Mystery We Write Blog Tour - Welcome Marilyn

Welcome everyone, today we have Marilyn Meredith visiting the garden. It's spring out, but still a bit chilly so I have a choice of hot and cold beverage's with some find snacks to go with. Help yourselves, pull up a chair and get comfy. Now without further ado, let's begin.

Mary: Where do you find your ideas? Does something trigger them? Do you carry around a notebook incase inspiration strikes?

Marilyn: I collect ideas from newspaper articles, things people tell me or overheard, sometimes a dream—and yes I have a pen and paper on my nightstand—and when I’m actually in the writing process, ideas pop into my head.

Mary: How do you name your characters?

Marilyn: When I first started out I chose names at random, names I liked the sounds that fit my characters. Now I know to try and not use names that sound similar or begin with the same letter in order not to confuse my readers. In the Rocky Bluff P.D. series I have two detectives, Officers Milligan and Marshall. I wouldn’t do that today, but they are ongoing characters so I’m stuck with them. I save graduation program and other programs that have lists of names and often pick and first name and then a last name to go with it that seems to fit a new character.

Mary: Do you like write series?

Marilyn: When I began I wrote single titles—two family historical sagas, a stand-alone mystery, a psychological horror, three Christian horror novels, and then I settled into writing two different series, the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series and the Rock Bluff P.D. series under the name F. M. Meredith.

Mary: Do you like to travel and where is your favorite city?

Marilyn: Over the years I’ve done a lot of traveling and most of it related to mystery writing. I’ve been to many Bouchercons, Left Coast Crimes and Epicons in cities I would never have visited otherwise—like Anchorage AK and a small village in Alaska as well as Wasilla.
I loved San Antonio and for beauty, my favorite is Sedona AZ.

Mary: Are the characters in my books people you know?

Marilyn: I’ve never known a murderer and I write about a lot of them. To be honest though, bits and pieces of people I know appear in many of my books. The really bad cop in Fringe Benefits was based on someone I knew though he wasn’t nearly as bad as the character.

Mary: Where do you want to go with your writing career?

Marilyn: I’d love to better known, but no matter, I’ll keep right on because I always want to know what is going to happen next with these people I’ve created and have become as real to me as my friends and family. (This is because I know what my characters think—I’m never sure about the flesh and blood folks.)

Thank you, Mary for hosting me today and asking these interesting questions.

No Bells Blurb:
Officer Gordon Butler has finally found the love he’s been seeking for a long time, but there’s one big problem, she’s the major suspect in a murder case.

Bio:
F.M. Meredith, also known as Marilyn Meredith, is the author of over thirty published novels—and a few that will never see print. Her latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, from Oak Tree Press, is No Bells. Rocky Bluff P.D. is a fictional beach community between Ventura and Santa Barbara and F. M. once lived in a similar beach area.  Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and serves as the program chair for the Public Safety Writers of America’s writing conference. She’s been an instructor at many writing conferences.
Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Link for No Bells http://tiny.cc/h8skbw 

Comments

Thank you, Mary, for hosting me today. Your garden is lovely.
Jake said…
Really enjoying your tour. Always like learning more about authors like to read. Mary thank you for having Marilyn.
Jackie Houchin said…
"In the Rocky Bluff P.D. series I have two detectives, Officers Milligan and Marshall. I wouldn’t do that today, but they are ongoing characters so I’m stuck with them."
Hey, Marilyn - is one of these two authors a female? Could they get married (or divorced) and change their last name in that way? Just a suggestion... :o) I certainly wouldn't want to break up a marriage!!
GBPool said…
Marilyn, I am looking forward to reading your latest book. Your blog tour has been so much fun to follow and your characters sound like folks I'd like to meet, maybe not the murderers, but the lone wolf hero is totally my type of guy. And it's fun to know you get your ideas from real things that trigger your imagination. That's what I do, too.
Jackie, Milligan and Marshall are both males. Marshall will be retiring soon--I think. Of course there are now two Milligan's because Doug married Stacey.

Thanks for stopping by GB. Isn't it amazing what our minds can do?
M.M. Gornell said…
Marilyn, you've been to Wasilla! How cool. I agree with you, Sedona is pretty darned beautiful...

As always, interesting post.

Madeline
Anonymous said…
I LOL when I read you collect graduation programs and such, Marilyn. I've been tempted, but have so far resisted. I do, however, savor the credits at the end of films. All those names just speak volumes to me!
Marja said…
I learn something new about you with each blog, Marilyn. Interesting you should mention Wasilla. I lived there for a brief period.

And I had no idea you'd written Christian horror. I'll have to look into that.
I went to Wasilla after Bouchercon, stayed with a young native woman I'd met at LCC several years before, talked to all the classes in a middle school and got to visit the Iditarod museum and a reindeer farm.

Anne, I use those names from graduation and play programs, but fix them up.

I wrote three Christian horror, unfortunately I'm the only one who has copies of the books. You can read about them on my website.
Mary said…
Thank you Marilyn for being my guest today. It looks like everyone had a great time!
Mary
Earl Staggs said…
Marilyn, you always amaze me with how much you do. I suspect you're really three people posing as one. Best wishes.
I always enjoy Marilyn's books. Thanks for hosting her, Mary. No Bells is on my TBR list.
Earl, I wish I were three people--I could get so much more done that way.

Hi, Jean, thanks so much for stopping by.
Lou Allin said…
You're a pro and it shows, Marilyn. It was great to meet and talk with you at LCC. It's endearing that you are taking your cop under your wing. Christian horror, though. I'm going to check out Amazon for that.

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