Looking back over the years, some birthdays really stand out for me. Remember, I’m really old and people didn’t do the expensive parties that they do now, nor were there places to buy decorations, party favors and games..

The first one I can remember was when I was about five and my mother planned a fairy princess party. I don’t remember too much about it, except that all the little girls that came got crowns, and I had a big one, plus a wand.  My auntie made all the favors.

Around the my tenth birthday or so, my mother planned a luncheon party with a Mexican theme. My two girls cousins and my best school friends came to that one.

When I was in junior high, the celebration was held in Chinatown in downtown L.A. and we traveled on the streetcar to get there. There were others, of course, but those are the ones that stand out in my memory.

I’ve had lots and lots of celebrations as an adult because I’ve been around a long time.

This is also the month my first child was born–and I lived 3000 miles away from my family. (Remember this was a long, long time ago.) My husband was in the Navy in Virginia and had the duty the weekend that I gave birth–and I lived in Maryland. Hubby arrived to see his daughter the next day. Looking back, I knew nothing about raising a baby. I had a Good Housekeeping baby book, and did everything it said to do.

This is the month my first child got married too–being a poor Navy family, we made all the bridesmaids’ dresses, daughter made her wedding dress, I did all the flowers using the neighbors’ daisies and a rosebud lapel pin for the groom, a neighbor made the wedding cake and I cooked all the food for the reception. (It all turned out great.)

August is also the month that my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries come out–and yes, the new one is now available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Seldom-Traveled-Tempe-Crabtree-Mystery/dp/1594264333/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471655178&sr=1-1&keywords=seldom+traveled+by+marilyn+meredith

As you can see August is an important month for me, full of memories and exciting things ahead.

Marilyn

I just signed the contract for Seldom Traveled last week. I wasn’t worried about it because I’d already received the edits, gone over them, and sent the manuscript back–so I knew the contract was coming. Looking back, I think that’s happened other times.

I’ve been working on a new blog tour for the book–and found I’ve kind of run out of fresh ideas to write about so I asked for help from some of the hosts who agreed to have me on their blogs. (Some already have specific topics they wanted, but not all.)

I’m going to do a different contest this time. Instead of having the person who leaves the most comments having their name used for a character in the next book , I’ll give away either a print copy or a Kindle copy of an earlier Tempe book of the winners’ choice. And no, I didn’t put the apostrophe in the wrong place, there will be multiple winners–picked from those who leave the most comments.

I don’t have a cover to share as yet. I do hope the same artist who’s done most of my covers will do this one, and I did give a suggestion as to what I thought it should be.

This has been a busy time for me, (I know, I always say that), but I’m preparing for the Public Safety Writers Conference in mid July, writing a new Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, and I always have lots of other tasks on my “to-do” list.

This is the blurb for Seldom Traveled:

The tranquility of the mountain community of Bear Creek is disrupted by a runaway fugitive, a vicious murderer, and a raging forest fire. Deputy Tempe Crabtree is threatened by all three.

Marilyn

And as my great-granddaughter is saying here, “I did it!”

It was time to start a new Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, but no fresh ideas seemed to pop into my mind.

Most of my time the last month has been spent on promoting the latest in this series through a long blog tour. As it came to an end, I knew I had two winners who wanted to have a character in the next book named for them. But I was beginning to wonder if there would be a next book.

One of my critique group members suggested something. Then another, a sweet pediatrician, told me he had the perfect way for me to murder someone. And he was right, most unusual.

A Facebook friend and fellow sister in crime suggested a title and how to work it in.

I may not use any of these ideas or fit them in the way they were suggested, but guess what? The ideas have “primed the pump” as the old saying goes. For those of you youngsters who have no idea what that means, I’m writing the book because of the ideas I’ve been given.

A lot has gone on since last I posted here–I sent in my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery to the publisher, received the edits and accepted some, rejected a few, and sent it back. Should appear in August sometime.

On the personal side, my granddaughter, her husband and two little girls moved in with us. They are buying our house with the contingent that we get to remain here. It’s a big house–and we already have a great-grandson and his wife living upstairs. They’re staying too.

And here’s the big plus–we get to see these cuties every day.

One happy great-grandma and mystery writer.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

To be honest, I don’t run anywhere these days. However, when I get busy it does seem like I’m running.

Right now I’m in the middle of a blog tour for my latest book. And yes, things have gone wrong as they usually do. In fact, sometimes I wonder why I ever decide to do one of these labor intensive blog tours.

The first thing that happened was a mistake on the cover that was noticed by one of my blog hosts–fortunately, it plenty of time to get it fixed.

One of the hosts told me she never received the material on the day I was supposed to appear. What on earth happened to the post I have no idea. The problem was easily fixed.

Then one of the hosts blog had issues, so she changed the address–which meant all the promoting I’d done for the first address was done for naught.

None of this would matter except I’m having a contest and the winner will be the person who comments on the mosts posts.

The day this appears, I’ll be visiting Lorna Collins where I wrote about  My Younger Life . No doubt there’ll be other blips and problems along the way, but I still think it’s a fun way to promote a new book.

I just sent my latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery off to the publisher–and that meant fixing all the things suggested by my critique group (that I agreed with), then sending it off to an editor and the same thing–fixing what I agreed with. It’ll be interesting what the publisher’s editor finds.

I’ve already had a book launch and I’ve given a talk to two classes at a high school, a presentation at the local library, and next month I’m doing an event with the Central Coast Sisters in Crime chapter at a winery.

And believe it or not, I live a normal life besides writing and promoting: I do all the things everyone else does: cooking, laundry, shopping, etc.and I have a big family, so I love spending time with them. Plus this last month, my husband has had some health problems, we’ve been to the ER twice and he’s had a pacemaker put in.

Sometimes I wonder why I do all this writing and promotion since I’m certainly not a big name author with thousands of fans. However, I know I love writing and the people in my two mystery series. How would I ever know what happened to them if I didn’t write the next book?

Marilyn who is also known as F. M. Meredith when I’m writing about the beach community of Rocky Bluff, it’s police force and others.