My Blog Tour for Murder in the Worst Degree Has Begun

Actually in began on March 31 on Dru's Book Musings, with the topic "A Day in the Life of Stacey Milligan. For those of you who are familiar with the series, she began as Stacey Wilbur and is now married to Detective Doug Milligan.  

http://wp.me/p3nHH-4Pb

As I've done over the last blog tours, I"m having a contest for the person who comments on the most blogs to have a character in my next book named for him or her. 

Today I'm visiting Thonie Hevron and wrote about how I researched the Cop Culture for this series.

http://thoniehevron.wordpress.com/

On the bottom of each post is a place where you find the next blog stop. 

I had fun writing the many different posts--and I do hope some of you will follow along to see what I had to say--and maybe even enter my contest.

Needless to say, I'll be very busy all this month promoting my tour and responding and keeping track of all those who comment.

And if you'd just like to read the book, it's available on Amazon.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Did I Ever Have a Lulu of a Dream!

Besides doing promo for my coming Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Murder in the Worst Degree, I've been working on the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, as yet unnamed.

Yes, I've had a murder, but the investigation has mostly been questioning witnesses (none, really) and suspects (lots) and I know I need some big action. I've been toying with different scenarios, and last night I had a lulu of a dream.

I was camping in the mountains, surrounded by big trees and lots of other people (similar location as in the book) and my grandson was working as cowboy with a bunch of other people. He and his fellow workers came to talk to me, have no idea what about.(Grandson is not a cowboy and nothing like this is in the manuscript.)

All of a sudden we heard a thundering noise and here comes a whole bunch of horses galloping towards and past us. Behind them was a huge bear also coming fast.

Some of the cowboys started running, and I shouted, "Don't run, you can't out run a bear!"

End of dream.

Now I wonder exactly what part of that I might be able to incorporate into the story.

I've written about bears before and there are plenty of them in the area I'm writing about. 

Maybe I'll have another dream tonight that will give me some insight into how I should proceed.

Have you ever had a dream that you put into a story?

Marilyn

Where Do You Get Your Titles?

The quick answer--many different places.

For my next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, the title came from a friend, who from out of the blue emailed me and said, your next book should be called Murder in the Worst Degree. My reaction? Sure, why not.

Okay, I had the title, now what on earth should I write? I started with only a few plot ideas, certainly not sure how I would work in the title. Did it matter? No in the least. I wrote and I wrote and near the end, the words in the title fit the plot. You'll have to wait until March of 2014 to find out how.

The previous RBPD mystery, Dangerous Impulses, I was completely finished and had no idea what the title should be so I turned to my writing group that had the tale from start to finish, and one of the group came up with the exact title I needed. The concept of dangerous impulses covers many of the happenings in the story.

I had no trouble at all coming up with a title for No Bells. Part of the plot came from what one of my son's former girlfriends said to him when she broke up with him.

Angel Lost was easy too, the title refers to two major incidents in the story.

And before that was an Axe to Grind. No problem with that one either, the opening crime made the title easy.

 

No Sanctuary was a cinch since it involved two churches, and the final scene takes place in one of th churches which definitely was not a sanctuary.

The idea for Smell of Death came from my police officer son-in-law who said movies, TV and books never conveyed the horrific smell of death. (They've gotten better about that in recent times.)

Though most of the cops in my RBPD mysteries are good--or at least normal men and women, in Fringe Benefits the villain and main character is a bad cop, one who takes great advantage of his job. This is the book where Officer Gordon Butler first comes on the scene. (Easy title to come up with.)

#2 in the series, Bad Tidings refers to the bad news that the police often have to deliver--and sometimes get themselves.

 

 

 

When I wrote Final Respects I had no idea it would become a series. Once I'd finished it, I had no trouble at all knowing what the title should be. I wish all titles were as easy to decide upon.

And there you have it--the whole history of choosing titles for the Rocky Bluff P.D series.

Now it's your turn. How do you come up with titles for you books? Or if you're a read and not a writer, do titles help you choose a book to read?

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Working on a New Book--and it Hasn't Been Easy

Because of big ongoing trauma in our family, and then some good stuff too--I've not been working on my next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery as I should have been--nor have I done the editing needed on my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery so I can send it off to the publisher.

The trauma of course was my son's severe beating on the job and then him not getting proper medical care at first--all is going well now thanks to a wonderful brain trauma rehab center. The good stuff was his daughter and her husband coming out to visit from North Carolina for a week with their seven month-old-daughter.

