Loading ...Guest Blogger Marilyn Meredith
Bitten by Books is excited to welcome author Marilyn Meredith today as our featured Guest Blogger! She will be talking with you today about the supernatural elements of her book series. Check out the contest at the end of this post! You could win one of 10 print books being offered as prizes today!
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When I began the series, I had no idea that I would be using the supernatural and mystical elements of the Native American culture. Most writers will tell you, that often their characters and books take unexpected twists and turns. That’s what happened to me.
In the first book that I wrote, Deadly Trail
Deadly Omen
Unequally Yoked
When Tempe and her husband go on a romantic weekend to a mountain lodge, in Intervention
Tempe is becoming more aware of the spiritual and supernatural side of her Indian heritage in Wingbeat
In Calling the Dead
A warning from the shaman, the death of a battered wife, and a troubled teen take Tempe into danger and participation in a starlight ceremony in Judgment Fire
There is a two year lapse between the last book and the newest, Kindred Spirits
It took awhile before I had the idea for the book. An artist who no one knows much about is murdered in Bear Creek. In order to find out more about her, the detectives send Tempe to Crescent City to interview the victim’s relatives and friends. What she learns there, sends Tempe to Santa Barbara. The spirit of the murder victim visits Tempe, giving her even more incentive to find the killer. In this book, Tempe is stalked and nearly murdered.
I’ve always been intrigued by ghosts and the supernatural. Our grandchildren insist the old house we live in is haunted. (Fortunately, it doesn’t keep them from spending the night.) Though doors do open and shut on their own, I’ve yet to see a ghost. If there is one here, it’s quite friendly.
My son-in-law, a policeman, who was killed in the line of duty, made his presence known after his funeral in several ways, including kissing his children and wife goodbye.
I’ve certainly felt the presence of other-beings when in places reported to be haunted. The Queen Mary in Long Beach is one of those places. When walking down the hallway to my cabin late at night, though I couldn’t see anyone, I knew I was not alone.
Another place I heard footsteps and doors opening and closing when no one was around was an old hotel we once stayed in that’s located across the street from the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
The Bear Creek Inn in my Tempe books is based on the inn in the town I where I live. Several cooks and wait staff all claim to have seen several ghosts. One day I may visit the Inn at night and see if I’m fortunate enough to have a sighting. Or maybe I’ll just write about them.
For my heroine to see spirits and have supernatural experiences is a natural part of her being Native American, and adds to the pleasure and excitement of writing about her, her family, and her job as a resident deputy. Of course I hope that those who read my books will experience the same pleasure and excitement.
Marilyn’s Bio: Besides the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, under the name F.M. Meredith, she also writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. She teaches writing and gives presentations all over the country, including the Maui Writers’ Retreat. She belongs to Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Epic, California Writers Club, and serves on the board of directors for the Public Safety Writers Association. She and her husband raised five children, are grandparents to eighteen and great-grandparents to ten. They make their home in the Southern Sierra in a community much like Bear Creek. Check out her great website here.
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Questions and Contest: Now, I am going to open up the internet floor so to speak and let our readers ask some questions and share your stories. Feel free to post as many questions or comments as you like. The author will be answering them on and off the rest of the day.
Readers, here’s how to enter the contest. You can do one or all of these things, and each one will give an additional entry. One lucky participant will be chosen to win
1. Ask the author a question (ask as many questions as you like, but only two questions count towards entries). Your name will be entered for a chance to win the fabulous prize mentioned above.
2. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter here on the right hand side of the site. This is for new subscribers only.
3. Post links to the interview here today at another blog or website and you will be given additional entries to win. You MUST post those links in one response here in this thread. The more places you post the event, the more entries you get, so spread the word!
4. Purchase a copy of ANY of Marilyn Meredith awesome books and send us a copy of the receipt for your purchase to: racoo.smith @ gmail.com (no spaces) for an additional entry. You get an entry for each one you purchase. Check out her books here:
Deadly Trail
Deadly Omen
Unequally Yoked
Intervention
Wingbeat
Calling the Dead
Judgment Fire
Kindred Spirits
5. Add us as your friend on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bittenbybooks
Add us as your friend on Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=614064436
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/weirdstuff
6. Stumble, Digg or share the post with any social networking sites. There is a button right at the end of this post that says “Share” that you can use. 
7. Twitter the URL for this event: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=1142
The contest will run through tomorrow 9/25/08 at noon Pacific time to allow our East coast and international readers a chance to win too!
Be sure to include an email and name where we can contact you if you are a winner.
We will be awarding the TEN prizes and posting the winners to the Bitten by Books website later this week.
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Good morning Marilyn. I have not had the pleasure of reading your books yet but I have feeling I would enjoy them. It seems that you are able to watch Tempe grow into she is supposed to be. How many more books do you see writing about her?
If you had to pick a favorite book in this series, which one would it be?
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Hi Marilyn!
I am so glad to read this. My husband has recently embraced part of his 1/32nd (or something like that) Native American heritage and I’d love to read some books with that kind of background.
You said you didn’t start out to write them, but what kind of research did you have to do into the Native American culture to write your books?
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Lucky you! You are the first person I have ever attempted to do a blog-talk with! I’m even kind of nervous on what to write. (-:
While researching your books and writing them, have you (or will you) touch on Indian Burial Grounds? What is your belief in them? Are they truly sacred ground in a spirtitual way that differ from a cemetary?
Thx, Tim
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Have you ever attended an Indian Pow Wom? If so, please tell us a little about your experience.
I have always wanted to attend one. I have visited many of the Indian ruins in the US.
Thanks, Helen from DL
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Hi Marilyn,
A friend recommened your books to me, I greatly enjoyed reading them.
If we could only read one book from the Crabtree Mystery series which book would you suggest to us and why?
What is your favorite Native American legend?
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Already following Bitten By Books on Twitter (although I did tweet about today’s interview). But I did have a question for Marilyn:
Since using the paranormal and mystical wasn’t in your plans when you started the series and since Tempe’s “powers” seem to get stronger with each book, where do you see the series heading?
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Hi Marilyn
Your work sounds fascinating!!! I am wondering, since you didn’t plan this, if you felt somehow the story itself came from somewhere outside your conscious–like from a higher source or something like that?
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Hi there,
I really enjoyed reading your post, it was fascinating.
Do you have any rituals you go through before settling down to write?
Valerie
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And another question, I have lots but will limit it to the two…hehe!!!
Who are your favourite authors??
Valerie
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I had to go to a meeting this a.m., so now am going to answer your questions:
Katie Bug, the publisher has the next one in the series to come out next fall called Dispel the Mist. I’m working on another right now. I don’t know how many more I’ll write about Tempe–I guess it sort of depends upon her and what she inspires me to do.
As to my favorite, I always like my latest book best.
Virginia, I’ve done quite a lot of research, both through books, talking to Native people, and online. For Kindred Spirits, my primary source was a Tolowa woman. However, I do use my imagination a lot–Tempe herself kind of gives me ideas.
Tim, I haven’t ever done anything with Native burial grounds, but you’ve given me an idea of something to work with. Truly, I think all burial grounds are sacred in that we shouldn’t dismiss the remains of people’s loved ones to do something else with the ground they are buried in.
Helen, yes, I have attended an Indian Pow Wow. Deadly Omen is centered around a Pow Wow and I got the idea from attending one. One of the Indians who lives in our area (and I actually used as inspiration for the Nick Two John character) called me after reading the book to let me know that I’d gotten it right. Good words to hear.
Poppy, it’s hard to pick a favorite of my books or recommend one that someone should read. I’ve written each on in the series so that it can stand alone. A person doesn’t have to read the series from start to finish. I guess what I’d suggest is read the one that sounds the most intriguing to you.
Marilyn
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Helen Ginger, I love writing about the paranormal or supernatural. Some books have more of this element than others. I’ve particularly enjoyed it because Tempe’s minister husband has such a hard time when she delves into the supernatural. I have a great time writing about the conflict this causes in their marriage. Of course I’ll continue to write about the supernatural just never sure ahead of time where and what Tempe will be doing.
Poppy, I forget to mention my favorite Native American legend and I would say it’s the belief in Big Foot–or the Hairy Man as he is called in the area where I live. Big Foot is mentioned in Kindred Spirits and the next book coming has a lot about the Hairy Man.
Joyce Anthony, I think most authors fell like their stories come from a higher source or a muse of some sort–maybe just one’s inner conscious. What I do know is Tempe kind of pushes me in the direction she’d like to go.
Marilyn
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Valerie, no, I don’t have any rituals except I always get dressed in the morning before I begin and I like to have a cup of Chai Tea Latte to drink when I sit down at my computer. (I get dressed because if I didn’t I might spend the whole day in my nightie.)
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Valerie, I have lots of favorite authors, mainly mystery writers. I enjoy Wm. Kent Krueger because he has a Native American protagonist too, and of course Tony Hillerman. But I also love J. A. Jance, Jan Burke and many others. I love to read.
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I should know my geography better but what state is southern sierra in? I would love to vist that “haunted” hotel of yours
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Have you ever thought of writing another genre? Possibly historical?
Your books sounds fascinating.
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Marilyn, nice blog. I especially liked the story about your son-in-law kissing his wife and children after he had died. What a wonderful reassurance. When my father lost his second wife, to whom he had been married for over 40 years, he was devastated. We thought he would never get out of that deep pain of grief until one day he told me that she visited him in the night. He woke up and saw a light, then felt something warm embrace him and pat his shoulder as if to say everything was okay. After that, he still grieved, but he was able to start the long journey to living again.
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Marilyn thanks so much for being here today! I love the sound of your series. EIGHT books is a lot of writing. Do you write full time?
Also, you refer to yourself as writing Christian Horror. Can you expound on what that genre is for our readers?
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did you pick the titles to your books , cause i love all the titles Deadly Trail
Deadly Omen
Unequally Yoked
Intervention
Wingbeat
Calling the Dead
Judgment Fire
Kindred Spirits
those are enough for me to try your books
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Maryann, are you the Maryann Miller that I know?
There are other stories I’ve heard of loved ones telling people goodbye after they’ve left their bodies–my husband says his mom visited him when she died and he was only five–and he also tells of seeing a favorite cousin before he got word that she’d died.
Catslady, the Southern Sierra is in California, center of the state. Sierra means mountain, and in this case it’s short for the Sierra Madre range. The haunted hotel is in Springville where I live and my Tempe tales more or less take place.
I began writing historical family sagas based on my family genealogy–did two, both published. I doubt I will go back to the, I sort of have my hands full with what I’m writing now.
Rachel, Christian horror is just that very scary stories with a Christian theme or Christian heroine.
Tami, I’m the one who made up all the titles–they just fit with the books. I only had one title changed by a publisher, one of my historical family sagas, my title was Indian Paintbrush, the publisher changed it to Trail to Glory. Mine fit far better.
Marilyn
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There is another book I wrote that is about a haunted house and several ghosts. It’s an oldie, Kachima Spirit (yes, it’s Kachima rather than Kachina)but I still have copies that can be ordered from me–and I’m sure you can get it from the publisher, Hard Shell Word Factory, or Amazon. It’s also an e-book. Most of my books are also in e-book format. Kachima Spirit has a lot about Chumash Indians in them. They were located along the coast from Santa Barbara to Pt. Mugu CA.
Marilyn
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[...] Guest Blogger Author Marilyn Meredith at Bitten by Books. [...]
I’ve been checking the blog–but haven’t seen any new comments. Going to watch a movie, will be back when it’s over.
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Hi Marilyn
Your books sound very interesting. I love the combination of mystery and the supernatural!
I noticed that you mentioned Tony Hillerman as one of your favorite authors. He wrote so knowledgeably about the Navajo and even had one character studying to be a shaman. So my question is did you use his work like a reference source?
Just wondering.
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[...] Guest Blogger Marilyn Meredith [...]
No, I don’t use Hillerman’s books as a reference source, he writes about different Indians than I do. Tempe is part of the Yokut tribe, though I’ve given the particular branch she belongs to a slightly different name. The Bear Creek Reservation borrows liberally from the real Tule River Reservation.
In Kindred Spirits, the Indians are the Tolowa and my major source was a Tolowa woman who is now a good friend, and I also did other research.
These are both California tribes though in two very different sections of the state.
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Hi Marilyn,
Just wondering, what initially brought on your interest in writing that first tale using Native American culture? Are you part Native American yourself?
And what do you reply with to your grandchildren when they tell you that your house is haunted?
BTW, been to the Queen Mary too. I had that same feeling or sense that I wasn’t alone when I was alone.
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I will be putting your books on my to buy list. The Native American heroine grabbed my interest because my grandfather was Cherokee. Maybe his bloodline is where I get my interest in ghost and such from.
Carmen
hdtermite(at)yahoo(dot)com
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What do you think our education system can do to help children continue to read after school?
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Hope I’m not too late for this. Just got the notice about it this morning.
I’ve always loved NA mysteries.Toss in some paranormal and that makes it all the better. I’ve not read any of your books, but will be looking them up. Was wondering if you ever read any of Jean Hager’s Molly Bearpaw or Mitch Bushyhead series? I’ve also enjoyed Tony Hillerman and Margaret Coel over the years.
Thank you for taking time to answer our questions and chat with us.
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Hi Marilyn,
Thank you for guestblogging and taking the time to answer our questions. I enjoy learning about new to me authors. I am wondering what are your favorite and least favorite parts of being a writer?
