Guest Post: The Importance of Food in the Tempe Crabtree Series by Marilyn Meredith

Let me begin by saying, I always disliked mysteries where the characters never bothered to eat. This series doesn’t center around food like some do, but my characters are real people with healthy appetites.

Often Tempe and Hutch eat at the Bear Creek Inn. The part owner and chef is Nick Two John who cooks some wonderful meals, but never shares the recipes. His reasoning is if Hutch cooked them at home, he and Tempe might not come to the inn for meals.

Hutch is a good cook, though tends to cook simpler means that those served by Nick. One of his dishes favored by Tempe’s son, Blair is macaroni and cheese. Nothing like the boxed kind, Hutch’s macaroni dish has lots of cheddar cheese, butter and sour cream. He always cooks it long enough so that the topping of American cheese browns around the edges.

In River Spirits, Miqui Sherwood has opened her house once again to guests, the producer/director of a movie being made on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, and his assistant. On a Sunday after church, Miqui invites Tempe and Hutch to dinner and serves Indian tacos.

Most of the ideas for the meals Nick prepares come from dinners I’ve eaten in a restaurant that I really enjoyed. I also try to figure out the ingredients and make the dish at home. Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes not.

When it comes to Hutch’s cooking, his choices are much like what I cook. As for recipes, I’m one of those who dumps some of this in, a bit of that, and a sprinkle or two of a spice I particularly like. I’m fond of crushed red pepper—not much, but it adds a zip to lots of things like stuffed green peppers, beef stews, soups, and chili beans.

I’ve had plenty of practice cooking, having been married for sixty plus years, raising five of my own kids, a few grandkids, feeding lots of extras at every meal, and for twenty-two years I ran a residential care facility in my own home with six developmentally disabled women. Eating was one of their favorite activities and I fed them well—along with whoever else was around to join us at the table.

So, of course food is going to play an important part in the lives of my characters as it does in my life.

Marilyn

Blurb for River Spirits:

While filming a movie on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, the film crew trespasses on sacred ground, threats are made against the female stars, a missing woman is found by the Hairy Man, an actor is murdered and Deputy Tempe Crabtree has no idea who is guilty. Once again, the elusive and legendary Hairy Man plays an important role in this newest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.

Bio:

Marilyn Meredith is the author of over thirty-five published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest River Spirits from Mundania Press. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Contest: The winner will be the person who comments on the most blog posts during the tour.

He or she can either have a character in my next book named after them, or choose an earlier book in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series—either a paper book or e-book.

Come visit me tomorrow at Buried Under Books, http://buriedunderbooks.blotspot.com/

I’ll let you know why I keep on writing.

Guest Post: Edit Until It Hurts by J.L. Greger

I am fortunate to be able to claim Dr. Janet L. Greger as colleague (we both publish with Oak Tree Press) and friend. Janet is smart, droll, witty, and a great person to have as a dinner partner. She is uniquely qualified to write medical thrillers, and I am so happy to host her again today to share how she gets her books ready for print.You can read an earlier post by Janet about diets here.

My thriller Malignancy appeared this month. That means I’ve spent much of the last five months editing the adventures of my heroine epidemiologist Sara Almquist as she tries to escape the clutches of a drug lord and accepts a precarious assignment in Cuba. I guess all Sara’s risky behaviors put me in the mood to be foolish enough to share my editing checklist.

My basic mantra when editing my novels is: edit until it hurts.

The day after I write a chapter, I do a “find and replace mission” that includes the following steps.

1.     Eliminate overused words. My overused words are: that, just, very, really, still, some, perhaps, maybe, and since. Yours may be different. I think the “Find” option in the Window’s Edit list is my best friend during this process.

2.     Convert sentences from a passive into an active voice.

3.     Replace weak verbs with action verbs.

4.     Change run on sentences spliced with a comma into two sentences or one sentence spliced appropriately.

5.     Find “-ing” words and evaluate their usage.

6.     Look for common misspellings missed by Word, such as form for from. 

This process is a humbling experience and keeps me from rhapsodizing about my “beautiful prose.”

After I’ve complete the first draft of the whole novel, I look for gaps in logic.

I start with the easiest task first. I reduce the number of named characters. Any name, mentioned less than ten times in a manuscript, I delete completely or at least eliminate the character’s name. Now I’m a bit contrary on this point. Some authors reduce the number of named characters in their books so much, I know who the villain is after the first thirty pages because he or she is the only extraneous named character. In other words, I like a few “red herrings” in my books.

I check time sequences. I can’t be the only author who discovers Character A knows something before it occurs. At this point, I often delay or reduce clues to sharpen the suspense in my thrillers.

I repeat the find and replace mission (mentioned above) because gremlins creep in and reinsert problems in my writing.

As I do second, third, and fourth edits of the novel, I look at manuscript in different ways. My dog Bug thinks I’m being strange when I read dialog out loud, but it helps me smooth out conversations.

After I think the manuscript looks pretty good, I print it out. I always find hundreds of points that I didn’t notice on the computer screen.

