AUTHOR F.M. MEREDITH TACKLES A THORNY ISSUE IN HER LATEST ROCKY BLUFF P.D. #MYSTERY

Rocky Bluff Beach

F.M. Meredith is the author more than forty published novels; Not As We Knew It is the latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. As Marilyn Meredith, she writes the award-winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest, End of the Trail. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for ten years, was an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences. For more than twenty years she lived in a beach town much like Rocky Bluff. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog. 

Compelled to Write Something, Knowing it Won’t Be Popular

 

That was the situation I found myself in when I wanted to write my next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. Because this series is set in more-or-less real time, I felt I needed to add something about the Corona virus. I’d read a lot from other writers that they would not be including what was going on, and from readers that they didn’t want to read a book with the virus in it.

 

So what was I to do? I wrote the book I felt I had to write. After all, my characters live in the real world—the world I’ve created for them. How could I ignore something all of us are experiencing in one way or another?

 

The Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series is as much about the families of the police officers as it is about any crimes they must solve. And to be perfectly honest, I had fun figuring out what each person might be facing as well as their opinions about the virus. After all, in my own family many diverse opinions were being expressed.

 

To find out how police departments were handing the mask situation, I talked to a grandson who is a police officer. And as for civilians in the story, I had plenty of experience of my own.

 

Something else that was going on during the time I was writing the book was the not-always-so-peaceful demonstrators who invaded towns. And yes, I thought this could make for an exciting plot twist, and once again I consulted my police officer grandson.

 

For anyone who might think the story is political, believe me, it’s not. What I’ve tried to do, as I’ve done in all the books in the series, is show what life is like for those in law enforcement and their families. To make this latest one real, I didn’t see how I could ignore what is going on in the world today, and what the characters might be experiencing.

 

Besides what I’ve shared already, the plot of Not As We Knew It has a lot more going on, including a missing woman and a deadly house fire. And for those of you who’ve never read a Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, the setting is a small beach town between Ventura and Santa Barbara. 

 

Fortunately, it has received good reviews.

 

I’ve come to know these characters so well since I’ve written so many books about them, they seem real to me. I hope that my readers feel the same.

 

Not As We Knew It

A Rocky Bluff P.D. Mystery, Book 16

 

The challenges come one after another for the Rocky Bluff P.D. to handle, from a missing woman to a house fire.

 

Detective Doug Milligan is faced with new and unusual problems to solve, some on the job and others related to his family.

 

Gordon Butler isn’t too happy with the fact his wife was chosen to train the latest new hire.

 

With the department short-handed, Chief Chandra Butler must make some brave decisions in order to protect the town of Rocky Bluff.  Her romance with the mayor, which had been put on hold, is refreshed when she seeks his help.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR F.M. MEREDITH

Wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother F. M. Meredith, who is also known as Marilyn Meredith, is nearing a staggering 40 published books. Though the Rocky Bluff she writes about is fictional, she lived for over twenty-years in a similar small beach town. Many of her family and friends are in law enforcement, giving her plenty of resources when researching her books. Learn more about F.M. at her website and blog. Today she joins us with some very important advice about social media in general and Facebook in particular. 

Big Mistakes People Make Using Facebook

Facebook is great! I post on it first thing in the morning and often several times during the day.

I have lots of friends and love reading what they are doing, how they think, and seeing photos of them, their children and grandchildren and their activities. However, I also see things they should never put on Facebook.

Never, never complain about your job or your co-workers and most especially not your boss. Even if your boss or none of your co-workers are your friends on Facebook, a comment you or someone else makes on the post could be sent to someone you didn’t want to see what you said. I’ve known people who’ve lost their job because of this.

The same goes for telling about your heavy drinking or picking up someone of the opposite sex, or revealing too much about your love life.  Jobs have been lost over this—the boss finds out you aren’t the person he/she thought you were.

Don’t complain about your spouse or make fun of him or her publicly unless it’s kind-hearted jesting. Even if your spouse doesn’t do Facebook, someone will be sure to tell him or her about the unflattering or demeaning remarks. Unless you want to get rid of your spouse, don’t do this.

Authors, try your best not to misspell or use bad grammar in your posts or when you’re blogging. I’ve been guilty of it—I know that even when you proofread, mistakes are overlooked. If you find something has slipped by you, fix it, or if you can’t fix it, acknowledge it.

Also for authors, don’t bad-mouth your industry professionals publicly. They all know each other and you might not have such an easy time finding a new one if you become known as a troublesome writer.

Don’t write nasty stuff about people who don’t believe the same way you do, whether it’s politics or religion. You can’t convince anyone to change to your way of thinking by a post you write on Facebook, and chances are you may alienate half your friends.

Since I put all these negative things down, here are a few things I think you should do:

Write positive posts when possible. If you’re going through hard times or going to have an operation or are sick, it’s fine to ask for prayers. I do it a lot for people, usually for relatives —though there are times it may be better not to identify the person by name.

