Murder in the Worst Degree

Guest poster, Marilyn Meredith, long time friend and author of 35 published books is doing a blog tour and has agreed to post on my blog today. She is here to talk about the latest book in her Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series.

 

 

Romance in Rocky Bluff?

Cora Ramos is not only a good friend, but a San Joaquine Sister in Crime, and we both have books published by Oak Tree Press. Cora’s book is full of romance, and she asked me how romance plays a part in Murder in the Worst Degree.

Anyone who has read the last few books in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series knows that Officer Gordon Butler has been most unlucky in many ways, and this includes the romance department.

When he was new to the Rocky Bluff P.D. he lost his wife to his partner. He was interested in Stacey Wilbur, but she gave her heart to Detective Doug Milligan. When he did find someone who seemed to return his love, she turned out to be the prime suspect in a murder. Despite his efforts to clear her name, things didn’t turn out as he hoped.
 

An attractive new hire immediately caught Gordon’s eye, but he wasn’t the only one to notice her.
 

 

Maybe things are looking up for Gordon in Murder in the Worst Degree, but both he and his recent love can’t help but wonder how the new Chief of Police feels about fraternization among fellow officers. Until they can find out, the romance might have to be put on hold.

And that’s about all I’m going to say about this particular romance. If you want to find out how it turns out for Gordon, you’ll just have to read Murder in the Worst Degree.

 

Blurb for the latest RBPD mystery, Murder in the Worst Degree: 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.
 

 

Bio: F. M. Meredith aka Marilyn Meredith is the author of over 35 published books. 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.

 

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/n94hmju/

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.meredith/

 

Contest:

Once again I am offering the opportunity to have your name used for a character in a book if you comment on the most blogs during this tour for Murder in the Worst Degree.

 

 

Tomorrow I’ll be visiting here http://thoughtsinprogress.blogspot.com/

 

Cora’s Crazy Creative Process

 

 

I sometimes relate to Vincent Van Gogh, not the ear-cutting-off-thing, but the crazy visions and overload his brain must have endured. Do all artists get like this from time to time, or all the time?

This past month I’ve been overloaded with sensory stimuli and it has produced all kinds of interesting ideas, visions and past life reflections that have been amazing. (Did you notice I slipped in that part about past lives? Well, I’ll get to that.)

I went to Left Coast Crime in Monterey, mystery conference par excellence. For five days I was exposed to other writers, information and experiences that left a strong mark on me. I could talk about all that I learned, but today that would be too tedious, since the REAL learning occurred afterwards in dreams and inspiration after-the-fact.

To add to the stimuli from the conference, I took a road trip up north to San Francisco to visit with my daughter and the day I drove back became an experience of another sort. It was a day in and out of sun and rain, across different terrain and coastline scenarios until my emotions were rung out. I got home happy but exhausted and the next few days had dreams that shook me to my core, from depression to elation, and set me on another writing project (I have several going at the moment). I keep journals of my ideas and ‘craziness’ and have for years—they are being well worn after my recent adventures.

I will just briefly (because it might actually end up as a novella) mention one of these dreams/visions that came. Was it a past life? (my writing theme, it seems—Dance the Dream Awake being my first past life novel). Is it wishful thinking? Is it a psychic flash of another time—or is it strictly imagination? Who knows, maybe a combination of all. Who can say what happens in the mind of an artist and where our ideas come from?

I use ‘past life’ as my construct to understand the images in a way that I can reason out and ‘get my head into’ the place where the ideas flow for a story such as this:

Picture a Roman Centurian, strong elite warrior. He briefly sees a woman through an alcove window into her garden. When their eyes meet, there is instant recognition—electrical sparks run through both of them—he has had lifetimes with this lady and they recognize each other’s energy right away—but I won’t go on. You get the idea where this is going—it’s a romance. But can you relate to the fact that we sometimes meet people and have instant rapport with them even though we just met—an uncanny familiarity.

What happens next? Will they get together? What will that mean for him and for her? Have they had other lifetimes together and this connection happens because they know each other so well? Where have they been together before, and how does that affect where they are now, and how they will relate this time around, and what obstacles will keep them apart? Etc., etc.

How did this come from a road trip? What stimulated that creative idea in my mind? Does it even matter that we know?

So there it is, the crazy creative process that feels much like I imagine Vincent went through (although for him disease was probably a big part of it—but then, aren’t all artists a bit out there to a greater or lesser degree?)

 (I know I ramble a bit, all part of my female brain that goes off in several directions all at once to glean the inspiration and information I need.)

 

Tell me what you think about this creative process.  

Have you ever had that déjà vu experience with another person?

What do you think of past lives? Believe or no?