MANIC MONDAY – My Writing Day by Marilyn Meredith

Have you ever dreamed of being immortalized in print? Well, here’s your chance! Award-winning author Marilyn Meredith is running a contest during her Lingering Spirit Virtual Book Tour, which runs from July 6th through July 30th. Marilyn will name a character in her next Rocky Bluff P.D. book after one reader who leaves the most comments at any of the blog stops during her virtual book tour. This book is currently scheduled to be released in 2012. Leave more than one comment and get your name in Marilyn’s next Rocky Bluff P.D. book!

Follow along on Marilyn’s tour at Pump Up Your Book!

Buy a copy of Lingering Spirit at Amazon.com

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Nicole Ainsworth’s husband, Steve, has a premonition of his death and moves his family to a mountain community where he serves as a deputy sheriff. He is killed in the line of duty and his wife, Nicole, is left behind to struggle with the changes forced upon her life. While trying to cope with her grief, raise her two little girls, her husband’s spirit visits her on numerous occasions. She soon learns that someone else is watching over her too.

My Writing Day
Over the years, my writing day has changed many times. While I was writing the first book that was published, I was babysitting three grandchildren, five years, three years and one and a half. I sat at the end of the dining room table with my typewriter and wrote away, while they played with their toys in the living room. Of course I had to stop to make lunch and snacks, change diapers, all the things you do when babysitting. But I still managed to write.

Later, my husband and I bought and took over a licensed residential care facility where we lived and cared for six women with developmental disabilities. We did this for nearly thirty years. I wrote nearly every weekday beginning at 6:30 after the women left the house to go to work and day programs. I also did the laundry while writing. I stopped at noon to do things I needed to do for the business. Of course I cooked and cleaned, and took some days off to shop for groceries and sometimes took the women to the doctor and other appointments. Evenings and weekends I devoted to the women. After the women went to bed, I edited what I’d written during the day.

During this time period, we also provided a home for older grandchildren, one boy stayed with us until he was twenty. We did all the things a parent is expected to do when these kids lived with us too. And I wrote.

Retired from that business, I still write in the mornings when my brain works the best. I’ve always had lots of interruptions and still do. Hubby comes in and sits in the chair in my office and I know he wants to discuss something or ask a question. We have another grown grandson living with us now, and though he’s gone to work a lot in the daytime, he does the same thing as his grandfather when he wants my attention. Fortunately, I’m able to return to whatever I’m working on without a problem.

Lingering Spirits was written a long time ago, back when we still had the care facility. It appeared first as an e-book. Resurrected by Oak Tree Press, it is now a trade paperback too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marilyn Meredith is the author of nearly thirty published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Dispel the Mist from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, An Axe to Grind is the latest from Oak Tree Press.

She is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Internet chapter, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.comand her blog at
http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com

Frank Nash: the Most Inspirational English Teacher I Ever Did Know! By Vincent Zandri author of The Remains

I never set out to be a writer. Back in 1979, when I entered the Second Form in a 200 year old, all boys, military school called, The Albany Academy, I simply wanted to become a rock n’ roll star. Like Ringo or Keith Moon, I wanted to play drums in a huge rock band, make a ton of money doing it, get lots of girls, and see the world. While most of the uniformed boys sat attentively in math class, taking copious notes, I drew illustrations of huge drums sets and stared out the window. All that changed when for the first time, I was introduced to Frank Nash in my second term English lit and writing course. First thing that caught my attention was the classroom itself. The Academy was an old building even back then, having been built in the 1920s. Made of stone and strong woods, with real blackboards instead of chalk boards, the place seemed like a kind of time warp. A school caught perpetually in the 19th century instead of one that would see the 21st century in only two more decades. But

Thirteen Things About The Bedtime of the Sky and Other Sleepy-Bye Stories

The Bedtime of The Sky and Other Sleepy Bye Stories is an illustrated Children's book of five of my original bedtime stories in verse. This book was actually written long ago for my nieces and nephew, John, Catherine and Elizabeth, when they were very young children. Although they are now in college, actually two have graduated, I do have a new little reader to write for, my four year old niece Jillian! I love writing poetry and fantasy stories and to mix magic with ordinary experiences. These bedtime stories in verse reflect my idea that there is magic in everyday events. For instance, I just know that there is a Dragon in the sock drawer that eats socks so we cannot find them, or that Dolls have a secret longing to help us clean up our room late at night! A little about myself, I was born in England and although my parents moved us all back to America about a year after I was born, I truly believe that the stories and British classics that I grew up with, have had a huge impact i

Seven Things About Dangerous Impulses

Today, I we have author F.M. Meredith visiting with us. I have had the pleasure of meeting Marilyn at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival a number of years ago. Join me as she shares seven things about her book. 1. Dangerous Impulses is # 9 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. Though every mystery is complete, every crime solved and the book written as a stand-alone, things happen to the continuing characters: the police officers and their families. Rocky Bluff is a small Southern California Beach community, located between Ventura and Santa Barbara, and mostly overlooked by tourists. 2. In every RBPD mystery/crime novel there are ongoing characters. One of the most popular with readers is Officer Gordon Butler. Nothing ever seems to go easy for him. Though he is not the “star” in Dangerous Impulses like he was in No Bells , I think his fans will be happy with what he ends up doing near the end of the book. Other characters are: Detective Milligan and his wi

First Draft to Published

Search This Blog