Marilyn's Musings

The 55 plus community in The Trash Harem  is fictional. However it developed from the two such communities that my eldes and youngest daughter live-in. I took the inside of one home and switched it around a bit for the inside of the home Tempe and Hutch's friends live in. The outside of the home has a resemblance to some of the homes in the other community. For the community building, I used one that I'd been to for a book event--sort of. The community is built on a hill in Temecula--no such place. If you want to see how all this came together, be sure and take advantage of the .99 cent sale for the Kindle copy. https://www.amazon.com/Trash-Harem-Tempe-Crabtree-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B096KZDPH8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32UMGL4KLSHLN&keywords=The+Trash+Harem+by+Marilyn+Meredith&qid=1676593725&s=books&sprefix=the+trash+harem+by+marilyn+meredith%2Cstripbooks%2C329&sr=1-1 Marilyn

Deciding what should be on a cover is always something the author and/or the publisher must decide. Since the title of my new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery is The Trash Harem , yes, it does refer to trash containers, the idea of one on the cover didn’t appeal. One of the threads in the plot involves an old oak tree on property belonging to the Pechanga Indians. If you’ve never heard of this tribe of native people, they are located in the Temecula area (very southern California) and own the very popular, Pechanga Resort and Casino. The Great Oak, called Wi’aasal, is over one-thousand years old making it the largest naturally grown, coastal live oak tree. The huge trunk is over twenty-feet around, and the largest branches touch the ground, and it is over one-hundred feet tall. This oak tree still produces acorns. The native people revere this oak tree whose canopy sheltered many generations. It is legendary and holds spiritual significance. At one time, the land this magnificen...

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...

  Promotion has always been difficult: figuring out what to do, where and when: what on-line, and what in-person: what conferences to go to; book signings and other appearances: using paid promotion--what and how much. The in-person stuff has become iffy because of Covid. Boucheron, the biggest mystery convention of all expected this month, was cancelled because of the uptick of Covid. Fortunately for me and others, the much smaller PSWA went on as planned even though several of those who registered cancelled. The conference was wonderful. And I've not heard of anyone getting sick and it's been more than 10 days since it ended. Right now I'm planning two in-person events. A small book signing at our church, I've done them there before, and a talk and signing at the Porterville Art Gallery. We'll see how they go. As for online stuff, I'm in the middle of a blog tour--and a few copies of The Trash Harem  have been purchased.  I've been promoting the tour on Fa...