Tag Archive for: Dangerous Impulses

What I’ve Been Up to in the Writing World

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I’m a great believe in not putting all of your eggs in one basket. This belief comes from experience. I’ve had two publishers die, three close their doors, dealt with three crooked publishers, had agents who did nothing and I truly mean nothing (when I asked to see rejection letters was given one after 4 years of my thinking the agent was busily working for me).

Because of that past history, at the moment I have three publishers.

My Rocky Bluff P.D. series is published by Oak Tree Press, a small independent publisher. The latest book in that series is Dangerous Impulses. I’ve already written the next one and my critique group is hearing it (and critiquing it) chapter by chapter. Next I’ll have it edited before I send it off.

My Deputy Tempe Crabtree series is published by Mundana Press, also an independent publisher, but much larger than OTP. The next book is called Spirit Shapes and should be available in early fall. I don’t have a cover yet–but I am busily working on a blog tour for October.

The previous book was called Raging Water. I’ll soon be planning the next one.

In the meantime, I’ve been rewriting and editing some older books for Kindle. No, I’m not doing them myself, just don’t have time right now. I’ve gone with a brand new ebook company for these. They approached me and I thought, heck why not.

The first one out, and only .99 is Deadly Feast. It had another life another a different title. That publisher is no longer in business and rights reverted back to me. None of that publisher’s books were on Kindle.
Deadly Feast is a mystery and began as a Deputy Tempe Crabtree tale–however when I was through, I knew it wasn’t Tempe so I changed the main character and the setting, but Tempe fans will recognize some similarities.

And then, I sent them what I call a YA Christian horror–Deeds of Darkness, and it now available for Kindle too. It is a very scarey tale and the young heroine is a Christian. This was written a long time ago, so I had some updating to do, but It was fun. Though the book does have witches in it who cause all kinds of havoc in the small town of Yokut Springs, the cover is more sensational than the content of the story.

It is a great story for Halloween.

And last, I am editing and updating yet another horror novel–this one for adults–with Christian overtones and really scary. It’s called Cup of Demons.

And that’s what I’ve been doing lately.

Marilyn

More About Titles

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Bethany’s post about title made me think about my own titles.

For my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries, I’ve used a lot of quotations from Native Americans and plucked a couple of words out of them for titles such as Invisible Path, Wing Beat and Dispel the Mist. The one that I’m working on now has a title from an Indian quotation, Spirit Shapes. However, I don’t always do that, last year’s was Raging Water which came from the fact that most of the troubles going on in the little town of Bear Creek were because the river had swollen to flood conditions.

This series I write as Marilyn Meredith.

F.M. Meredith is the name I use for my Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

I never seemed to have any problem coming up with title for my Rocky Bluff P.D. series because the story itself seemed to create it.

Final Respects The story of the death of a popular police officer, a mortician and a mortuary, and a funeral.

The many bad tidings that police officers must deliver was easily named Bad Tidings.

A bad cop uses his job for nefarious means in Fringe Benefits.

Smell of Death has three gruesome murders and is the beginning of the romance between Officer Stacey Wilbur and Detective Doug Milligan.

Two churches, two ministers and two wives and murder made No Sancturary  a logical title.

An Axe to Grind besides being a play on words also refers to the murder weapon.

And Angel Lost is also a play on words and refers to two plot threads.

The reason for the title No Bells isn’t revealed until the end.

The latest book in the series was harder for me to name–in fact, one of the members of my critique group came up with the title Dangerous Impulses.

I am working on the latest and I had the title before I really had an idea for the plot. One of my fans suggested it, and it’s a great title and immediately let me know what my Rocky Bluff P.D. detectives would be faced with. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith