Marilyn's Musings

For this weekend I will not be doing any writing. Heresy, you say? Nope, in this case family comes first. My eldest daughter and her hubby and their big Golden Retriever Archie drove their motor home over 5 through a snow storm to get here. Yes, snow storm--end of April in California--pretty crazy. They park the motor home at my other daughter's house. Everyone came here for dinner--barbecued spareribs prepared by my son. Delicious. Of course we yakked a lot--besides our guests, son and his wife, grandson who lives with us, granddaughter who lives next door were all with us. Later we went back to the motor home and watched Survivor--we're all hooked on it. Yakked for another hour and then went home. Today we're headed for the movies and we'll probably play some board games later. That's what we usually do when we're together. We've got a big, big family and I'm always happy when we can get together. So, that's why my writing is being put off until ne...

Two of my former Camp Fire Girls are on Facebook with me. I had a group of Blue Birds first and as they grew older they became Camp Fire Girls and I stayed their leader for 10 years. I had three kids when I began, and had two more children while I continued on with the group. One of the former Camp Fire Girls reminded me of the fact that when I was nine months pregnant I took them camping. Yes, I did. I asked the doc's permission and he said I could go as long as I called the Highway Patrol to take me to the hospital and didn't try to get there on my own. After all it was my fifth child. I think my son arrived about two weeks later. In case you think I'm super woman, I took too mom's along with me who helped with a lot including the hiking. I was far too large and uncomfortable to do any hiking. That was the year when the Beatles had first come to the U.S. just to give you an idea of how long ago it was. All the girls could talk about was how much they "loved"...

The notes for my next Rocky Bluff P.D. series are on the table right next to my computer desk. I have the time right now to start writing. Instead, I've done everything else I could think of doing. I changed my bed and washed the linen. I had to didn't I? After all, I had a scorpion in my bed for two nights. I did all five days of my Bible study because I know I have meeting I must attend, then my daughter and son-in-law are arriving on Thursday for the whole weekend. I received an email with another bio of an attendee for the PSWA conference and thought I needed to enter it right away into the bio sheet everyone will get at the conference. Since there are two missing, I sent them email reminders. Maybe someone else wants to go to the conference http://publicsafetywriter.com but thinks it's too late. I had to put something on Facebook letting people know they can still sign up. Time for another cup of Chai tea, so I heated up the water and made another cup. I found another ...

On Facebook I wrote, I Found a Scorpion in my bed--and I think that sounds like a title for a book. At the Stiletto Gang I wrote about my encounter with the scorpion which was right there on the bottom sheet when I turned back the bed. They don't scare me at all, though I didn't plan on sleeping with it. I went to get my husband and show him. Frankly, I thought the ugly thing was dead. When he came back with me, guess what? the scorpion had disappeared. I should have killed it when I first saw it. We shook out all the sheets, the covers--but no scorpion. No telling where it went. I couldn't see it anywhere so I went to bed. On Facebook, almost everyone who responded to my post was aghast. Some thought I should have slept anywhere else but that bed. Others thought I should never given up looking for it. The reality is even if the thing bit me I wouldn't die. It's a worse sting than a bee, but not fatal or even near fatal. My house is old with lots of cracks and crevi...

Last Friday night, the Visalia branch of the Tulare County Library hosted 10 authors for an author fest. I was privileged to be invited. We'd been given, via attachment, a poster to use for publicity. They also made individual posters for us that we could print out and use. I know they had newspaper publicity as well. They are really trying to get people to start reading again. The Friends of the Library were there to help and they provided yummy refreshments. Our instructions were to arrive by 6:15. My daughter-in-law came with me to help with the selling of the books. It's difficult to talk to prospective buyers and do the change making too. They library was just getting the tables moved around, but at each place was an easel with a huge poster with information about the author and his or her books and it was decorated appropriately. (They let us take these posters home and I'll use it again by changing some of the information.) The other authors arrived at about the same...

When I talk about what it means to be an author--I'm speaking of my own experiences. I'm with a small independent press so my experiences will be different from those with a major publisher and different from those who self-publish. Actually I've been published by a major publisher and self-published two books, but those experiences have been a while ago. I've had lots of experience with small presses--some good and some bad. I'm quite satisfied with both the small presses I'm with now, Mundania and Oak Tree. I do not get advances, my books come out in about a year after I've submitted, my publishers do some promotion but I do lots of promotion too. I get royalties--but by the time Amazon, Ingram's, bookstores, take their bite, the publishers get theirs, what's left for me is minimal. (Publishers don't get much either.) If I were in it just for the money, I'd have quit long ago. At this particular time, I want to see what is going to happen w...

Marilyn: First, Kathleen, tell us about your background. I retired from the SCPD in 2007 after 21 years. I worked in Patrol, Public Information, and Crime Stoppers. I handled the media during the tragedy of Flight 800 in July 1996, and the Katie Beers kidnapping in December & January 1992. Before that, I was a music teacher (I received my B.A. in Music Education from C.W. Post College, Long Island University), but I also had many other jobs...I was a waitress, a gal Friday, I worked in a deli, a bakery, I delivered mail, I was an assistant choral director at USDAN in Dix Hills (where artists like Mariah Carey and Natalie Portman spent their summer.) Marilyn: I have a feeling there's more. I've met Kathleen at the PSWA conference, and she just bubbles over. Kathleen: You're right, In the early 80s when teaching jobs were scarce and I taught music privately, I also worked for the Street Pulse Group; I used to poll radio stations across the U.S. and ask for their play list...