Marilyn's Musings

Thursday night I gave a talk at the Kings County Library in Hanford. But let me begin with what happened the day before. I received a call from the librarian telling me that a TV station would like to interview me. I was to go to Fresno (an hour and 45 minute drive from where I live) to the TV station and be there by 6 a.m. It would be locked so I was to knock on the side door. The interview would be 6 minutes long. Did I go? No. If I'd gotten up in time to do that--around 3 a.m., by the time the library talk rolled around I'd have been incoherent. Sometimes I'm smart enough to realize my limitations, and this was one of those times. My daughter-in-law agreed to go with me and drive (I hate driving after dark in places I'm not familiar with). We used the Magellan to tell us where the library was, it did--one of the world's modern miracles--then we found a restaurant to eat dinner before my gig. It was a lovely Italian restaurant--but the prices were a bit high so we...

Probably by now you've guessed I belong to a lot of writers groups. Three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Epic, Public Safety Writers Association...and I also belong to Writers of Kern which is part of California Writers Club. I was fortunate to be one of the guest speakers at their conference this last Saturday. Hubby and I got up at 5 a.m. so we could leave by 6:30 to arrive at the starting time of 8 a.m. This was a small group with lots of familiar faces. The first speaker was Mike Russo of Russo's Books in Bakersfield. He described the dismal state of the book business. The next to speak was a poet who talked about creating poetry. My turn came and my topic was "Plot or Character, which is most important in Mystery?" Of course they are both important. I had a great time telling them why I thought each one was important. Last to speak was Steve Mettee, the publisher of Quill Driver Books. We've shared program time more than once. After...