trash Harem. The cover is perfect for the story and fits in with the other covers.

The development of The Trash Harem didn’t come easily. Because of the pandemic, I couldn’t meet with my critique group, who have always been my first editors. I reached out to a librarian friend who’d once offered to look for typos in a manuscript. He did and found several errors. When I finally thought it was ready, after going through it several times, I sent it off to Lorna.

She’s a wonder. Not only did she find the usual kinds of errors, she also had questions about some of the plot threads. Changes needed to be made, and I was thankful for her input. More work was done, and another edit by Lorna. Finally, we had a manuscript ready to go.

Making the move to self-publishing was a big step, but also a positive one that wouldn’t have happened without the wonderful help of Lorna and Larry. I thank both of them with my whole heart.

ABOUT THE TRASH HAREM

Deputy Tempe Crabtree has retired from her job in Bear Creek when friends, who once lived in Bear Creek and attended Pastor Hutch’s church, ask her to visit them in Temecula. The husband, Jonathan, is a suspect in what might be a murder case. The retirement community includes many interesting characters, any of whom might have had a better motive than Jonathan. There is also a connection to Earle Stanley Gardner as well as the Pechanga Old Oak. What is a trash harem? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

The Trash Harem is available in ebook and paperback on Amazon.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over 40 published books including the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, and writing as F. M. Meredith, the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. She’s a member of two chapters of Sisters in Crime and the Public Safety Writers Association.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

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

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.

The Cookbooks

I have been fortunate to have been involved in the publication of three cookbooks through the years.

The first was in 1996 when Community Presbyterian Church of San Juan Capistrano decided to collect members’ favorite recipes as a fundraiser for the Friends of Music. The result was The Gift of Christmas.

My friend, Anne Larson and I copied, standardized, and edited the recipes, and then Larry did the layout in a now-obsolete publishing program. The completed book was printed at a local copy shop and spiral bound. Margaret Stephenson, whose idea this was, designed the cover. This book contained not only some of my recipes, but also those of my mother, grandmother, and mother-in-love. Many of them were favorites at church dinners and potlucks.

In 2015, friends asked if we had any copies. We re-published it in both Kindle and print forms as a fundraiser for the church preschool and kindergarten. It is available on Amazon and other online sellers as well as through the church office.

The second cookbook came about when my friend and fellow author, Ilene Schneider, suggested creating a cookbook of the recipes featured in our books published by Oak Tree Press. The book included author photos and information about our books.

It languished for a couple of years due to illness of the publisher. We decided it was time to publish it. Another Oak Tree author, Mary Montague Sikes, allowed us to use her beautiful artwork for the cover, and Recipes by the Book: Oak Tree Authors Cook became a reality. It is also available in a full-color edition. This one is also available as an ebook and in print.

The most recent one I have been involved with is the resurrection of Marilyn Meredith’s Cooking for a Big Family and Large Groups.

This one had been published so long ago, even Marilyn had forgotten about it. I ran across an old used copy on Amazon, or I wouldn’t have known about it. The only copy she had was a three-hole punched copy typed on a typewriter.

I scanned the old one and converted to an electronic file, then edited and formatted it for publication. The cover is a photo of our dining room table.

This has been a surprise hit! For a couple of months, it was Marilyn’s bestselling book!

Larry produced the covers for all of these.

Now all three will live on in perpetuity. Makes me feel really good.

If you like to cook, check them out!

Abandoned

Over the last few years, I have observed a disturbing trend in publishing. Many, if not most, of the small and mid-level publishers I know have gone out of business, leaving their authors wondering where to go and what to do.

The first to affect us personally was Whiskey Creek Press. http://whiskeycreekpress.com/ The owners were very close friends, and our relationship with them was a personal as well as business one. Health issues forced them to sell their company. They were fortunate. At the time, another publisher, Start Publishing, was interested in obtaining the company. We had seven books with them, so it was easier to leave them with the same publisher, especially since they maintained the original website, even with the change in ownership. They also contracted with Simon and Schuster to distribute our ebooks. https://www.simonandschuster.com/search/books/_/N-/Ntt-Lorna+Collins

In 2016, the publisher of Wild Child Publishing/Freya’s Bower closed her publishing house. At the time, she explained that Amazon’s changes had made it impossible for small-to-mid-sized publishers to stay in business. Other publishers followed.

The same year, the owner of Oak Tree Press, Billie Johnson, had a massive stroke. It was not her first, but she had recovered from an earlier one, so her authors hoped she’d do the same this time. After a year with no royalties, I decided to request my rights back and self-publish my book, Ghost Writer. Some others did the same. However, in 2018, Billie died, and many of her authors were left without a publisher.

