Welcome Marilyn Meredith

This is one of my favorite series.
Marilyn tells us below how it has changed. 

How my Rocky Bluff P.D. Series Has Changed

Looking back over the years I’ve been writing about the men and women on the Rocky Bluff P.D., I realize that the series itself has made some changes. In the first place, I hope my writing has improved since the beginning when I wrote Final Respects. Of course when I wrote that one, I had no idea I’d still be writing about these people these many years later.

In Final Respects there’s a bit of sex and a graphic murder scene. Nowadays I mostly hint at the sex and am not nearly as descriptive of the actual murders.

I must admit Bad Tidings and Fringe Benefits also have more sex and gory details than I now write about.

Detective Doug Milligan and Officer Stacey Wilbur’s romance begins in Smell of Death though both are in earlier books. There’s no sex, and the murders are off scene, but you see what Stacey and Doug see. There’s some funny stuff in this one too, even though the main plot is quite dark.

In No Sanctuary Doug and Stacey’s romance heats up a bit, and Stacey goes after a disgusting child molester, and I loved writing the scary scene at the end. The old church in that book is like the one I attended when I was a kid.

A reviewer said that she laughed in the opening scene of An Axe to Grind even though it is about the discovery of a decapitated body. Despite this premise, I think I did have a bit of a lighter hand in this book in many ways.

Angel Lost has no on-scene murder, though there is a murderer on the loose and a kidnapping. The focus is far more on the characters and what happens to them.

And I think I did the same in No Bells. Oh, yes, there’s a murder, but the main thrust of the story is about what happens with Gordon Butler and the other characters in the book. And I must admit there is a hint of sex in this one.

Dangerous Impulses does have a most horrendous murder in it but again, more important is what happens to all the characters—new and old.

And now, in the latest, despite the title, Murder in the Worst Degree, there are no gory details though there is a complicated murder. And of course, you’ll learn more about the lives of the members of the RBPD and their loved ones.

What will happen next I have no idea. One thing I’m sure of though, is what happens to the ongoing characters will play a most important role in whatever plot happens to unfold.

Thank you, Mike for hosting me today.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Blurb for the latest RBPD mystery, Murder in the Worst Degree: The body that washes up on the beach leads Detectives Milligan and Zachary on a murder investigation that includes the victim’s family members, his housekeeper, three long-time friends, and a mystery woman.

Bio: F. M. Meredith aka Marilyn Meredith is the author of over 35 published books. She enjoys writing about police officers and their families and how what happens on the job affects the family and vice versa. Having several members of her own family involved in law enforcement, as well as many friends, she’s witnessed some of this first-hand.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.meredith/

Contest:

Once again I am offering the opportunity to have your name used for a character in a book if you comment on the most blogs during this tour for Murder in the Worst Degree.

Today I’m visiting someone else too, so if you’re entering the contest you might want to visit:

http://kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com

and tomorrow is the last day and I’ll be visiting:

http://www.theladykillers.typepad.com/

And that plan is do nothing?

As you see from the date on the previous post, it is now many weeks since I said I was going to give blogging another go, and I have done nothing. But I am finally spurred to action by one of the first friends I made in the writing world - Marilyn Meredith.

The reason I have no time to blog is that I spend all my time writing and working on a building which I am remodeling into a bookstore. I know it's crazy to be opening an indie bookstore when others are going broke all around the country. But I have a realistic business plan - "lose as little money as possible."

I plan to host signings for all authors willing to come to the store because I enjoy them and my little city has no bookstore, unless you count Books-A-Million, which I don't. But until the store opens (target - this fall), I'll host authors on my blog. And the first one is Marilyn.

Taking another stab at blogging

The date of the post immediately prior to this one is November 31, 2012. That says it all about my enthusiasm for the phenomenon of blogging.

The two most enjoyable things about writing the Pot Thief series are the satisfaction of working at the craft of writing and hearing from readers. I love that people read my books.

But why would anyone want to read my blog? Fiction is created for readers. When I write, I have my readers in mind. I’m constantly asking whether they will like this passage, that line, the new character. If I succeed, they will enjoy the story.

Most of the blogs I read seem like little more than people sharing their inner dialog with the universe at large. Of course some blogs have a plan and a pattern. Julie Powell became famous for blogging about her effort to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook in 365 days. I liked the movie based on it, but I can’t imagine that I would have followed the blog. I’d much rather try the recipes myself than read about someone else doing so.

So here I am, blogging about the fact that I don’t like to write blogs. And this from a guy with a Ph.D. in mathematical logic.

But I have decided to give blogging another try. New editions of all six Pot Thief books with new covers and fresh edits have been officially launched today by my new publisher, Open Road Integrated Media. They are wonderful folks with impressive resumes and fresh new ideas about the publishing business. And I know the publicist and editor assigned to me, Nina Lassam and Pete Beatty respectively, no doubt expect me to blog, and I don’t want to disappoint them. So watch this spot to see what kind of a blog it turns out to be.

I have a plan.