Hoping to Get Away for a Few Days

Though I have a lot of family nearby, I'm missing my eldest daughter. She and her grown kids and their kids live about 6 hours away. To get there, one must drive through terrible Southern California traffic. It's been far too long since I've seen any of them so I'm hoping to go down there the week this is supposed to appear.

In the meantime, I'm planning one of those free e-book days, working on a basic outline (I know, I always say I do plot ahead of time) so that I'll know where I'm headed with my new Rocky Bluff P.D. book. I have many ideas for side plots, just not the main idea for the murder mystery. (Only the most important part.)

I always like to come up with ways that the side plots can sort of tie in with the main plot in the end. Doesn't always work out, but that's what I aim for.

Yes, I've promised myself to get with it and get those ideas down on paper, so I can begin. Once I have some basic ideas and names for the new characters along with the basic ideas of who they are and how they'll fit in, I can start.

Oh, and that means coming up with a great first line.

Okay, enough of this for now. I'll get back to you when I have some further developments. Wish me luck--both for the trip and the book.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

I guess we might call this--Marilyn against the wall.

Preparing to Start a New Book

Because I'm in the final editing stages of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery I've been working on, it's time to start thinking about the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery.

On my own blog, I'm asking readers for ideas about what might happen to the ongoing characters. Somethings are fairly easy to figure out because of what happened in the last book. Of course, I want there to be conflict and emergencies--and at least a bit of romance.

Mainly though, I need to come up with an idea for the main plot/crime which will probably be a murder. So--who should it be? A good person or bad? Who would have wanted this person to die? And there needs to be more than one with motive and opportunity, since I don't want the readers to know "who done it". What should be the cause of death?

At the same time, I always like to have other crimes for the men and women on the Rocky Bluff P.D. to work on--since that's the way it is in real life. Of course I've been gathering a few ideas--but I'd like to have some unusual crimes.

With any book with new characters, I'll need names. Fortunately, I've been to a couple of graduations and have kept the programs--many, many interesting names to peruse and choose from.

I do have one character's name--the winner of my last contest, I'll just have to figure out who he'll be. I always have to make sure it's someone who won't have to be in the next book.

And then there's the title. Unlike the last book in the series where I had the title before I wrote the book, I'll have to come up with something new.

So--if you readers of this post have any ideas, do contact me. You can email me if you like at mmeredith@ocsnet.net or just write it in a comment.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith