Marilyn's Musings

This could easily be one of the houses closer to the main thoroughfare of Rocky Bluff. What's interesting about Rocky Bluff, it is an imaginary place. However, it has its roots in many real places. The beach area is much like Oxnard was about thirty years ago--long before big developers came in and made it an expensive place to live. However, the town part, which climbs up a hillside which Highway 101 crosses over, is more like Ventura. When writing a new book, I like to find homes where the characters might live. Here's another one, as you can see it is on a hillside, like many are, with an apartment house near the top. What a lovely entrance to a home. Be looking for the new book, Murder in the Worst Degree, come March of 3014. Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

  Since I just sent off the corrections needed on the first galley proof for Murder in the Worst Degree   it will be a while until it will be available for purchase. The target date for publication is this coming March. At this stage, I can't even envision a cover. For those of you not familiar with this series, Rocky Bluff is a fictional beach town located between Santa Barbara and Ventura. And though it might have some similarities to Carpenteria, it's located farther south so it is in Ventura county. Despite the fact that it isn't a real place, it seems very real to me. I can see it in my mind's eye and of course I visit each time I write or think about one of the books. The series centers around the men and women who work for the Rocky Bluff Police Department and their families. I like to think of them as an ensemble cast and hope that readers are like me and want to know how things are progressing in their lives. Though every book is complete in that what...

There have been a couple of reviewers who have called my Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series a Police Procedural Soap Opera. And in some ways, I suppose they are right. The series has a regular case of characters whose lives continue you on in the next book. In one book, one character may be the most important, and in another it could be someone else. I certainly follow the lives of the different police officers and their families and friends. In some cases what is happening in their private lives is more important than what is happening on the job.   Thanks goodness that's where the comparison ends. I follow the soap opera, General Hospital--mainly because it's after lunch and a good time for me to rest. I must confess, that often I sleep through most of it. One of the things that happens on this show is that the characters change. Often it's because the actor playing a character wants to try something new. The character will be killed off by the writers or in some cases...

Angel Lost Blurbs: As plans for her perfect wedding fill her mind, Officer Stacey Wilbur is sent out to trap a flasher, the new hire realizes Rocky Bluff P.D. is not the answer to his problems, Abel Navarro can’t concentrate on the job because of worry about his mother, Officer Gordon Butler has his usual upsets, the sudden appearance of an angel in the window of a furniture store captures everyone’s imagination and causes problems for RBPD, and then the worst possible happens—will Stacey and Doug’s wedding take place? And here’s one from a fellow author that I love: "A pervert threatens women joggers on the beach, a robber threatens wealthy homes on the bluff, and an angel watches over the townspeople from a downtown window.  F. M. Merediths' latest Rocky Bluff P. D. novel is a gentle human drama about loneliness and change, through which the reader is pulled, page after page, by an assortment of compelling criminal curiosities." C. N. Nevets is a...