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Showing posts from October, 2008

Adult Members of Our Houshold in Costume

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Believe it or not, these are the adults who either live with us or in the rental next door--all relatives but one. Jumpsuit is Chris, our grandson who is living with us for awhile, Holly, a Playboy Bunny for the evening, is granddaughter's friend, Jessi, granddaughter, playing a very sexy cop, Elaine, daughter-in-law is a lady boxer, note the pink boxing gloves, and my son, a very scary gladiator. The muscles are his. Hope they have a safe and sane time. The younger ones all have dates. They're headed for a Halloween party at a club. Glad I'm not going with them. Years ago when our kids were all still at home and young, we had lots of Halloween parties. The house we lived in then had a great party room. We moved all the furniture against the walls, put all the goodies on the ping pong table, and danced away the night. The days are long gone for this old lady. Hubby and I are going to watch a movie on DVD and Ghost Whisperer. Tomorrow I've got a book festival in Bakersfi

Halloween!

Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays. When I was a kid it was a time to gather as many free goodies as possible. I grew up during WWII and candy wasn't easy to come by. Sugar was rationed, so even the baking of cakes and cookies was limited. My grammar school went all out for Halloween. Everyone wore their costumes to school and we paraded around the school yard. (I have old movies to prove it.) Then we returned in the evening for bobbing for apples, other old fashioned games and lots of goodies. When I had my own kids, the oldest ones took the younger ones trick-or-treating, and I had the great fun of handing out the treats. Some years I dressed as a hag or something else scary. My favorite was when I made a scary looking box and the kids had to reach inside for their treat. One of my nephews dressed up like a skeleton with a skull mask and a skeleton hand to give out the candy. He scared everyone so much that he didn't have to hand out much candy, instead the kids

Ode to Tony HIllerman

Tony Hillerman passed away this last week. He will be missed both as a person and a writer. Though I was never fortunate enough to meet Mr. Hillerman, I read all of his books. Of course his books about the Navajo and other Indians had an influence on me--and was part of the reason I created an Indian heroine. What he wrote gave me an interest in the Native American culture that I'd never had before. What I've learned is that in many ways, Indians are much like all the rest of us. There are good and bad among them, they love and hate, care for one another and sometimes do things they are sorry for later. I went to school with only one person of Native American heritage--and back then it wasn't popular to have Indian blood. My fellow student is now a professor and an expert on Native American culture. When we first moved to the foothills of the Sierra, I had no idea we lived near an Indian reservation, nor anything about it or the people who lived there. As time went on and I

This and That

Just got home from Las Vegas. No, I didn't go to gamble, hubby and I went to first, celebrate our 57th wedding anniversary and stayed with my sis and her hubby. Went to dinner, visited, watched old family movies and talked and talked. Second, I had a booksigning at Cheescake and Crime in Henderson NV. That's is a wonderful bookstore! Didn't have many people at the signing, but those who came were greatly appreciated. Two PSWA members, a wife, and the president of Epic, as well as my sis and her husband. Instead of giving the talk I'd planned, we sat around a table and visited--talked about writing and all sorts of interesting topics. While traveling I read David Morrell's Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing. Wonderful book on the craft of writing, in fact one of the best I've ever read! I'm exhausted, but wanted to post a bit today. Marilyn http://fictionforyou.com

A Delightful Morning

This morning I gave a presentation to the Anthropology class at Porterville College. The first time I did it, the professor asked me to talk about the Tule River Indians. Those are the Native American group that I borrow from for my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries. I say "borrow from" because I've changed the name of the actual tribe in my novels. I certainly don't presume to be an expert. As I told the professor, I'm writing fiction. However, I went and talked to the young students and had a great time. Because my latest book is about the Tolowa people, I offered to come and tell his class this year what I knew about them. He was enthusiastic as he said he didn't know much about them. As usual, I gave everyone in the class a copy of Deadly Omen , the first book in the series. It has a lot about a Pow Wow and quite a bit about the local reservation--but, like I said, I borrow from it rather than give an actual depiction. (Igave the professor a copy of Interve

