The Good and Bad of August

This is from my perspective, of course.

This is my birthday month--and yesterday I celebrated twice.

We had the pleasure of taking a road trip to my daughter's new home (long drive), staying for three days and spending time with two grown grandsons and their families--which involved 3 great grands including one we'd never met before. What a great break from staying at home because of the virus.

With the re-publishing of Wishing Make It So, all of my books have now been re-edited and made available on Amazon. This was written a long time ago, not a mystery, more of a psychological horror. And the bad is every venue for selling books have been cancelled.

https://www.amazon.com/Wishing-Makes-So-Marilyn-Meredith/dp/B08DSSZBC5/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

We've had really hot weather and along with it fires have sprung up all over the state of California. So far, none near where we live, but the sky is so full of smoke we can't see the hills and mountains that surround us. Many people have had to be evacuated, some with only the clothes they were wearing.

In the past, we've had fires that were too close for comfort--close enough that we packed up my computer, insurance papers etc., and stayed at a friends' home for three days.

A couple of bears have decided to roam the neighborhoods and raid trash cans. One was spotted several times at the dump where people bring their trash to be hauled away on Fridays and Saturdays. (Not sure if that's good or bad.)  People like spotting and taking photos of these visitors.

I've gotten a good start on a new Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. My police officer grandson gave me some good tips I can use in my plot.

Lots of annual events where I live have been cancelled--rodeo, Hot Summer Nights dance and party, Friday night concerts in the park, the Apple Festival, and more.

More good is we have a great and big family who help us out in many ways. 

Hope there is more good in your lives than bad.

Marilyn who also writes as F. M. Meredith

August Is and Always Has Been My Favorite Month

Even more so this year, as it started with our family reunion, a most special reunion. My grandson whom I hadn't seen since he was three and now 42, came all the way to join us from Nebraska and brought his wife Jeff is the child of our eldest son who died from cancer. And no, he never got to see his son again. You can't imagine how wonderful it was to hug Jeff, and hear all about him. Emotions ran high all weekend. We also had a lot of fun. All my daughters were there with some of their family members, plus cousins galore.

This is also my birthday month, and at the reunion my eldest daughter did a This is Your Life presentation, with comments from people from my past, like the superintendent of schools (I was PTA president four times and knew him as a friend), several of my Camp Fire Girls,and  three of my cousins. That was fun.

My daughter celebrated her birthday and she and her daughter both celebrate anniversaries, we have other family birthdays this month too.

But enough about family, onto writing business. Usually I have a new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery coming out this month, but I haven't quite finished writing it. Had too many re-edits to do of both the earlier books in that series and the ones in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

Because I don't have any new books at the moment, I haven't done much promotion. However, I still have plenty of copies of my older books and have presentations and other venues lined up in the coming months to hopefully sell some.

I went to Nightwriters in San Luis Obispo to tell about where I got the ideas for my books.This is always fun, and a great group of people.

Next I went to Visalia to the Tulare/Kings Writers group to talk about writing description of  people, places and things. This is a small group and so enjoyable as we can easily share back and forth.

I'm always ready and willing to give talks about different aspects of writing, and I love going to book and craft fairs.

Hopefully, in the next month or so, I can finish my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery. I think you'll like this one, it's set in Tehachapi where all the wind machines are, and of course Tempe will be dealing with ghosts and spirits as well as a murder.

Marilyn