GUEST POST: Marilyn Meredith's DANGEROUS IMPULSES blog tour!

Today I have a special guest! Marilyn Meredith, aliass F. M. Meredith, is here to promote her new mystery for Oak Tree Press, DANGEROUS IMPULSES. As a fellow Oak Tree Press author, I have her books on the "buy now" list. She's going to talk about the rocky road to publication. (I myself have had flat tires on that road, and it's currently under construction!)

I'll step aside and ler her talk.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Rocky Road to Publication for the RBPD series

Perseverance has been my mantra since the beginning of my career as a writer. I could easily have given up long ago and never had the great time I’ve had all these years. None of it has been easy--and getting and keeping my Rocky Bluff P.D. series going is a good example.

I started writing the series when my son-in-law was a police officer in the town we both lived in. He’d come home with tales of what he did on his graveyard shift. Several things happened during this time period to men on the department and my mind began perking. The first novel in this series was Final Respects. I took bits and pieces of what I’d learned along with other things I knew about, sprinkled them with lots of imagination and this first book was born.

I landed an agent and I kept on writing. I had three more books done and submitted them. The only encouragement I received was that I came up with great titles. I finally gave up on the agent.

While studying the big Writer’s Digest Market book, I found a publisher who was looking for police procedurals. I submitted Final Respects and it was accepted. The only catch was this publisher was an e-publisher. Who knew what that meant? Not me, or anyone else. I couldn’t even figure out how to buy my own book once it was published. And the only place to read it was the computer. That was not a successful venture.

Time moved on, and the Rocket eReader became available, along with many new e-publishers. I found one that looked good, queried, and sent Final Respectsoff. The book was published as an e-book and trade paperback. It looked great. I purchased some and sold them. I sent the second in the series, Bad Tidings, to this publisher and it was published. The only problem was, though I could see people were buying the books because of reviews that appeared in various place, I never received a single royalty payment. When I asked about it, I was sent a small check and a rude reply. I parted company with that publisher.

It took a while, but I finally found another publisher who did e-books and trade paperbacks and she accepted the next two in the series, Fringe Benefits and Smell of Death. She did a great job with editing, the covers, everything. Then the bomb dropped—she decided not to continue with the publishing business.

I figured the next one I’d written, No Sanctuary, would never see the light of day. I met Billie Johnson, the publisher of Oak Tree Press at a Public Safety Writers Association’s conference. We became friends and saw each other at the next conference too. We began emailing one another and I queried her about No Sanctuary. In the meantime, she asked me to come to Illinois and present at a writer’s conference she was holding. I did, and she came to the motel where hubby and I were staying and brought me a contract. Yes, I signed it.

This has turned out to be a wonderful partnership. Not only did Oak Tree Press publish that book, they’ve printed all the rest I’ve written and she republished the earlier books too both as e-books and trade paperback.

When anyone asks what my best advice for authors is, I can honestly say, “Never give up.”

Thank you for hosting me today; I’ve enjoyed being with you. Tomorrow you can find me here:
http://thoughtsinprogress.com/

Now a bit about Dangerous Impulses:
(You can click here to visit it and buy on Amazon!)

An attractive new-hire captivates Officer Gordon Butler, Officer Felix Zachary’s wife Wendy is befuddled by her new baby, Ryan and Barbara Strickland receive unsettling news about her pregnancy, while the bloody murder of a mother and her son and an unidentified drug that sickens teenaged partiers jolts the Rocky Bluff P.D.

Contest:
The person who comments on the most blog posts on this tour may have a character named after him or her in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel or choose a book from the previous titles in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series in either paper or for Kindle.

Rocky Bluff P.D. Series:
Though each book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series is written as a stand-alone, I know there are people who like to read a series in order. From the beginning to the end:

Final Respects
Bad Tidings
Fringe Benefits
Smell of Death
No Sanctuary
An Axe to Grind
Angel Lost
No Bells
Dangerous Impulses

F. M. Meredith’s Bio:

F.M. is also known as Marilyn Meredith, the author of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. She first became interested in writing about law enforcement when she lived in a neighborhood filled with police officers and their families. The interest was fanned when her daughter married a police officer and the tradition has continued with a grandson and grandson-in-law who are deputies. She’s also serves on the board of the Public Safety Writers Association, and has many friends in different law enforcement fields. For twenty plus years, she and her husband lived in a small beach community located in Southern California much like the fictional Rocky Bluff. She is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Epic, and Mystery Writers of America.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/
Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
And I’m on Facebook and Twitter as MarilynMeredith

Thanks, Marilyn! We wish you luck on your online excursions.