Book Fair in Chowchilla

Sale To Benefit Central Valley Writers Workshop and Friends of the Chowchilla Library Published authors from Springville (of course that's me) to Modesto will be available to sell and sign their books on Saturday, November 22 from 10:30 to 2:30 in the Chowchilla Library, corner of Kings Avenue and 3rd Street . Pleasure reading, informative, and suitable for gifts, they include: Fiction and non-fiction; mystery to romance; Children's books; biographies and how-to books Join us to meet our local authors. Support and encourage their writings. Hope to see some of you there! And I'm also on the following blog today: http://valleygirlmusings.blogspot.com/

Soap Box Time

(I wrote this on another blog I'm on, but I think it's important enough to repeat on my own blog.) I'm back on my soap box once again. On DorothyL, the premiere list for mystery fans and authors, they've been discussing the fact that Bouchercon has voted against discriminating against small press as far as allowing their authors to serve on panels. (They won't let self-pubbed or those who paid to be published however unless they've won a prestigious prize.) Left Coast Crime on the other hand will not allow any author published by a non-MWA approved publisher be on a panel. Though going to mystery cons is an enjoyable experience, they are very expensive. If you can't be on a panel, your books will not be in the book room. If you're not on a panel of course no one will be able to purchase your book. For an author, part of the reason to go to a con is to let people know about your book. I've decided to only attend mystery cons and writers conferences wh

New Review, Interview and Contest

If you have time I'd love for you to go to: http://savvyverseandwit.blogspot.com/ and read the review, interview and enter the contest. Marilyn http://fictionforyou.com

Blog Tour and More

This where I'm visiting this week: Oct 13 http://itsallinthesetting.blogspot.com/ Oct 14 http://www.bookwormsballroom.blogspot.com/ Oct 15 http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/ Oct 16 http://savvyverseandwit.blogspot.com/ Oct 17 http://bermudaonion.wordpress.com/ I just returned from the WOW conference in Scottsdale AZ and have tons of work to do--as usual, but it was a terrific conference. A highlight for me was meeting and introducing thriller writer, David Morrell (First Blood-Rambo and many others). Of course I met many, many more lovely and great people. Becca Buckley should be commended for putting on a "Wow" of a conference. The big thing I heard from all of the speakers--except the New York publishers--was things are changing. Small presses are blooming, ways of selling books are changing. Since I just got home have mountains of work to do so that's it for now. Marilyn http://fictionforyou.com

Moving Right Along

Here's a new book trailer for Kindred Spirits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3e9JoREt_M It's really a lot of work to promote a book. Blogging is great, but you must keep putting new content onto your blog to keep it interesting so people will want to come back. It's also important to post on the listserves that you belong to, so people remember you and your book. I've sent a lot of books off to folks for review and so far have only received three reviews. Two were wonderful, one was okay. The okay one kind of gives away the end, and also let me know that the reviewer doesn't understand that there are different kinds of mysteries, some are not puzzles, some the detective or sleuth knows or suspects who the murderer is but has to find a way to prove it--more or less what happens in Kindred Spirits. My calendar is full of book signings, book and craft fairs, in fact, something is happening every weekend except for Thanksgiving weekend and including the first weekend

New Review Found on DorothyL

"Finished Marilyn Meredith's KINDRED SPIRITS, and was sorry it ended. As always, I enjoy entering Tempe Crabtree's world. In this book, not only is there a murder--in the midst of one of those awful California fires we hear so much about--it's all tied up with the Tolowa Indians and what our ancestors did to eradicate them. Not a pretty part of our history, but important for us to learn, I think. Their story repeats, with even more devastation, what also happened to the Plains Indians in my area. (I was born in Oklahoma--Indian Territory--and now live next to one section of the Cherokee's Trail of Tears.) I continue to be amazed at how much truth, be it history, or current problems, that we can learn through reading fiction. I often speak of the importance of reading fiction in our learning process. For example, many novels hold the voices of our past, even when the material substance of those voices has vanished. That's certainly the

Next Stop on Blog Tour and the Reagan Library

http://bookexcerpts.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/kindred-spirits-by-marilyn-meredith/ is where I am today. Tomorrow I'll be here: http://thebookrack.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/kindred-spirits/ We just got back from what my eldest daughter called a field trip. She and her hubby and mine all went to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. What a beautiful place! The setting is gorgeous as is the view. We toured the museum, went aboard Air Force One, saw a replica of the rose garden at the White House, visited Ronald Reagan's grave. Most exciting though was they had the actual Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln. Marilyn http://fictionforyou.com