And Then There’s Great-Grandkids

Once again, it’s Wednesday and guest day at Judy’s Stew. Please welcome Marilyn Meredith, my guest for the week who took her clue from all my posts about grandchildren. She certainly leaves me behind in that department. F. M. Meredith aka Marilyn Meredith is the author of over 35 published books. She enjoys writing about police officers and their families and how what happens on the job affects the family and vice versa. Having several members of her own family involved in law enforcement, as well as many friends, she’s witnessed some of this first-hand. Tell us about your grands, your greats, and your new book, Marilyn.

After reading Judy’s blog and learning that grandkids are an important part of her life, I thought I’d expound a bit on the greats as I have a slew of them. Obviously I have the grands too—but the youngest is in her twenties now and the oldest has teenage kids.

My eldest great is the same age as the youngest grand. His big interest is martial arts, staying in shape and writing and performing Christian rap.

The youngest lives next door and I see her nearly every day. She’s one and a half and a true delight. So much fun to watch her grow and hear all the new words she learns each day. And since her mom is pregnant, we’ll soon have another baby around.

In between there is one great-grand daughter who loves to make You-tube videos, her sister is into Polynesian dancing, and her brother is great at baseball and basketball. In another family, a great-granddaughter is an expert Irish dancer and her dance team will be performing in London this year. Her brother loves racing in the soap box-derby.

Altogether, I have 18 greats and 13 grands. There is the potential for more as three of my grandsons recently married. (One of these I learned is also expecting this year.)

The big difference with greats is I don’t babysit when they are little. I can’t chase them around. Well, I could, I suppose, but I’d never catch them. It’s up to their grandparents to buy them the presents they want—I’d go broke if I tried.

I rely a lot on Facebook for pictures and news. Fortunately, the majority of them live in California and I do get to see them once in a while.

And to bring this around to writing, my family is proud of the fact that I’m a writer—though only certain ones actually read my books. With one of my granddaughters, at her request, I went to school and gave a talk to every one of her classes, first through eighth grade. Since the kids were the same, I had to come up with new ideas for each presentation.

I’ve spoken to other grandkids’ classes about writing, grammar school and high school. And this winter, I visited a great-grandson’s third grade class and we planned a story together. Great fun!

Of this whole bunch, so far, there is only one who is interested in writing.

And now a bit about my latest book:

Murder in the Worst Degree: The body that washes up on the beach leads Detectives Milligan and Zachary on a murder investigation that includes the victim’s family members, his housekeeper, three long-time friends, and a mystery woman.

Find Marilyn at these sites:

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Worst-Degree-Rocky-Bluff/dp/1610091450/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396230523&sr=1-1&keywords=murder+in+the+worst+degree+by+f.+m.+meredith

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/
Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.meredith/

And enter to win a copy of her new book:

Once again I am offering the opportunity to have your name used as a character in a book if you comment on the most blogs during this tour for Murder in the Worst Degree.

Tomorrow you can find her at: http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com/