A Little Help From a Friend

(We all need a little help from time to time. I'm hosting my friend Marilyn (aka F.M.) Meredith, and she's talking about her new mystery and how friends help in the writing process. The floor is yours Marilyn:)

To be honest, I get a lot of help from friends when I’m writing a book, from my critique group who initially hear the whole story chapter by chapter, and my editor who is also a friend.

Because I write about law enforcement and crimes, and have no past experience of my own, I rely on my police contacts to help me out with a lot of elements in a story. In this particular book, I needed to learn about old skeletons, and also about cadaver dogs.

About both topics, I had help from Dr. Rao who is in my critique group, he shared a book by an expert in identifying buried bones.

Two members of Public Safety Writers of America, Gloria Casale and Ron Corbin gave me lots of information about how dead bodies might look under the circumstances in the story.

I put out a query about cadaver dogs on Facebook and heard from a friend who is a former police officer who put me in touch with a woman named Vynn Stuart who worked for a sheriff’s office for 20 years as a Special Deputy K-9 Handler. We emailed back and forth as she answered my many questions. Once I’d finished the section that I needed her help with, I sent it to her and she made some corrections.

A fun part of all this is she gave me the name for the character, part of her name, and wanted the description to be as she looks. Of course, I did exactly what she asked. She wants her grandkids to be able to recognize her in the book. I hope when she receives a copy of Bones in the Attic she’s not disappointed.

Marilyn aka F.M.

Blurb: The discovery of a skeleton, a welfare check on a senior citizen, and a wildfire challenge the Rocky Bluff P.D.

Buy link: https://tinyurl.com/yxpd8mxy

Bio: Marilyn Meredith, who writes the RBPD mystery series as F.M. Meredith, is the author of over 40 published books. She once lived in a small beach town much like Rocky Bluff and has many relatives and friends in law enforcement.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marilynmeredith/

And she’s a regular on these blogs:

2^nd and 4^th Tuesday: https://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/

4^th Monday of the month: https://ladiesofmystery.com/