Marilyn's Musings

Tidbits about the series and the book. Tempe Crabtree is a female resident deputy in a small mountain community. Though she works a regular 4 to 11 shift, five days a week, everyone calls her when there is an emergency or something unusual happens. Tempe is based on three women I met several years ago: a female resident deputy who worked in the mountain community where I live; a female police officer, who was a single mom and the only woman on the department, with whom I went on a ride-along; and an Indian woman I had a long conversation with one day who grew up on our local reservation. Tempe ’s first husband died and she raised her son, Blair, by herself until he was a teenager and she married Hutch Hutchinson, the pastor of the local church. By the time of Invisible Path , Blair is in college studying fire science. Invisible Path happens during the days before Christmas. Blair is home from college for the holiday and he’s brought along a friend. Blair is the first to notice a g...

Most writers realize the fact that no matter how many times they and their editor(s) check their manuscript typos and other mistakes seem to sneak through. This time, with THE TRASH HAREM, the gremlins had a great time. Before the book came out, I had a librarian friend check the manuscript. He found a few things, which of course I fixed. I went over it again thoroughly before sending it off to the editor. She, of course, found some errors and suggested changes for me to make--which I did. Once it was formatted, I went over it again. Once THE TRASH HAREM was on Amazon, of course I started promoting.  Right away I heard from a friend/fan who found two big errors. I'm glad she told me and I let the editor know. Then I received an email from another friend, and he'd found mistakes on the back cover! Yikes, that was a biggie! Why didn't I see them? I alerted my editor and she had seen them and sent the fixes in to Amazon, but they didn't take for some reason. They are fixed...

On Saturday, September 9th, from 2-5, I'll be at Barnes at Noble, 4001 California Ave., Bakersfield. I haven't done a bookstore signing in a long time and since a friend urged me to do this, even talked to the store's event manager, I decided to try once again. Years ago I had a signing in this store, so long ago I don't really remember how it went. My strategy, of course, is to let all my friends who live in Bakersfield know about the signing, put notices on Facebook and Twitter. And if you happen to live in Bakersfield, do stop by and say, "Hello." I believe I'll have copies of both A Cold Death  and Seldom Traveled. Looking forward to seeing some friends and making some new ones. Marilyn