It’s fine to tell what you’re doing, where you’re going, what’s happening while you’re there—and yes, include photos. (Anastasia stepping in here: It’s never a good idea to post where you are when you’re away from home. People have come home from vacation or a night out to find their house has been robbed because they let the world know they weren’t home.) Personally, I love to know what people are cooking or ordering in restaurants. Tell me about your kids accomplishments and the new babies that are born.

I write a lot about what I plan to do for the day because it helps me to actually do it.

Writers, I do want to hear about your new book, great reviews you’ve received, places you’re going to be for book signings and other appearances.

What kind of posts do you not like to see on Facebook?  What do you like?

Contest: Once again, the person who comments on the most blogs during this tour, can have a character named after them in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. Tomorrow you can find me here:

http://seritastevens.org/?cat=1

A Crushing Death

A pile of rocks is found on a dead body beneath the condemned pier, a teacher is accused of molesting a student, the new police chief is threatened by someone she once arrested for violent attacks on women, and Detective Milligan’s teenage daughter has a problem.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--CHINESE CHICKEN SALAD WITH GUEST AUTHOR F.M. MEREDITH

We’re always happy to welcome back F. M. Meredith/Marilyn Meredith to Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. F.M. is the author of over 35 published books including the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series and the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. 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. Learn more about F.M. at her website and blog.

Trying New Recipes

One of my granddaughters said to me, “I wonder how many dinners you’ve cooked.” I have no idea, but probably in the thousands. When we were first married, we didn’t have much money so I fixed every meal we ate. The money situation didn’t improve much as our family increased with five kids.  Not only did I feed my family, but often the kids’ friends, and it seemed that our adult friends dropped in at dinnertime, too. Sometimes I’d have to get imaginative to get the meal to stretch.

Often I would make up recipes or try new ones I found in magazines. I never really worried about whether the kids would like what I fixed or not, I just didn’t want to fix the same meals all the time.

On Mother’s Day, my eldest daughter posted something on Facebook that brought back a lot of memories. I’m going to share part of it here.

“I read a story in Readers’ Digest about how different dishes brought back memories of holidays, birthdays or a certain person - like the writer’s mother who was nostalgic about corn bread and beans.

“Of course, that got me to thinking about my mom and food. There really wasn’t just one dish that made me think of her and I know why, my mom was known as a great experimental cook.

The good part about that, you never got bored with what Mom put on your plate. The bad part was, what might end up on your plate didn’t always look so good - not that it didn’t all start out being edible, it just didn’t always end up that way, at least looking at it from a kid’s point of view.

“Before you get to feeling too sorry for me, let me tell you, there were times we would end up with something yummy on the plate but, for my mom, repetitive cooking was not very exciting so you might never see that dish again. Mom’s favorite meal time invitation was, “something new for dinner...”

“I used to hate when I’d come home from school and see a new women’s magazine on the coffee table because that meant – new recipes. Mom had lots of cookbooks which had many recipes, most cut from magazines, sticking out from between the pages, willy-nilly, like a wild hairdo. I always wondered if she had a filing system in there but I think she saved them all, whether we liked them or not.

My mom is still pretty experimental around the kitchen but either her experiments have improved or my taste buds have changed because now when I get to eat something she’s cooked, it tastes pretty good. Maybe it’s because I appreciate her so much more now than I did when I was a kid. Thanks, Mom, for always loving me, even when I was a picky eater!”

After the kids were grown, hubby and I became the owner/operators of a licensed six-bed care home for developmentally disabled women. Guess what? I still cooking big meals, not only for hubby and me and the gals, but we often had family and friends visiting, too. And I was still trying new recipes.

Though we’ve retired, my son and his wife live next door and their daughter and granddaughter close by, so I’m still cooking for everyone—and trying new recipes.

The other night I made my version of Chinese Chicken Salad. And this is how I did it.

First, I cooked frozen chicken tenders in the oven according to the package directions, after coating them with soy sauce. Once they were cooled, I cut them into bite-sized pieces.

I used one of those big packages of pre-washed and cut salad greens as the base of the salad and these are the ingredients I added:

2 cans of mandarin oranges, drained

1 can water chestnuts cut in half, drained

1 bunch green onions, sliced, including the ends

1 cup of nuts (I used almonds, but cashews would be good)

1 large red pepper, sliced

The cooked chicken pieces

I mixed everything together and topped with La Choy chow mien noodles.

My preference for dressing is seasoned rice vinegar. Other members of my family preferred non-Oriental dressings.

This is one of those recipes that you can easily make substitutions, except I wouldn’t leave out the mandarin oranges.

No matter how much cooking I had to do, I always had a writing project going, too, even when I had my care home. In fact, I think I got more writing done during those years than any others, because I worked on a schedule in order to accomplish everything I had to do and wanted to do.

Murder in the Worst Degree

#10 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series by F. M. Meredith.

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.

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