Marilyn's Musings

In early 2011, the company I worked for was bought out. Over the next few months, 90% of our employees were laid off. I was one of the last. Looking for work, I learned a great deal about age discrimination. That’s a story for another time. After about a year, I spotted a notice for a writing class at the local senior center, a place I had sworn never to enter. From the notice, I had the feeling it was a resume improvement presentation. Oh, well, swallowed my pride. The class was about creative writing. I fell in love with the process, and, in addition to taking the local class, I returned to college and began taking English classes. One afternoon at the senior center, the instructor randomly passed out pictures. The assignment was to describe the setting in fifteen minutes. I couldn’t do it. I was astonished that a story filled my mind. In the time allotted, I had a rough outline of The Mona Lisa Sisters. The title then, and eight-plus years later, it still is. Until then, all I had…

David Knop’s  new book is Dead Horses, a different western.
New Mexico tribal police officer Pete Romero embarks on another thrill-packed hunt to find whoever has been leaving dead Arabian horses across the Southwest. A brutal double-murder involving his childhood friend on his own reservation stretches Romero’s skills and loyalties, while trying to unravel the puzzling clues that trail a mysterious stranger in time to stop a long-brewing feud from turning into a modern war.
Romero tightropes between the natural and supernatural while battling wolves, dirty cops, and an unrelenting, murderous grizzly throughout his race to save hundreds of innocent lives before they, too, become part of the dark, hidden side of Southwest history.
David reports, "I have been interested (obsessed) with Native Americana since I was a child and read as much as I can about America’s first inhabitants. What I admire the most is their incredible stamina and ability to survive the most horrendous of circ…

Readers often ask me how much is true that I put in my books. 
To be perfectly honest, a lot that has happened in my life or to people I know turns up in one book or another but significantly changed. The true event is often what trigger the idea for the plot.
For instance, in Bones in the Attic the main plot is about bones found in a trunk in an attic and the question is was the person the skeleton belongs to murdered?
I can't tell you much about the skeleton as too much of the plot is based on something that happened to a friend of mine, and when she told me, believe me, I was surprised and a bit shocked by her revelation.
Another body in the story is based on a true happening where I live, in fact only two doors away. We live out in the country so our homes are separated much more than they would be in the city. 
Also where we live we has a definite fire season which extends from summer far into fall and the first rains, and it's the same over on the coast, but they are mostly v…

Yes, Tangled Webs is about lies, but also not revealing important information to those you love.
When I wrote this one, I knew I wanted to complicate the budding romance between Chief Chandra Taylor and the mayor, Devon Duvall. The perfect idea popped into my head.
I also wanted to write more about Detective Milligan's daughter Beth--how she is developing as a person.
What's one of the worst things that can happen to a parent? A missing child. Yep, that's there too.
Those of you who have read other books in this series know that Milligan's ex-wife, Kerrie, is a shrew. Well, the shrew is back. It is so much fun to write about disagreeable characters.
Yes, there is a murder in Tangled Webs, a popular teacher at a day care center is stabbed on her own front porch. Much of the business about the day care center did come from my experience working in various day cares--however no one was murdered during the years I did this. (I loved working with kids in these centers, but…

Yes, I'm doing it again: Murder in the Worst Degree will be free until midnight July 28. This is the newly edited  version. 
This has always been one of my favorites in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, and it has one of my best opening lines.
There are new characters that I especially like: the three old guys who hang out in McDonald's and the bag lady who fears Spider Man.
The title was given to me by a fellow writer and I didn't know how to tie it in until I got toward the end. It has lots of great reviews, and one bad one.
Since it's  free, try it out and see what you think:
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Worst-Degree-Rocky-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B08B43RZBH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Murder+in+the+Worst+Degree+by+F.+M.+Meredith&qid=1595602125&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Remember I write this series as F. M. Meredith
Marilyn

Yep, this one is re-edited, re-published and with a new cover.
Officer Gordon Butler is definitely the star of No Bells. He's had various sized roles in many of the Rocky Bluff P.D. books. His personal and professional life have had lots of bumps along the way. In this one, he falls in love but the woman he's enamored with becomes a major suspect in a murder case. 
He promises her he'll find the real killer. He's warned by the police detectives to stick to his regular job of policing. 
As usual, he runs into all kinds of problems such as a panty thief thief who leaves a disgusting calling card. (Thanks to on of my police buddies from PSWA for this tale.) And he takes on a winged threat that has cowed a bar owner and his patrons. Nothing is ever easy for Gordon.
I had fun writing this one, though it's not such fun for Gordon.
And yes, the usual cast of characters are there plus some new ones. I'm particularly fond on one young man who has Down Syndrome who know…