I have helped some of these to self-publish their books, but others are still trying to figure out what they will do.

Next to succumb was Desert Breeze Publishing, one of the most ethical houses I ever worked with. I edited for them for a few years. They also published several of my friends’ books. A couple of years ago, the owner had a serious car accident. She has been in nearly constant pain ever since. This, combined with the Amazon system’s policy changes, led her to stop doing business.

The latest publisher to fold is Mundania Press. This was one of the most respected of the mid-level publishers. Through the past fifteen years or so, they acquired several other small presses. However, they have been unable to pay royalties for a few months. Sadly, they, too, have given up.

When Oak Tree closed, our dear friend, Marilyn Meredith had her Rocky Bluff PD mystery series as well as quite a few other outliers published through Oak Tree. Another publisher, Aakenbaaken & Kent (also a friend), took the series and is currently re-publishing it. Larry and I self-published the others under Marilyn’s name. They now belong to her, and she gets all the royalties.

Her Tempe Crabtree mystery series was published by Mundania. We told her we would do the same with these. There were sixteen previously published books plus a new one, which should have been released months ago. She sent me the files, and Spirit Wind it is now available as of last Saturday in paperback and ebook. (Marilyn used my name for a character in a previous book, and she is back in this one—perhaps my favorite of all.)

In addition to the seventeen books in this series, Mundania had also published several of her other freestanding books. Thank goodness, Marilyn kept all of her files. (We share the same birthday, and we’re both very organized.)

So, now I’m at work trying to re-edit and re-format all the manuscripts. She has all the front cover artwork—thank goodness because these are gorgeous! But Larry has had to re-create the back covers and spines. This one turned out beautifully, so we are optimistic about the rest of them.

Many other authors are now left high and dry with no publishers and few options. Most do not have the skills necessary to self-publish their books.

The publishing industry has undergone a complete change during the thirteen years since we published our first book—and not necessarily for the better.

Have you had any experiences with being abandoned by a publisher?

Two Ways West - The Inside Scoop

When I started trying to locate all of Marilyn Meredith’s books, I discovered several I didn’t know about. Last week, I asked her questions about Trail to Glory: One Family’s Journey West. This week, I asked her about Two Ways West, the story of her paternal family’s journey to California.

Thanks for giving me (and my readers) the “inside scoop” on this wonderful book.

Was Rebecca really only twelve when she married John? I know life expectancies were shorter then, and women married young, but this seems especially young.

Yes, that’s a fact, she was twelve. Made it a tad difficult to write about their romance. However, I remember when I was twelve. I definitely thought I was grown up.

I had a major crush on Larry at twelve.

Did John’s family actually know Andrew Jackson? Did he actually fight in the Battle of New Orleans?

John did fight in the Battle of New Orleans. I even have a photograph of him at that time. Whether or not he knew Andrew Jackson, I’m not positive, though a likelihood. He did get a land grant from then President Jackson. I’ve seen a copy of it and the one give to William Newton Crabtree.

Did the Crabtrees really cross Mexico, sail up the coast, and jump ship in Monterey?

Yes, they really did. This is a family legend I heard from one of the old-timers, and others repeated it.

Please tell me Temperance was a real person. She is one of the most memorable characters in the book, and I want her to be real.

This much I know, there was a servant named Tempe, but I made up a lot about her.

Did Ashbel really leave his family to follow the Mormon trail to California where he filed a claim for land and built a house before returning for them? And where did his name come from?

Ashbel did follow leave his family and followed the Mormon trail and on to California. And yes, he did file a claim for land. As for the house, I’m not sure. Seemed likely, though. As for his name, I have no idea where it came from. I only know that he was born in New York.

I knew Tempe, the name of the character in your Detective Tempe Crabtree mysteries, was an ancestor. Was she really named after the family servant, Temperance? (I love the name. It sounds like an old Puritan name. And I love it for the character, too.)

Tempe Crabtree was my great-grandmother, and as I said earlier, she was name for a household servant. I love the name, too.

Was the family really attacked by Tiburcio Vasquez? Was he a real robber?

Yes, Tiburcio was a real highway robber. As far as the family being attacked by him, I really can’t remember.

Did the family really lose so many children? Did Ella die as you described? What about Sarah?

Yes, sadly, all those children died. Yes, Ella died exactly as I described. Sarah, too. And Tempe named Hope for exactly the reason I wrote. I met Hope, and she told me a lot about the family that went into the book.

I know you now live on a portion of the original Crabtree claim. How did it come to you, and why did you decide to move back to Springville?

The Crabtrees all lost their land because of taxes. They didn’t use money. They bartered for everything. When my sister did the genealogy, we talked to my dad about Springville. He told us the stories he knew. My sister, her husband, and their daughter, Hap and I, and my parents all came up to Springville and camped here. We did it several times, visiting with elderly relatives and exploring. We also went to Grass Valley, camped and explored.

When my husband began to dislike where we lived in Southern California because it became so crowded, we began to look for a place to buy in Springville. I said I’d only move there if we could find a place on the river (after all, we were leaving a beach town at the time). The only one we could afford was a residential care facility. It was for sale. We knew if we got it, we’d not only have a home but a business. I did the necessary paperwork, got the needed license, and was approved by the regional center, so we moved to Springville.

Since so many generations of your family have lived in the same area, are there any ghosts or reports of ghosts in or around your house or in the vicinity?

All the youngsters who have lived with us over the years are sure our house is haunted. Frankly, I don’t care if it is or not, I’m comfortable here.

Thanks for sharing all the “inside secrets” of these wonderful books. Anyone who loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s little house books as a child will find the same kind of storytelling in these. People actually lived these stories, and these characters are members of your own family. I am so glad you wrote them down so we all can get to know them.

Trail to Glory - The Real Story

When I started trying to locate all of Marilyn Meredith’s books, I discovered several I didn’t know about. One was Trail to Glory: One Family’s Journey West. This historical novel is based on the journey of her maternal ancestors. Some of the incidents in the book are based on family legends. After reading this exciting book, I wanted to know what was true and what was fiction. Marilyn agreed to answer my questions. Next week, she’ll do the same for Two Ways West, the story of her paternal family’s journey.

Thanks for giving me (and my readers) the “inside scoop” on this book.

I have to ask about Half-face. He was one of the most memorable characters in the book. I so want to think he is based on someone the family actually knew. Was he?

Sorry, no. Made him up. Needed an exciting scene and he filled it and then went on to be even more important a bit later.

Was William actually killed as depicted in the book (no spoilers)? This is one of the most haunting scenes.

I have no idea. Much of the early part of this “fictional” historical saga was based on things I learned about when I researched what was going on during that particular time in that place. Some family members thought it happened.

Although the book says the older girls were given to a neighbor to raise, you told me they were adopted by three other families. Did they stay in touch with the rest of the family? Did they live nearby? (BTW, I have instances of this same thing in my own family. When my great-grandmother died, some of her children were raised by relatives, and one of the older children raised the younger ones. When my grandmother died, this same sister took her three children.)

In the beginning the neighbor took the girls, and she was the one who changed their names. Again, I wrote this book so long ago I don’t really remember all the details.

Did Ethel actually suffer injury during her birth? Did she really endure such tragic losses? Did she really raise her sister’s child?

No Ethel didn’t suffer the injury—I borrowed it from what happened to one of my cousins. And yes, she did suffer the tragic losses in the story. She did raise her sister’s child, but I made up some of the details surrounding what happened. It seemed like it could have been what transpired.

You wrote a beautiful—and fanciful—account of what might have happened to Wilhelmina. You said the family had other theories. What were they?

My mother always said Wilhelmina was stolen by gypsies. I couldn’t find any history of gypsies in the area during the time period.

Did Will actually stay in touch with the family when he disappeared, or did he just vanish? Did you write his story to have some closure?

Will did keep in touch with the family, but the story about him I made up. No one could remember much about him.

I know you were descended from Desdemona (Minnie). Did she really hate her nickname so much? (My own grandmother’s birth name was Mary Ann, but she was always called “Minnie.” This is the name on her headstone.)

Desdemona (Minnie), my great-grandmother, did not like her name. I got to meet my great-grandmother when she came to my fifth birthday party (I have a photo of her there), and we spent a Christmas in her home. I don’t remember much about either occasion.

I know losing children during childbirth and shortly afterward, as well as from illness and accidents was quite common. Did your family really suffer all these losses?

Yes, because that was the information I got from the genealogy and what my mother and aunt remembered from family stories.

Congratulations to your sister for all her hard work in tracking down the multitude of family members! I do a lot of genealogy as well. Before Ancestry.com it was a labor intensive pursuit. I’m grateful for the pooled information now available online.

She did it back in the days of using the census, birth, marriage, and death certificates. I wonder if she did it again using Ancestry.com if she’d find out more information.

For the other book, I looked up a character when you didn’t have the name of his wife—and I found her! So, I suspect even more information is now available.

Next week, we’ll look at the truth of Two Ways West.

Republishing - Part IV

When I started trying to locate all of Marilyn Meredith’s books, I discovered several I didn’t know about. The first was a cookbook. It had been published in 2000 and was long out-of-print. When I asked Marilyn about it, she said she only had one printed copy, and it wasn’t the published version.

She sent me two separate 8-1/2” x 11” paper copies. They were typed on a typewriter, and were three-hole punched. Apparently, the book had started life as two books. I scanned them and ran the OCR (Optical Character Reader) to extract the individual characters. Unfortunately, the characters on the typewritten pages didn’t always read correctly, and the resultant pages had no formatting. Fortunately, I had the originals, so I could compare each character to make sure it was correct.

Since I had two files, when they were both converted to one Word document, I re-indexed the recipes so the order made sense. Then I sent the document to Marilyn, She knew them well and made a few additional corrections.

The covers on the originals I was given had simple sketches, but we wanted the new one to have a professional-looking cover. So, I set my large oak table with blue placemats, white plates, and flatware. Larry took a couple of photos.

“This is too plain. It doesn’t look as though it’s actually set for a meal.” He went downstairs and soon returned with new photos of the table. He’d added my big, white soup tureen, a basket with a napkin in it, stuffed with paper to resemble bread, white cups, a sugar bowl and creamer. We both liked the look, and he still had room for the title, Cooking for a Big Family and Large Groups.

We both liked it—and so did Marilyn.

The other books I discovered were horror titles. These had only been published as ebooks. Marilyn requested—and received—her rights back for these. We began with Cup of Demons. (The title comes from a Bible verse.)

This appeared to be an MS Word file, but I suspect it might have been a WordPerfect file converted to Word since it seemed to have some hidden formatting. It didn’t cooperate well, and I had to upload it several times to get it to look right.

Since Marilyn didn’t have the rights to the original cover, and she said she’d never liked it, I had an idea for an image. I located free photos of old, faded and stained wallpaper, an ornate mirror, and a woman who fit the description of the ghost in the story.

Larry created one of my favorite covers. It conveys a sense of the story, and it is beautiful at the same time.

So, two more of her books are now available again. We still have a couple more of the horror titles to complete, and all of her books (except her Rocky Bluff P.D. ones, which another publisher is re-publishing) will be available.

Next week and the week after, I will interview Marilyn about her two historical novels, based on her real family members. I adored these books, and I think you will, too.

Marilyn Meredith’s published book count is nearing forty. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for ten years. She served as an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com

Blog: http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/ and you can follow her on Facebook.

See all her books at her author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-Meredith/e/B001HPJ440/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

Republishing - Part III

In addition to republishing my own book, Ghost Writer, and Bob Schwenck’s book, Digging Deep, I took on an even larger task. Okay, I volunteered for this one.

My dear friend, favorite author, and one of my favorite people, Marilyn Meredith, had several books with the same publisher who first published Ghost Writer. Since she depends on her royalties for income, the lack of payments for nearly two years affected her much more than it did me.

After I republished Ghost Writer, she decided to take back the rights to all of her books, too. A mutual friend said he’d republish her Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series (written as F. M. Meredith). He owns his own publishing company, so he could take on the twelve books in the series. He published her most recent one, so it made sense to have all of them all with the same publisher.

However, she had several others, so Larry and I said we’d republish those and help her to self-publish them. This way, she will always have complete control over them.

We started with the first mystery she wrote, The Astral Gift.

She had the rights to the cover art because the original publisher, who created this image specifically for this book, died. All Marilyn had for this one was a text file (like on Notepad). All the words were there, but they were a mess. In addition, she wrote the original in 1998. Many of the references just didn’t work for a contemporary book. We decided to identify the time frame as earlier, and the book worked again.

We liked the result so well, we took on another special book.

Lingering Spirit won the 2012 EPIC eBook Award.

This book is also special to Marilyn because it is based on a family event—the loss of her son-in-law. (This one makes me cry. I adore it!)

Unfortunately, we couldn’t use the original cover art. So, I hunted for an image to invoke the same emotions as the original. Fortunately, this one was perfect—and the price was reasonable. (Some images can cost hundreds of dollars.) Marilyn liked it, too, so she bought it.

Larry took it to a whole other level. (He’s getting to be a terrific cover designer!)

Marilyn only had rough Word document for this one. (The other choice was a PDF of the galley, and it seemed harder to work with.)

Each of these books required a re-edit as well as formatting, but we’re very proud of the final results.

Marilyn Meredith’s published book count is nearing forty. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for ten years. She served as an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com

Blog: http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/ and you can follow her on Facebook.

See all her books at her author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-Meredith/e/B001HPJ440/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

GETTING THAT BOOK DONE: OR PUT FANNY IN CHAIR AND WRITE

Today my dear friend and one of my favorite authors, Marilyn Meredith is my guest. If you ever wanted to write a book, she offers some great advice. Lorna

Some things people have said to me over the years:

“When I get time, I’m going to write a book.”

“I’ve started a book but can’t seem to finish it.”

And there’s the person who attempts to tell me the whole plot of a book he or she plans to write one day.

Number one, if you really want to write a book you’ll make time and write it. Maybe you’ll have to get up a couple of hours earlier or stay up later. Perhaps you’ll have to give up some TV time, or whatever it is you do that’s really a waste of time. Do whatever it takes.

Number two, when writing a book write the whole thing first, then rewrite it. The first book you write probably won’t be all that good anyway. I wrote several that were never published.

Never tell the whole plot of a story you plan to write to anyone—sit down and write it. It doesn’t matter how, just do it.

And my biggest piece of advice, don’t let anything discourage you. You probably will get rejected—so what, do some more editing if necessary, and send it out again. If you’re going to self-publish, if you want sales, get a professional to edit it for you.

If you’ve read any of my other posts, I’ve had all sorts of discouraging things happen to me besides plenty of rejections, but I never let anything stop me.

If you are a writer, you will write.

Marilyn Meredith

A Cold Death:

Deputy Tempe Crabtree and her husband answer the call for help with unruly guests visiting a closed summer camp during a huge snow storm and are trapped there along with the others. One is a murderer—and a ghost.

Anyone who orders any of my books from the publisher’s website: http://mundania.com

can get 10% off by entering MP20 coupon code in the shopping cart. This is good all the time for all my books, ebooks and print books.

You can also find it on Amazon.

Marilyn Meredith’s published book count is nearing 40. She is one of the founding members of the San Joaquin chapter of Sister in Crime. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for 10 years, and was an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and serves on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra, a place with many similarities to Tempe Crabtree’s patrol area.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com Blog: http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/ and you can follow her on Facebook.

Contest: Once again I’m going to use the name of the person who comments on the most blogs on my tour for the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery—which may be the last in the series.

Tomorrow I’ll be answering Jackie’s Questions here:

https://www.jacquelinevick.com/blog

Keeping Characters Interesting

Marilyn Meredith (aka F.M. Meredith) has another new Rocky Bluff mystery! This is number thirteen in this series. She also writes a second series with many books. I asked her how she keeps her characters interesting in such a long series.

Since the Rocky Bluff P.D. series has reached #13, making sure the characters continue to be interesting is a challenge.

One way, of course, is to see their growth. Though all have grown and changed through the years, two characters have changed the most.

The first is Ryan Strickland. In the beginning, he was not a nice guy. He also was a big publicity hound, to the point of keeping a scrapbook of every time his name appeared in the paper. I can’t say too much more without spoiling it for someone who wants to start at the beginning of the series, but he has grown and become a much more likeable character.

Gordon Butler is the other character who has changed a lot. He has had some major challenges in various books, some to do with his love life, and others with bad luck. He became sort of a comic relief and garnered many fans because of it. I’ve probably had the most fun writing about Gordon Butler and his mishaps, but as he’s matured, circumstances have improved for him.

The Rocky Bluff P.D. has changed, too. Some people have left, including the police chief. A new chief has taken over and has been smart not to make many changes, though the department is still understaffed and underfunded.

I hope people will continue to read this series and enjoy learning about the characters and what is happening to them on the job and with their families.

F. M. aka Marilyn Meredith

Unresolved, #13 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series:

Rocky Bluff P.D. is underpaid and understaffed and when two dead bodies turn up, the department is stretched to the limit. The body of the mayor is the first discovered. The second is an older woman whose death is caused in a bizarre manner. Because no one liked the mayor, including his estranged wife and the members of the city council, the suspects are many, but each one has an alibi.

Copies may be purchased from Book and Table by emailing bookandtablevaldosta@gmail.com with a 10% discount and free shipping as well as all the usual places, including Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/mdqfq27.

  

F. M. Meredith lived for many years in a small beach community much like Rocky Bluff. She has many relatives and friends who are in law enforcement and share their experiences and expertise with her. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for 10 years, and was an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and serves 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/

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/marilynmeredith

Up next, on May 7 I answered the question, Besides Blog Tours, What Else?

https://bookbrowsing.wordpress.com