I want to warmly welcome Marilyn Meredith back to Parsley, Sage, and
Rosemary Time with another interesting post and with an announcement of
her latest book. Marilyn is prolific and professional and personable. I
am glad to count her among my friends. Enjoy!
Deputy Tempe
Crabtree and the Food She Eats
Someone told me that Tempe and Hutch sure ate a
lot in Not as It Seems. They’ve gone to Los Osos for their son’s
wedding—and yes, there’s a lot about food. There are many great restaurants in
the area and they had to eat somewhere. They also eat Ethiopian food at their
soon-to-be in-laws’ home, and of course at the wedding reception.
I think one of the reasons I write about what my
characters eat in so many of mysteries could be because in so many books I
read, the main characters don’t seem to eat at all. I find that so strange—how
do they keep up their strength for all the amazing physical feats?
Deputy Crabtree doesn’t do much cooking, but her
husband does and though it’s usually simple fare I do write about it in many
books.
In Seldom Traveled there is a lack of
food because of the dilemma Tempe finds herself in.
In my latest in the series, A Cold Death, they are
stranded in a summer camp during a winter storm with the owners of the camp and
their guests as well as the caretakers, a husband and wife. The wife is a great
cook. Yes, I wrote about all the meals, because if I were in that same
situation, I’d be looking forward to what I was going to eat next.
Some of the menus I wrote in about in A
Cold Death were what I’ve eaten at different camps I’ve attended as an
adult, others are what I would have cooked had I been responsible for the
meals. And yes, sometimes when I’m writing I make myself very hungry.
Marilyn
Would
you like to share this post with others who like a good mystery? Copy/paste
these for your posts.
Facebook:Marilyn Meredith wonders how book characters survive since they never seem to
eat! Not in her books! Check out the foods and the mystery in A COLD DEATH at
Twitter: @MarilynMeredith has a
new Tempe Crabtree mystery out and she dishes about food in books at
Blurb for A Cold Death:
Deputy Tempe Crabtree and her husband answer the
call for help with unruly guests visiting a closed summer camp during a huge
snow storm and are trapped there along with the others. One is a murderer.
Anyone who orders any of my books from the publisher‘s website:
http://mundania.com
can get 10% off by entering MP20 coupon code in the shopping
cart. This is good all the time for all my books, E-books and print books.
On Kindle: A COLD DEATH
Marilyn Meredith’s published
book count is nearing 40. She is one of the founding members of the San Joaquin
chapter of Sister in Crime. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for
10 years, and was an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and
has taught at many writers’ conferences. Marilyn is a member of three chapters
of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and serves on the board of the
Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra, a
place with many similarities to Tempe Crabtree’s patrol area. Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com Blog: http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/ and you can follow her on
Facebook.
Contest: Once again I’m going
to use the name of the person who comments on the most blogs on my tour for the
next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery—which may be the last in the series.
Tomorrow I’ll be here: September 28
How Sisters in Crime
has Helped Me with My Writing Career
Thank you, Sharon, for hosting me today. Like you, I love good food, cooking it and eating it.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Marilyn, I think it's important to feed my characters. One reader was critical of all the mention of food in my Sheriff Syl series. I responded I thought it was valid because, one, Syl is a big guy and needs his vittles, and, two, I wanted to illustrate the difference between food attitudes in the 19th century compared to today.
ReplyDeleteI love books with food in them, and in historical books I think it is really important. Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI love to read about food in mysteries, heck any novel. It provides such sensory detail. BTW, I received my copy of Cold Death yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI'm a foodie, so of course I'm going to write about it. Thank you, Sue.
DeleteI am currently converting the two cookbooks Marilyn wrote years ago for republication. These recipes sound yummy! i also thought the food at the lodge in the latest book sounded delicious!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting, Lorna. I make myself hungry when I'm writing about meals.
DeleteI really like when there's food talk in mysteries because it gives me, as a reader, a little break from the action. Especially when that food is dessert! Nice post, ladies!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Lida. Too many mysteries don't have characters who eat--makes me wonder how they keep going.
ReplyDelete