He looks good, doesn't he? Still not perfect, but way, way better.

So now it's time to get busy and write, write, write. I need to be thinking and writing about the police officers of Rocky Bluff P.D. and their families, what's going on with them while they are investigating a murder case.

To get myself in the mood, I'm thinking small California coastal town, smelling the salt air, and remembering the layout of the town.

I do know where I'm going with this one, know the title, all it's going to take his place my fanny down on the chair in front of my computer and writing.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Wishing you the Merriest Christmas Ever

This is the closest to a decorated Christmas tree I'm going to have this year. My husband doesn't like putting it up anymore. The last time we had it up and decorated, our cats thought it was a new play toy and knocked off all the glass decorations which shattered all over. Now we have an 18 month old great-grandson who visits often. His grandpa calls him "Bam Bam." When I decorated, I took that into consideration and only put out the stuff that is unbreakable.

I have a whole array of stuffed moose and he's quite welcome to play with them. He likes the one that sings, "Grandma got run over by a reindeer."

Decorating was so much easier this year with my two excuses: cats and great-grandson.

Plus, I've really been busy. Just came off an intensive blog tour for Raging Water which took a lot of time.

I just send off the 2nd edits for the next book in my Rocky Bluff P.D. series, Dangerous Impulses, and wrote the blurb for it.

The next in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series is still being heard by my critique group and I'm writing the 2014 offering in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

Who has time for holidays?

Me, really I do. I just don't do quite as much as I used to. Went to a fun church Christmas party, and to see The Hobbit with hubby and a good friend--in fact the woman who is really Miqui Sherwood in Raging Water and she's loved every minute of it.

Our critique group is meeting for dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant.

And Christmas Eve three of our grandsons will join us, along with our son, and their lady loves and Bam Bam for dinner and opening of gifts.

Christmas day we plan to sneak off and go see a movie. Afterwards we'll visit daughter and son-in-law and their grandkids and see if they received the gifts they asked for.

So that's how we'll be celebrating.

Oh, and if you want to catch up on my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, check it out at my publishers: http://mundania.com/


Marilyn

Why Do We Love Mysteries

Of course I’m speaking about fictional mysteries, I don’t think we like real-life mysteries if they happen to us.

I have no idea what other’s reasons for loving mysteries are–but I do know mine. There are very few mysteries that I don’t care for and those are the ones where the mystery isn’t really solved, or the bad person, perpetrator of the crime, the villain, manages to get away to come back another day.

Though I do really like on-going series–after all, I write two of them myself– I prefer for each book to be complete in itself. That doesn’t mean there can’t be some ongoing plots in the life of some of the characters, I just want the major crime to be solved.

In my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series, Tempe and her husband Hutch sometimes go through rough patches because of their different belief systems. Hutch is a Christian pastor with strong faith. Tempe uses some of the mystical and supernatural aspects of her Native American heritage to solve crimes. Slowly, he is coming to terms with some of Tempe’s experiences, like her ability to see spirits, though he often has deep concern for the health of her soul. Whatever the major crime may be in a book, Tempe will find out the truth by the time the reader reaches the last page as you’ll see if you read the latest in the series, Kindred Spirits. Though the guilty party has in essence planned the perfect murder, Tempe continues on until he reveals himself.

Because the Rocky Bluff P.D. is about the men and women in the police department and their families rather than just one hero or heroine, focusing on someone different and several crimes in each book, there are many ongoing stories as these people live out their lives on the job and at home. My main theme in each book has been to show how what goes on in the family affects the job and how the job affects the family. The most growth shown in a character has been Detective Doug Milligan, who in the first book, Final Respects, is a street cop who loses his best friend and his wife. In the fourth book, Smell of Death, Doug becomes interested in a female officer who is the first on the scene of two murders. In some of the other books, Doug is merely a supporting character, with other officers in the forefront.

No matter which series I’m writing, you can be sure the bad guy or gal will get it in the end. This is important to me for two reasons–in real life things don’t always turn out for the best or the way they should. Bad guys do get away with murder. I want better endings in the books I read and the ones I write.

The second reason is I have no control over the world I live in–my smaller world containing my friends and family–or the big outside world. When I’m writing, I’m in control–more or less. I must admit, sometimes the characters lead me in directions I never expected, but that’s a whole other blog.

And that’s why I love mysteries. What's your reason?

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com