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Showing posts from May, 2008

More About Mayhem in the Midlands

Every mystery con or writers conference has its own personality. Mayhem has a super friendly atmosphere--and is attended by many mystery fans and readers. Over the years I've been blessed by making good friends with several of these fans. Also, for a small con (less than 200 this year), they manage to draw some big name writers such as: Jeff Abbott, Jan Burke, Sean Doolittle, JT Ellison, Chris Grabenstein, Charlaine Harris, Libby Fischer Hellman, J.A. Konrath, Twist Phelan and a slew of mid-listers and small press authors, like I am. For the most part, the authors are friendly and accessible too. In some ways, this particular con feels like a family reunion. It's so good to spend time with those you've grown to love, it's also fun to meet and greet the newbies, and easy to ignore those who are caught up in their own importance. Of course hubby and I have particular favorites among the folks. He loves Mayhem because he has a bevy of admirers. (Of course that's not un

Back Home From Mayhem

We're home after 4 1/2 glorious days in Omaha at Mayhem in the Midlands. We had a great time. Surprised though to come home to rain and 58 degree weather. When we left we'd been having a heat wave. Also came home to no water. Sometime during the night a critter chewed through an electric wire on our water pump and shorted the breaker. Hubby is fixing it now. Always something. We gave away some of our furniture to a grandson--and now we have an empty spot in part of our living room. We need to do some big time carpet cleaning now. Oh, and did I tell you that we're remodeling a bathroom? That's fun, having workers traipse through the house and my office on their way to the torn up bathroom. We have another grandson living with us. Thank goodness we have so many bedrooms. This has to be short, going to help a granddaughter order something on the Net. More laters. Marilyn

New Review for Smell of Death

This one made me cheer! AAA Book Review Smell of Death Author: F. M. Meredith a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith Publisher: Tigress Press Reviewer: Jeff Edwards "Smell of Death is a tightly woven tapestry of romance, human tragedy, and murder. Officer Stacey Wilbur has problems. As a single parent and the only female officer assigned to the Rocky Bluff Police Department, her life is quite complicated enough. When she suddenly finds herself dealing with two murders, a kidnapped child, and a pair of clumsy burglars, things begin to get out of control. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, she’s beginning to fall for one of the detectives in her squad. Author F. M. Meredith has been compared to Joseph Wambaugh, and I can definitely see the connection. The cops of her fictional Rocky Bluff PD have lives that extend beyond the chase and the crime scene. They struggle to raise their children, deal with leaky faucets, and pay their mortgages. They have hopes, loves, fears, and nightmares. They co

More on the Public Safety Writers Association Conference

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I wanted to share this photo from the conference because I love it. Keith Bettinger, retired cop, is receiving one of his prizes from Michelle Perin-Callahan, contest chair. Keith also took care of securing the hotel and solving all the problems that came up--and yes, they do happen in the best planned conferences. Keith has a wonderful sense of humor and keeps everyone in stitches with his cop stories. He's written a full-length book and lots of short stories. Michelle is a police dispatcher, writes for several law enforcement magazines, is a mom of two, and a newlywed, besides being in charge of the PSWA writing contest. She's a great gal and lots of fun to be around. To show how supportive she is, she drove authors to Henderson to a bookstore for a group signing after the conference even though she didn't have a book to sell. This is a great group. I could go on and on about them. If you write mysteries with characters in law enforcement or fire fighting or other public

On Politics

Oh, my, I have no idea how to vote. I don't like any of the candidates. Yes, we can certainly use a change--but I don't want a change that's going to be scary either. Maybe I'll just throw a dart. I'm never been much for politics. The nicest, most intelligent person who runs for president has to promise to do things for horrible people in order to get elected. Yes, they do and if you don't think so, you're naive. Politics corrupt. It would be far better if we went back to the early (I mean really early) days when politicians weren't paid for their work--and they actually did something. Just think of all the money that would be saved and there's be money to take care of the country's business. When you get to be my age you did get to be cynical about such things. I feel a bit the same about global warming. All these movie stars, politicians and other celebrities who are going on and on about what WE should do, while they still have multiple cars,

On Posting Regularly

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Because I have three other posts I need to do I'm not always up-to-date on my own. Wanted to share a bit about the Public Safety Writers Association conference held last weekend in Las Vegas. The photo is of Sunny Frazier who gave a great and entertaining presentation on book covers. This conference is small, which is a good thing, because everyone has the opportunity to really get-aquainted and network with one another. Hopefully, we'll soon have a date and place for our next get-together which will have a name, Crime Writers and Fighters. My next conference coming up is Mayhem in the Midlands, another favorite. It's held in Omaha every year, which has become a favorite city for hubby and me to visit. That's it for now. Marilyn http://fcitionforyou.com