Author Spotlight no.79 – FM Meredith

Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the seventy-ninth, is of crime and mystery author and interviewee F M Meredith aka Marilyn Meredith.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over thirty published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Bears With Us from Mundania Press. Writing as F. M. Meredith, her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novels are No Bells and Angel Lost, the third and forth from Oak Tree Press. Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Central Coast chapter, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America.

And now from the author herself:

What you May or May Not Know about Marilyn Meredith aka F. M. Meredith

I’m a fourth generation Californian. (Not too many people can say that—though three of my kids are now fifth generation Californians.)  I’ve only lived in two other states (Maryland and Virginia) and that was only for a short while. I’ve traveled the 3000 miles across the United States once by train, three times by car. Two of those times happened when hubby and I drove a VW bus with three of our five kids in it and tent-camped all the way to the East coast and back again. (Not something I’d recommend.)

Over the years I’ve had all sorts of jobs beginning with baby sitting from the age of 10 (what were the parents thinking), as a teen working in a hot rod store, whenever I needed extra money I worked as a telephone operator back in the days of the old-fashioned switchboard, a teacher in a school for developmentally disabled pre-schoolers, a teacher in day care centers, a pre-school teacher in a ghetto, and for over twenty years I owned, lived-in and operated a licensed facility for six developmentally disabled women. During that time I developed and taught state-approved classes for administrators of homes like mine.

I’ve done all sorts of volunteer jobs: PTA president and newsletter editor, Camp Fire Girl leader for 10 years, Sunday School teacher for all ages (still doing that for third to six graders), also still newsletter editor and program chairperson for the Public Safety Writers Association conference.

I met my husband on a blind date and married him after only knowing him for six weeks. We’ve been married for 60 years now even though my mother said we’d never make it. We raised five children and now have eighteen grandkids (raised a couple of those too) and eleven great-grands.

Since I was a girl in grammar school (all those eons ago) I’ve written stories and plays. I didn’t get serious about getting anything published until I was a young grandmother. After writing and rewriting and receiving many rejections, my first published book was a historical family saga based on my own family’s genealogy. From there I moved onto mysteries because that’s what I liked to read. I also wrote a psychological horror, three Christian horror novels, and a romance with a touch of the supernatural.

Along the way I’ve had encounters with agents who did nothing for me except waste a lot of my time plus a couple who taught me a lot, three publishers who were dishonest, and two publishers who sadly died, and a couple who decided to quit the business. I am so fortunate that I now have two publishers, one for each of my series. Mundania Press publishes the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series (Native American female deputy sheriff in the Southern Sierra of California), Bears With Us, is the latest and Oak Tree Press that publishes my Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series that’s about the members of a police department in a small beach community along the California coast that I write under the name F.M. Meredith. No Bells is available now.

I lived in a beach community for over 20 years and now make my home in the foothills of the Southern Sierra.

When I’m not writing, I love spend time with my family. I also enjoy reading and watching movies.

I do want to thank Morgen for hosting me again.

You’re so welcome, Marilyn – come back anytime.. ah yes you will be; a guest blog on the 3rd May.

You can find even more about Marilyn and her writing via… http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com.

CONTEST: The person who comments on the most blogs on my tour will win three books in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series: No Sanctuary, An Axe to Grind, and Angel Lost. Be sure and leave your email too, so I can contact you.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with mystery author and poet Rebecka Vigus – the three hundred and fifty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo. My eBooks are now on Amazon, with more to follow, and I also have a quirky second-person viewpoint story in charity anthology Telling Tales. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for my Post-weekend Poetry page.

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