Next I send the manuscript to a professional editor. Then I pray that together we’ll catch all the errors, but know I’ll probably catch more errors when I really the galley for my novel. Somehow errors not obvious in my typed manuscript glare at me from the printed galley.

Now it’s your turn. What do you look for when editing your work? I hope you’ll read Malignancy, and find I did a good job of editing it.

Blurb for Malignancy: Men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. The real police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug czar who has tangled with Sara before, will order more hits on Sara. Thus when colleagues in the State Department invite Sara to arrange scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to get out of town and to see the mysterious Xave Zack, who rescued her in Bolivia. Maybe, she should question their motives.

Malignancy is available from Amazon: http://amzn.com/1610091779 and Oak Tree Press: pressdept@oaktreebooks.com.

Bio: As a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I honed my story-telling skills as I lectured on metabolic pathways to bleary-eyed students at 8:30 in the morning. Students remember chemical reactions better when the instructor attaches stories to the processes. 

Now I have two great passions – my Japanese Chin dog, Bug, and travel. I’ve included both in my novels. You can learn more about me at my website: www.jlgreger.com and blog (JL Greger’s Bugs): www.jlgreger.com. I also answer question directed to: JLGreger@oaktreebooks.com

POTLUCK: My Plan to Win NaNoWriMo

The entry that won my National Novel Writing month contest at Write on Sisters was Potluck, 

book three in my culinary mystery series. In that post, I showed you what I was going to do to plan Potluck for NaNoWriMo success. Here’s some of what I did before November 1^st to plan my novel. I completed all the steps described in the link above.

Book Blurb (~250 words)

Making food mixes to infuse with medical marijuana seems the perfect way for Alli and Gina to supplement the income from their personal chef business. Complications to that plan arise when someone dies and Alli is accused of the murder. Alli still wonders where she belongs and who she is as she lives with a surrogate family, visits her jailed biological brother, fends off a romantic

relationship, and anticipates a visit from someone from her past. Potluck contains recipes to add medical marijuana to as well as recipes for large-portion dishes for neighborhood potluck dinners.

Microsummary:

Creating mixes for ganja foods gives Alli and Gina’s personal chef business a boost that goes up in smoke

Theme:

Family is fundamental but what constitutes family is a shifting landscape.

Sub-Themes:

1.    Insecurities affect relationships and interactions.

2.    The search for identity can be uncomfortable.

3.    Impulsivity has both good and bad sides.

Character Sketches:

ALLI WESSON and Gina, her best friend since 2^nd grade, are partners in a personal chef business that is still struggling to support the two of them. Alli always has ideas of expanding that strain their relationship. Alli is a cork-screw curled dyed red head whose impulsivity leads to as much trouble as her creativeness leads to brilliant successes. Abandoned by her parents as a teen, she moved in with Gina’s family and lives in a casita on the property. Her brother Cal showed up in the last book and is in prison for murdering his and Gina’s boss at the hospital.

GINA SMITHSON admires Alli’s contrastive personality until they clash over just how far to go. Still, the bond between them is strong and loving. Gina’s husband died so she lives with her mother for financial, emotional, and caregiving reasons. Maria helps with Nicky and Carrie’s childcare and general housekeeping. Gina is wound tight. She needs to be in a relationship but has had trouble letting go of her dead husband, Nick. A tall, thin streaked blond, she is attractive but doesn’t play to her assets.

MARIA MARTINI is Gina’s language mangling mother who took in the teen Alli when her parents deserted her. They share a bond and a passion for cooking that Gina is jealous of. In Potluck, Maria’s arthritis triggers her getting a medical marijuana card for chronic pain. She hides it from the family for a long time. Maria can be interfering but it always comes from a place of love. She is about as tall as she is wide with graying black hair.

EVAN KATZ is now a homicide detective on the Glendale police force. He and Alli have had an on-off romantic relationship for years. He wants to make the relationship permanent, but Alli is resisting. He knows she loves him, but she won’t commit and that puzzles him.

CAL WESSON wants a sole relationship with his sister Alli and resents her having a boyfriend or living with Gina’s family. He claims the murder he was imprisoned for was accidental, and while Alli wants to believe that, she is uncertain. Cal holds out the hope that Alli can be reunited with other family members that Cal claims to be in contact with. He knows family is important to her and uses her need to control her.

PEARL is Maria’s best friend and as a former hospital supervisor, she got Gina her job there. However, she was very supportive when Gina and Alli started their personal chef business. She helped Maria navigate getting her medical marijuana card through a doctor she knew to be an easy prescriber.

MOS SAENZ is a high school friend of Alli’s who owns Mos Taco, a biker bar and grill in a shady part of town. He’s always been in love with Alli but their timing for getting together has never worked. He puts Alli in touch with Bodie, a local grower to help with her questions. Tall, athletic, there isn’t a part of Mos that isn’t tattooed or pierced. Maria never liked Alli hanging out with Mos’ older crowd in high school. But Mos is a softie who loves to cook and serves his mother’s recipes at his place.

BODIE, Mos’ friend who grows pot to supply local distributors, is a ganja expert on varieties, doses, and ways of medicating. He has both legitimate and illegitimate business associates. He has more enemies than friends because of their interactions. A botany major in college, Bodie is the premier grower in the Valley. He finds Alli attractive and hits on her.

DR. FINNAGILL is a doctor who generously prescribes for medical marijuana cards, especially if you slip him some extra money. His patients are mostly men in their 20s who want to buy street cheaper marijuana but with a card that says they can have the drug legally. He also gets marijuana from local growers by recommending them as suppliers to the distributors. He gets kickbacks from both. Except Bodie. Bodie resists paying the money. The doctor threatens to stop recommending the purity of Bodie’s products to distributors and promoting the products of others unless he get a kickback.

NURSE ZOEY STEVENS is Bodie’s girlfriend. She thinks he’s seeing someone else because he’s so busy all the time. She knows about doc trying to screw Bodie over distribution, milking Bodie for money. She plays both sides.

REPRESENTATIVE NATHAN WILLIAMS is an outspoken foe of the medical marijuana legalization in Arizona. He fought hard and used the issue as his main platform plank for re-election. The problem is he is a drug addict beholden to his supplier, Bodie. If his addiction is made public, he loses everything. Bodie has indicated that if Williams changes his mind on the legislation and offers protection, that would keep him quiet about the Congressman.

DONNY BUTCHER  is another friend of Mos’ who is a druggie known for petty thefts. He robs local growers in small quantities so he won’t be caught. But Bodie confronts him with evidence and threatens to call the police. Donny, who uses more than MJ, gets very angry and threatens Bodie as well. He also knows about the Congressman’s addiction.

SETH STEVENS, a rival grower, is jealous of the success of the varieties Bodie is growing and mixing and providing to suppliers. He knows Bodie is doing something underhanded and files charges with the police to interfere with Bodie’s business, but he can’t gather enough evidence to convince the police. Bodie also was romantically involved with his sister while he and Bodie were initially in business together. They separated over ethical issues. Seth knows that the doctor is putting the screws to Bodie over distribution issues.

BELINDA FRIDMANN, cousin of Evan (but Alli doesn’t know it); journalism grad student writing thesis; enrolled in cooking school to do investigation, hates cooking and is bad at it ; helped Alli solve murders. Graduated now and working free lance doing investigations and articles.

Key Events:

1.    Maria’s arthritis is so bad she gets a medical marijuana card for chronic pain and a customer can’t inhale marijuana so Alli and Gina create recipes. to add MJ to leading Alli to want to market the MJ-friendly mixes.

2.    Alli wrestles with her relationship to her brother Cal, just released from prison and with Evan her boyfriend.

3.    Through a high school friend who distributes marijuana, Alli finds a grower as a resource for recipes and dosages.

4.    While visiting the grower, she observes a threatening note, overhears a phone conversation, and witnesses a confrontation.

5.    The pot grower is killed.

6.    Alli receives a mysterious letter and afterward acts distant and testy.

7.    Alli is arrested for killing the pot grower and her recent behavior seems to point that way.

8.    Out on bail, Alli begins to track down various suspects to uncover the real murderer.

9.    Alli is kidnapped by the killer but manages to save herself and get him arrested.

10.Alli reveals a high school pregnancy and that her child wants to meet her.

Scene	Who	Where	When	Point of Scene	What Happens
1	Maria, Pearl, Dr. Finnagill, Nurse Zoey. Bodie	Medical Marijuana Clinic	Morning, early Sept	Maria gets med MJ card to treat arthritis; Bodie arrives with shipment, argues with Doc; see neighbor as leaving	There early so maybe no one will see them; Pearl and Maria talk about how to hide from family; concerned MJ will not be available because of what heard; decide to get different devices and use at Pearl’s
2	Alli, Gina, Ms. Peterson	Peterson’s kitchen	Same morning	Woman undergoing chemo wants to adjust meal plan	A & G concerned woman can’t eat but must. Plan a bland diet with lots of nutrients; woman asks if they’ll help her put MJ in food; shows them a food (recipe)
3	Alli, Gina, Maria, Pearl	Maria’s kitchen	Labor Day	Potluck neighborhood party makes Maria worry about discovery	Gina and Alli overhear Maria talking to Pearl about being outed at the potluck (recipe)
4	Alli, Maria	Family room	Early next afternoon	Alli discovers Maria is hiding her pot use and confronts her	While doing Internet search, Alli finds pot sites; smells pot on Maria; pot to eat
5	Alli, Maria	Alli’s kitchen	Late afternoon	They try to make a food product and both get too buzzed	Alli and Maria try to adapt a (recipe) for Maria to ingest her med mj so no one else in the family knows
6	Alli, Gina	Kitchen	Next day, morning	Alli tries to get Gina to agree to make mixes for Med MJ	Gina appalled at the idea; has no idea Maria needs it, too. Refuses Alli’s idea without more research; don’t know what they’re doing; fixing casserole for dinner (recipe)

I continued this way for 40 scenes, which printed off, were glued to 5x8” cards for me to turn over each day as I work my way through the scenes.

Well, back to turning over scene cards. Onward to NaNo winning! Oh, and my word count stands at 14, 111--ahead of schedule! So far.