Tag Archive for: Rocky Bluff P.D.mystery series

So How is Your 2016 Going?

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Mine is starting fine. I’ve learned through the many years that I’ve been on earth that my attitude has a lot to do with how things are going. Of course, I have my frustrations. Hubby and I both are feeling our age which has made some things we used to enjoy doing now impossible like taking long trips on airplanes, dancing, driving into and through big cities.

However, we’ve made up for it in other ways. If we really want to visit someone who lives somewhere the driving will be difficult, we ask the daughter who lives closes to us to do the driving. She loves to drive and it gives her a break from all she does as a preacher’s wife.

Instead of dancing, we enjoy watching all kinds of movies and TV series together with the aid or our Roku.

My biggest joy is spending time with family–and we have a big one. Lots of grands and great-grands to enjoy.

And I’m still able and enjoy writing and reading.

At the end of 2015 one of my publisher put out a list of which books did best: http://otpblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/otps-most-popular-books-in-2015.html
Two older books in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series ended up on that list.

As a Christmas gift, I offered a free Kindle copy of either of my series to 25 readers, and I’d like to offer the choice of one of my series to anyone on this list, either the Rocky Bluff P.D. series or my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. I’ll send a Kindle copy of your choice to the first 5 who contact me via email. mmeredith24@ocsnet.net

You can check our the books on my website; http://fictionforyou.com/

Wishing you all a great year and plenty of good reading.

Marilyn who also writes as F. M. Meredith

Here are the latest in each series:

Excuse my Split Personality by Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

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I suppose it all begins with having two names: Marilyn Meredith for my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries and F. M. Meredith for my Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries.

Violent Departures, #11 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series recently became available on Amazon as a print book and on Kindle. This means I’m in the throes of promotion.

I’m nearing the middle of my blog tour–which means promoting each new blog on as many sites as possible very day. I also must visit the blog several times during the day to respond to comments and also keep track of those who commented because of the contest I’m having. (The person commenting on the most blogs can either have a character named for him or her in the next book, or choose an earlier book in the series.)

At the same time, as I’m doing several in-person presentations, two this month at libraries and I’ll have a booth at the Jack Ass Mail Run in Springville near the end of the month.

I’m also planning to give a way a Kindle copy of the first book in this series, Final Respects, beginning May 1. Promotion for this type of giveaway must begin very early, so I’ve been working on that too.

And–yes–there’s an and–I’m writing the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, as yet untitled. It’s a much different type of book than Violent Departures, so when I’m working on that I must draw from a different side of me.

If that was all I had to do that would be a cinch–but I am a wife, run a household, am the chief cook and laundress, and have grandmotherly duties too. All important roles.

What I don’t do is housework–I find some relative who’d like to make some extra money to do that for me. And in the meantime, I’ve learned not to mind the mess.

Forgive me if I seem a bit scattered these days, but that’s the reason.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

My Latest Book by Marilyn aka F.M. Meredith

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Though I haven’t seen a copy yet, Violent Departures, the latest in my Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series is now available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Violent-Departures-Rocky-Bluff-P-D/dp/1610091817/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1426344244&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Violent+Departures+by+F.+M.+Meredith

Blurb for
Violent Departures:

College student, Veronica Randall,
disappears from her car in her own driveway, everyone in the Rocky Bluff P.D.
is looking for her. Detective Milligan and family move into a house that may be
haunted. Officer Butler is assigned to train a new hire and faces several major
challenges.



I am expecting copies and hope to have them by the time this blog post appears.


As always, I have events scheduled and hoping to have books available by them.


On line, I’ll be doing a blog tour, and here is where I’l be and what I wrote about the first week:

What’s Happening
with Gordon Butler?

            Introduction
to the Rocky Bluff P.D. Mystery Series

            My
Writing Process

            Research

 What’s Up Next?

The Importance
of Place

            Coming
Up With New Ideas for an Ongoing Series

Contest:
Because
it has been popular on my other blog tours, once again I’m offering the chance
for the person who comments on the most blog posts during this tour to have a
character named for him or her in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery.
Or
if that doesn’t appeal, the person may choose one of the earlier books in the
series—either a print book or Kindle copy.

For those of you who haven’t read one in this series, it isn’t necessary to start at the first one as I’ve written each as a stand-alone–whatever the crime is will be solved by the end. Yes, of course, the characters grow and change through out. This has been called a cozy police-procedural though it really doesn’t have the criteria for a cozy except that the setting is a small town and it is a bit milder than most police proceduarls as the members of the police department and their families are more tlike the men and women that I know.

Marilyn aka F.M. Meredith


Cozy Police Procedurals?

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Is there such a thing?

That seems to be the category given to both my series by reviewers. And in some ways I suppose they are right. The following is what fits and what doesn’t:

Both series are set in small towns. Deputy Tempe Crabtree solves crimes in the mountain community of Bear Creek, and on the Indian reservation as well.

Tempe is a female sleuth–though she is in law enforcement. She is also Native American.

Her sidekick is her preacher husband.

She doesn’t have any animals.

In the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, there are many characters–and the spotlight shifts from one to another. Two of the main characters are Detective Doug Milligan and his wife, Officer Stacey Milligan. One of the readers’ favorites is Officer Gordon Butler who has bumbled his way through several books and his love life has been dismal up until the latest books

Rocky Bluff is a small Southern California community. The police department doesn’t have much in the way of modern equipment. Most crimes are solved the old fashioned way, asking lots of questions and putting the clues together.

Pets do not play an important part in the series.

Neither series has any “bad language” and though there is romance, I always close the bedroom door.

Next Wednesday evening, September 10th at 7 p.m., I’m appearing on a panel with some cozy writers at the Buena Vista Branch of the library in Burbank, CA. I certainly hope I’m not a disappointment to any readers who come who are fans of the cozy genre.

The latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery is Spirit Shapes. Coming in October is River Spirits.




The latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery is Murder in the Worst Degree.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Murder in the Worst Degree

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Under my other name, F. M. Meredith, I write the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series.  Murder in the Worst Degree is number 10 in this series. Though the characters are ongoing, each mystery is complete so it isn’t necessary to read the whole series to know what is going on.

My goal with this series has always been to show the private lives of the officers as they go about their jobs. There have been romances, lost spouses, marriages, children born, a relative with Alzheimer’s–a true spectrum of real life.

Yesterday, I embarked on a month long blog tour beginning with Dru’s Book Musings  

http://wp.me/p3nHH-4Pb where I showcased a day in the life of Officer Stacey Milligan. And today, I wrote about how I researched cop culture for http://thoniehevron.wordpress.com/

At the bottom of each post is a link to the next stop.

I do hope some of you will follow along, and perhaps even enter my contest to have a character in my next book named after you.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith