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Showing posts from August, 2013

Cup of Demons, Christian Horror

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What a surprise! I had no idea this one was available yet. If you like to read really scary books with a surprising ending--you'll love Cup of Demons. This is the first time I've seen the cover too--and I think it fits. I broke a big writing rule with this book, there is a family whose female members have names beginning with M. And no, you won't get confused. There is a reason for it. The story begins with Maginel as a little girl listening to her great Aunt Magda telling how her mother died. It's a tale she'd heard often and doesn't realize how much that old story will affect her own life. I do hope some of you will try this tale. http://www.amazon.com/Cup-of-Demons-ebook/dp/B00EREHPV2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377814279&sr=1-1&keywords=Cup+of+Demons Marilyn

A Murder Amongst Angels by Tony Piazza.

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I'm fortunate enough to have met Tony through the Central Coast Chapter of Sisters in Crime. He's now the president of the chapter. His latest book is now out and I think it has one of the best covers I've seen in a long time. I'm reading the book now and it reminds me a lot of the detective novels of the '40s and '50s. I asked Tony what inspired Murder Amongst Angels and he gave me this answer: "I had received numerous requests to bring my detective, Tom Logan back. In contemplating what kind of story I could weave around him to mark his return, I hit upon a real life mystery that had fascinated me for some time. In the 90s I saw a film called "Hot Toddy" based upon the 1935 death of actress/ comedienne Thelma Todd. The mystery haunted me. It had all the ingredients for a good story...gangsters, dishonest politicians, crooked cops, beautiful platinum blonde found dead under suspicious circumstances, and the smell of cover-up. Takin

How I Celebrated My Birthday

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This was a momentous one--and we had great fun celebrating it with family. Youngest daughter spent a lot of time in the kitchen. She's brought out her trays of homemade enchiladas and is getting the rest of the meal ready. This was our first night together. A pool tournament followed dinner--hubby and middle daughter wipe out everyone. Won all but the last game. I'm watching with one of my son-in-laws. More of the pool game and me in the background. Lori ready to take a shot. Decorating for party. Me and middle daughter on cruise. My handsome hubby wearing his Hawaiian clothes for the party. After a wonderful dinner, we all played Tripoli--it was fun even though hubby and I lost. And that's  how I celebrated my birthday. Marilyn

Two Big Writing Tips

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I love reading books by writers that I know. Yes, some of them are self-published and some are with small presses and a few with "big" publishers. When I'm reading for fun, I try to turn off the editing part of my brain and just enjoy the story. Sometimes though, things just jump out at me. It happens in almost every book I read--but more often in the self-pubbed, small press group. One thing that can be bothersome to a reader--whether they know anything about writing or not is paragraphs that are far two long. If a paragraph takes up half a page or longer--it should be broken up. Yes, even if the information is related. White space is good.  It makes the reading easier on the eyes. And tip number two. I've given this one before, but it's a good reminder. When someone new does or says something, the writer should start a new paragraph. Why? It gives that white space I just wrote about, but even more important it helps the reader know who is doing or

My Upcoming Appearances

Everything is set for  the following in-person appearances. Saturday and Sunday, October 5 and 6, Wordstock, Portland, OR  I’ll be with the Oak Tree Press booth. (This will be an adventure as I'm driving up with my publisher, Billie Johnson.) Friday, October 11, Visiting with a Book Club in Porterville. (I visited with this group years ago with my very first published book.)   Saturday, October 12, Mystery Writer Event, 12 p.m.- 4 p.m. The Book Barn, Clovis CA (This will be my first visit to this book store and I'm looking forward to it.) Saturday, October 19, Taste of the Arts, 10 – 4, Visalia CA, I’ll have my own booth. (I'm doing this in place of the Apple Festival--only one day and I don't have to bring my own tent.) And the whole month of October I’ll be on a blog tour for my latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Spirit Shapes . Hope to see some of you  in one place or another. Marilyn

Review of Final Respects, #1 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

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Because this is such a great review of Final Respects , I borrowed it to post on my own blog. This was posted on http://thenwfireblog.com   by  Lisa Swenson We all remember the infamous quote, “God Created Firefighters so Cops Could Have Heroes Too” seems to be etched in our minds. With Police Officers fitting snugly into our First Responder category, it felt only natural to share the stories that are written about them and how we all know they are everyone’s  Heroes.  They lay their lives on the line to protect and to serve us every day. In my recent review of  ”Final Respects” the first book in the Rocky Bluff PD crime series by F.M. Meredith, she gives us a peek into the lives of many:  Police Officers, their families, the Department, the community, answering “the” call and how they interface with each other. From Chapter 1, the story and it’s characters held my undivided attention hostage until the very end.  This is the first book in the series, as the wr

My Oak Tree Press Books

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For those of you who are not familiar with the Rocky Bluff P.D.series, its much different than you might expect. Besides the fact that the police officer in these stories are confronted with crimes to solve, the spotlight is often on the officers themselves and what is happening in their private lives. When I first started writing this series--though at the time I had no idea it would continue on past Final Respects, my goal was to show how the job affected the families and what was going on at home and in he officers' private lives affected the job. Though many of the characters and their lives continue from one book to the next, the books can all be read as a stand-alone. Every mystery is solved by the end. Though I've never been in law enforcement, I've always had people involved in law enforcement in my life. My uncle was a police officer and I babysat for the cop's family who lived up the street when I was a kid. We lived in a neighborhood full of cops an

Gerri Finger Writes About The Devil Laughed

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Thanks Marilyn for inviting me to once again share my news and views on your excellent blog. I am a retired journalist and the author of nine crime novels in different subgenres. On August 21, the third in my Moriah Dru/Richard Lake Series will be published by Five Star Cengage Publishing Company. Let me introduce you to THE DEVIL LAUGHED. Dru -- the owner of Child Trace, a specialty PI agency -- and her lover, Lake -- an Atlanta Police detective -- team up to solve the disappearance of the sailboat Scuppernong and three of the four people aboard her. The fourth, a man named Johnny, was found in the waters of the marina. In the reverse of her child-finder role, Dru is hired by Evangeline to find her mother, Candice, one of the missing and Johnny’s wife. Evangeline, a precocious yet annoying adolescent, has faith that her mother is alive. My post today deals with a subject that has me going back to old mystery novels like Agatha Christie (read all many times), Ngaio Ma

The Importance of Reviews

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Hard as it is to admit, reviews have great importance--not just on Amazon, but everywhere. Of course I'm speaking about good reviews. I've been fortunate enough to get mostly good reviews--but not nearly enough. Does that mean not many people have read my books? I hope not. I've never been a best seller, but I do have a loyal following. And though I do write for readers who say they are anxiously waiting for the next book, whether it be a Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery (and yes, one is coming soon) or a Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel (the next one is written just waiting for my critique group to hear it all the way through), I also write because I love my characters and want to know what is going to happen to them next. Since I am their creator, I have to write another book to find out. Not having many reviews can work against the promotion for a book in a couple of ways--too few and readers wonder why more people didn't leave their opinions. There are some promo

What you Might Not Know About Working with Small Presses

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Both of my series are with small presses: Oak Tree Press and Mundania. I've been with many others before these two. I was fortunate to meet both of these publishers at writing conferences. I met Dan Rietz, Mundania's publisher at Epicon and Billie Johnson, who owns Oak Tree, at Public Safety Writers Association's conference. At these first meetings I had other publishers. As fate would have it, both of my publishers quit the business later on. It wasn't too hard to figure out where I should go next. Because I had a track record, successful books behind me, I didn't have to go through the whole querying process. With Mundania, I saw the publisher at yet another conference and he told me to send my next manuscript. I spoke at a conference OTP put on, and signed a contract during that time period. Querying and submitting a manuscript is so much easier nowadays. Most of it is done via the Internet. When you submit a manuscript you want to make sure it is clean a