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Lyda, I am not Native American. I first became interested in writing about the Native people because I live so near a reservation. My encounter with the young Indian woman was my first inspiration to make Tempe Native American.
I now have a daughter-in-law who is half Yaqui which makes my granddaughter 1/4 and I also have a great-granddaughter who is 1/4 Yaundanchi (Yokut) the Indians I mainly write about.
When my grandkids make remarks about our house being haunted, I always say, “Ghosts can’t hurt you.” I’ve certainly been exposed to a lot and never had a problem. I suppose if you were really scared and did something foolish you could hurt yourself trying to get away.
The Queen Mary is definitely one of the truly haunted places.
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Second question:
What advice would you give aspiring writers?
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Carmen, I do hope you’ll enjoy my books.
Dorothy, I wish I had the answer to your question about our school system helping children to read. Part of the problem, I believe, is that kids don’t see their kids reading. However, maybe more of them will start now that books can be read on phones and all sorts of electronic devices. It’s too bad all authors can’t come up with something that delights kids like Harry Potter did.
Daelith, hope I got the spelling or your name right. I love unusual names. Yes, I’ve read all those authors and enjoyed their books. I don’t like to read them when I’m writing though in order to make sure I’m not too influenced by them. I don’t want my books to sound like anyone’s but my own.
Cherie Jo, my favorite part of writing is writing. I also enjoy talking to people about my books and giving workshops for writers.
My least favorite part is when I’ve set up my book promotions, let the publisher know when it will be, but everything happens so close to the time of the promotion that it’s nail biting. With Kindred Spirits I got the edits less than two weeks before I needed the book, the proofs in a couple of days, which meant I had to go through everything too quickly. The books (delivered air freight) arrived on Thursday and my first event was on Saturday. Much too close!
The result was that there are a couple of errors in the book that I should have caught but didn’t.
No matter the publisher (and I love mine) this seems to be the norm. Indeed, this is the worst part of being a writer.
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I’ve really enjoyed this. Everyone asked great questions. For those of you who do buy my books, I certainly hope you enjoy them. I’ll pop back in a little later just in case someone else asks something.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
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Wisdom? Stop spending so much time at the computer and pick up a good book to read.
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If you have a “friend” who is trying to write her first book, what would you say to her?
When she hits that proverbial wall and starts making excuses for not writing, how do you help her get back on track and stay there?
She has some great story lines but occasionally gets side-tracked. She got me started on this site so she can’t be all bad. lol
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where is the oddest place an idea came to your head?
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Where do you get ideas for your books?
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OH BOY
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Angela, good advice–kids and adults both spend too much time on the computer. Believe me, I have a book beside my bed, one in the bathroom and one on the kitchen table. I always take at least two books with me when I go on a trip.
RJ, my advice to all new authors is to sit down and write. The only way to get a book written is to write every day. I usually don’t write on Sunday, but I write every other day.
Every writer should pick a time that’s best for them, sit down at the computer and just write. Usually I write at the computer but sometimes I make notes on paper–and I always carry a tablet just in case.
Also it’s best not to talk about the book you’re going to write, but just write it.
My first book I wrote with a typewriter sitting at the dining room table while babysitting three grandkids, five and under.
I always stop in the middle of a scene so I’ll know exactly what I’m going to write when I start again.
Sandy, ideas pop in my head all the time. Could be when I’m out, when I’m reading the paper, when I’m listening to an expert talk, or when I’m eavesdropping–something I like to do in restaurants. I don’t think there’s an odd place to get an idea.
Susan, I more or less answered your questions with my answers to Sandy. I always do a lot of research which may trigger other ideas. That happened a lot when I was doing research for my historical family sagas.
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love to read.
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yes i think i like indian paint brush better
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Indian Paintbrush was the name give to one of the young women in the book by the Indians because she had red hair, and the flower, Indian paintbrush appeared somewhere at various times.
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I added you on facebook..very cool blog
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Thanks, Zoe Lee. Once again I thank you all for your hospitality. This has been a great time for me. Now I’m off to a family reunion, oldest 78 and youngest three.
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I just came back to read through all the posts. Fascinating, I enjoyed it very much.
Valerie
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I thought I’d take a peek back too, Valerie. It was fun. Everyone asked great questions.
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We have our winners of a FREE book from Meredith!
They are:
Tim
Helen
Joyce A.
Valerie
Maryann M.
Tami Blackroze37
Carmen
Dorothy L.
Daelith
Cherie J.
Congrats to all of you, you have been notified via Femail on how to collect your prieze.
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THANK YOU!!!!!
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Congratulations to all the winners!
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