By Marilyn Meredith
Even though I’ve had over forty books published, whenever I send
off a book to the publisher those two questions plague me. It doesn’t
matter that my critique group liked what I’d read to them, or my
editor. I continue to have those doubts.
Actually, there are some good reasons for those doubts. Despite the
fact I’ve made the corrections found by my critique group and my
editor and no matter how carefully I’ve gone over the manuscript
myself, errors and typos seem to creep in. Some eagle-eyed reader
will spot where I changed a character’s name, or something I missed like a sweater becoming a jacket, or a simple typo. One good thing, in this day and age, it’s easy to for the publisher to make the corrections.
I have an additional worry concerned with my police procedural series. I do not have a law-enforcement background. I started writing the first book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series when my police officer son-in-law started coming to my house for coffee after his graveyard shift. His tales intrigued me, and I went on my first ride-along with him. The first book in the series, Final Respects, was loosely based on a series of events that happened during that time period.
For years, we lived in a neighborhood with police families and I heard a lot over coffee with the wives and saw how their husband’s jobs affected their lives. Plus I now have two grandsons who are law enforcement officers.
I belong to the Public Safety Writers Association and this group is made up of a majority of men and women who are or were in some sort of public safety field, and most of them law enforcement. So I can’t help but worry a bit that I’ve made some horrible mistake in police procedure, especially when one of them reads one of the books.
One thing I’ve done to protect myself, is my Rocky Bluff Police Department is in a small town and horribly underfunded. Most forensic evidence is sent off for another department to analyze. The officers in RBPD solve crimes the old-fashioned ways.
The plots in the RBPD series not only focus on crime solving but also what is going on with the families—probably my favorite part to write. In the latest, Bones in the Attic Detective Doug Milligan is surprised when his daughter Beth informs him a skeleton has been discovered.in a long-abandoned home that Beth and other students are turning into a haunted house as a fund raiser for the high school art club. Sergeant Navarro’s brother is upset because their newly widowed father has a woman friend. Police Chief Chandra Taylor’s romance with the mayor is complicated by his newly-found daughter. Sergeant Strickland has concerns about his daughter who has Down syndrome. A wild fire threatens the lives of the people and the town of Rocky Bluff.
To my great relief, two of my law enforcement friends have written great reviews for Bones in the Attic.
Marilyn
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Buy link: https://tinyurl.com/yxpd8mxy
Marilyn Meredith, who writes the RBPD mystery series as F.M. Meredith, once lived in a small beach town much like Rocky Bluff, and has many relatives and friends in law enforcement.
https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com
On Facebook as Marilyn Meredith
and Twitter as marilynmeredith
