Murder We Write

Murder We Write
SinC CCC members pose for a photo for the chapter's anthology

Monday, February 14, 2011

Coming Soon, Angel Lost by F.M. Meredith


My latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel, Angel Lost, will be available in March from Oak Tree Press.

Angel Lost Blurb:

As plans for her perfect wedding fill her mind, Officer Stacey Wilbur is sent out to trap a flasher, the new hire realizes Rocky Bluff P.D. is not the answer to his problems, Abel Navarro’s can’t concentrate on the job because of worry about his mother, Officer Gordon Butler has his usual upsets, the sudden appearance of an angel in the window of a furniture store captures everyone’s imagination and causes problems for RBPD, and then the worst possible happens—will Stacey and Doug’s wedding take place?

And here’s one from a fellow author:

"A pervert threatens women joggers on the beach, a robber threatens wealthy homes on the bluff, and an angel watches over the townspeople from a downtown window. F. M. Meredith's latest Rocky Bluff P. D. novel is a gentle human drama about loneliness and change, through which the reader is pulled, page after page, by an assortment of compelling criminal curiosities."--C. N. Nevets is an author of psychological suspense.

I'm gearing up for my upcoming blog tour plus in-person events.

Marilyn

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sleuth Bella Kowalski Joins 21st Centruy

I am pleased (no THRILLED) to announce that Andy Zhang and the good folks at Aberdeen Bay have released my latest Bella Kowalski mystery, "Murder at Cuyamaca Beach", on Kindle, Nook, Sony e-Reader, and I-pad. New worlds for Bella and me to conquer. Onward and upward!



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608300374?ie=UTF8&tag=aberbay-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1608300374

Friday, December 10, 2010

AHOY!

Sunny here.

The writers conference at sea is back on board. The ill-fated Carnival Splendor (weren't we happy to miss THAT fiasco!) will set sail from Los Angeles for the Mexican Riviera on Oct. 30-Nov. 6. Yes, it's a Halloween party now! We'll be cruising down to Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Mazetlan. The conference is free, the berths start at $549 (cheaper than any conference out there!). For those of us that got cancelled, there's a 25% discount.

Cruise director Beverly Poitrast has put together a great package. There's champagne to toast the cruise, $50 onboard credit and an open-bar reception. Plus, we have bookbags filled with goodies (authors and publishers were VERY generous!) and we can sell books to all 3,000 people aboard.

I'll be putting together new panels and speakers. Hope some of you can come!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

KILLER NASHVILLE?

Despite its title, Killer Nashville was one of the most benign conferences I've ever attended. There were only about 300 attendees, all Southerners except for a San Francisco agent and me. At dinner, the two of us wondered when mac 'n cheese and Jello had become “vegetable side dishes.” Welcome to Tennessee!

I went to see Jeffrey Deaver. It amazed me that such a small conference managed to get him as keynote. I told him that he was much more fun in person than his books led me to believe. He says he likes to write in complete darkness—perhaps that explains his dark plots.

Surprisingly, most of the participants were unpublished authors looking for agents and publishers. I turned out to be one of the “big” names on the program. Pitch sessions were constantly going on but Billie and I had side-stepped that obligation. I'm an acquisitions editor and we did pitch sessions on the fly. I picked up three promising authors and several others emailed me query letters.

My panels were short story writing and “Lightening in a Bottle,” which was marketing. I talked about the “posse” idea of promotion, which is simply leading a pack of beginners to sites and teaching them to blog and set up personal pages (I'm on 35 such sites). That became a buzz word used throughout the conference.

One of the panelists on the marketing panel pooh-poohed the whole idea of little marketing give-aways. Heck, I love them and love coming up with something creative. Mine usually center around food: miniature boxes of raisins because my books are set in the Fresno area, Raisin Capitol of the World. I also ordered fortune cookies from Oriental Traders with my name and book title as the fortune because a fortune cookies is a clue in FOOLS RUSH IN. The next book, WHERE ANGELS FEAR, has a bottle of heart pills as a clue. I got prescription bottles, ordered labels with my book cover and my name, and filled the bottles with candy hearts or red hots. We don't buy Cracker Jacks for the stale popcorn. We want the prize inside!

There was little humidity for August and I never got to actually see Nashville. The city is still recovering from the floods and the Grand Ol' Opry isn't open. The hotel was “a good piece aways” as they would say in the South. Billie and I couldn't fight our need for a Mexican food fix and found a great restaurant. They screwed up her order (twice!) so we got free flan for dessert.

I may never get out that way again, but it was a terrific, homespun conference to experience.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Lurking Proudly from Anne Allen

Should you listen to the folks who pressure unpublished writers to blog, build websites, and network on MyFace? Probably not. All you have to do is lurk around a few blogs. New Blogpost: http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2010/06/lurk-proudly.html