Look and Listen

Biography

F.M. Meredith, a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith, was introduced to the workings on the police department by her son-in-law a 15 year officer with the Oxnard Police Department who was killed in the line of duty as a deputy with the El Dorado Sheriff’s Department. Besides regaling her with stories of the job, he took her on ride-alongs where she not only rode-along, but also had her run along while he chased suspects. Her education continued as she rode with officers of the Porterville P.D. Becoming friends with other police officers and interviewing others for the newspaper kept up her enthusiasm for all those who serve and protect. She is a member and serves on the board of the Public Safety Wrtiers Association, and has been an instructor at several of their conferences. She’s also a member and one of the founders of the San Joaquin chapter of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, American Authors Association, WOW and EPIC. Marilyn Meredith has been a professional writer for nearly forty years. She’s written for local newspapers and national magazines. She’s been married to the same man she met on a blind date–for over 50 years. And they said it wouldn’t last. Her mysteries include the Deputy Crabtree series, the latest, CALLING THE DEAD. The first is DEADLY TRAIL, (an Eppie nominee), DEADLY OMEN, UNEQUALLY YOKED, a INTERVENTION (a Bloody Dagger nominee), and WINGBEAT. She has borrowed liberally from the Southern Sierra foothills where she lives for the setting of the Tempe Crabtree books. Her Rocky Bluff P.D.series is located in a fictional coastal community; FRINGE BENEFITS, FINAL RESPECTS and BAD TIDINGS. GUILT BY ASSOCIATION is a stand-alone situated in an old gold-country village on Highway 49 and won the publisher’s best mystery/suspense award. (Many of these books are also published electronically.) Another award winner, Best horror from USA Book News, WISHING MAKES IT SO. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com Or e-mail her at: mmeredith@ocsnet.net

Inspiration

It's amazing what can inspire me. When I wrote my two historical family sagas, it was the genealogy my sister had written that inspired me to find out what might have motivated my ancestors to keep moving from one place to another. The more I learned, the more I knew I had to write their stories. I decided to write mysteries because those were the books I loved to read--and have been reading my entire life. My Rocky Bluff P.D. series was inspired by living in the same neighborhood with serveral cops and their families. Then when my daughter married a police officer, he came to my house every morning after his shift and told me stories. I knew I had to turn his stories into books. My Deputy Tempe Crabtree series was first inspired by a female deputy I interviewed for the newspaper. Her experiences and feelings gave me the first impetus to write about a female deputy. I did a ride along with the only female officer on a small town police force and this added information to help create Tempe. Meeting a Native American woman from the nearby reservation gave me another dimension for Tempe. Many of the people I've interviewed over the years have inspired characters as well as some of the people I've met in various stages and places in my life. And of course, I've been inspired by the many mystery writers I love to read and those that I have met and have been fun to be with and talk to and share stories about the business.