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Showing posts from January, 2008

Virtual Book Tour for Smell of Death

This is where I'll be bopping around on my virtual book tour for the month of February. Do come and see what I'm up to. Feb 4 http://buzzthebook.blogspot.com (spotlight) Feb 5 http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com (interview) Feb 6 http://rebecca2007.wordpress.com (interview) Feb 7 http://www.inspiredauthor.com (interview) Feb 8 http://z15.invisionfree.com/StoryCrafters/ (forum Q & A) Feb 11 http://storycrafters.blogspot.com/ (guest post) Feb 12 http://www.j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/ (review) Feb 13 http://www.thewriterslife.blogspot.com (interview) and http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin (podcast) Feb 14 http://theplotline.wordpress.com/ Feb 15 http://theplotline.wordpress.com/ Feb 18 http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/ (guest post) Feb 19 http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com (if I have time to review the book I will) Feb 20 http://www.mystery-books.com/ (review and guest post) Feb 21 http://beyondthebooks.wordpress.com/ (interview) Feb 22 http://www.mys

Luv is Murder

Thursday morning around 3 a.m. hubby and I will be heading off to the airport to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Chicago. We're attending Luv is Murder, the mystery conference, for the first time. Fellow author and friend, Mary Welk, suggested we try it. Hubby and I both enjoy going to mystery conferences and conventions. We've made a lot of friends who it's always great to see once again. Of course this is also a way to hopefully find new readers for my books. I'll be on two panels and there are plenty of others I want to visit. I'll be joining two authors who are on other blogs with me, Morgan Mandel on Mystery Turles, and Evelyn David on the new Stiletto Gang Blog. http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com/ The first post will be up tomorrow. I'll be posting regularly on Tuesdays. One great thing about attending a con of any kind, is that you leave all your daily duties behind. Though I may think about what I ought to be doing occasionally, most of the time I'll be h

Some Tidbits about Smell of Death

My latest book, Smell of Death , the fourth in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series has it’s roots in several places. I began writing the series with the idea in mind of showing how the families of police officers and what goes on with them affects the job, and how the job affects the families. Many of the characters, good and bad, in the first three books were inspired by the police officers and their families who lived in our neighborhood years ago. These were people we partied with, and I had coffee breaks with their wives. Another inspiration was my son-in-law who was a police officer in Oxnard for 15 years and later lost his life as a deputy in El Dorado County. He bravely took me on my first ride-along; letting me follow him around as long as I promised not to tell anyone I was his mother-in-law. When I moved to Springville, I went on two ride-alongs with officers of the Porterville P.D. Because I arrived early, I sat in on the shift change. When the men learned I was an author, they bega

Virtual Book Tour

Yep, I'm doing it again. In February, I'll be bopping around in space, visiting one blog after another. It should be interesting. I've certainly answered the most unusual questions and as directed, written some amazing and unusual articles about Smell of Death, the latest in my Rocky Bluff P.D. series. If you're interested, you can take a look at http://virtualbooktoursforauthors.blogspot.com:80/2008/01/smell-of-death-virtual-book-tour-08.html to give you an idea about the book and what I'm doing. I've written it under the name of F. M. Meredith, but obviously it's no secret that it's me who wrote the book. Years ago, I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of families where the husband was in law enforcement. We all partied together and the wives and I did coffee and our children were friends. I learned a lot about how the job affected the families and what was going on in the families affected the job. Later, my daughter married a police officer. I expe

Revisiting Sherlock Holmes

I belong to three Sisters in Crime chapters, San Joaquin, Central Coast and the Los Angeles chapters. The San Joaquin sisters meet in Fresno, the closest to home, though it takes about an hour and 45 minutes to get there, if there isn’t much traffic. I go whenever I can for two big reasons, I enjoy the company of mystery lovers many of whom are good friends, and there is almost always an interesting speaker. This time it was Wally Conger, a life-long Sherlock Holmes fan and collector. He shared many interesting facts about Sherlock Holmes that I had never heard before and some intriguing insights. He pointed out that the hero on House is based on Sherlock Holmes in many ways. The doctor, House, is certainly a detective, he’s anti-social, a drug addict, doesn’t do well with relationships, all traits he has in common with Holmes. Another TV detective who has Holmes' traits is Monk. The Sherlock Holmes books were published between 1887 and 1927. Conger believes the first books are the

Off and Running

Yep, I'm off an running in planning my promotion for Smell of Death. Have the launch party lined up--have to make the invitations, but my posters to put around town are done. I'm getting bookmarks made (if you want one, let me know), and I've been working on some of interviews for the blogs I'll be visiting on my Virtual Book Tour. That is far more time consuming than you might imagine. You want the interviews or articles to be interesting enough that people will want to read them, and you have to make sure each one is different. In between, I've been skimming emails and trying to work on my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery. (Oh, and I did the laundry and changed the sheets on my bed--you know the stuff you have to do.) We are in the middle of the first big storm coming through California and there's a leak in my office. Hubby has put up something to catch the drips--but will have to wait until this rash of storms is over before he can do anything about the ro

Achieving Your Dream

"Every step I take brings me closer to the realization of my dreams." I was encouraged to repeat this phrase by Judi Moreo, author of You Are More Than Enough Achievement Journal (Stephens Press, Dec. '07) until I understood exactly what it meant. I suppose I've been floundering around hoping that the things I've been doing would indeed bring me closer to my dream. And what is my dream? In the beginning it was to be a published author. I've certainly achieved that dream--but what I'm reaching for now is more readers. It's so wonderful when I hear from someone who has finished reading one of my books and enjoyed it enough to let me know. So, of course, every step I take to let people know more about my books is a step closer to that dream--reaching more readers. http://tinyurl.com/3cga46 to see the cover of Judi Moreo's book. So what steps have you taken to realize your dreams? Marilyn