Mama Demands Doo-Dads

I shopped for wedding doo-dads today. Not favors for my OWN wedding, understand. Favors for a woman who doesn't really exist, and a ceremony that won't ever happen. The things authors do for their fictional characters!

With the launch of MAMA GETS HITCHED right around the bend, I've got weddings on the brain. And why wouldn't I? I just spent a year writing a mystery novel set around the Wedding of the Century in tiny (fictional) Himmarshee, Fla.

My Mama character loves weddings. So much so that she's tying the sacred knot for the 5th time. But what's a Bridezilla to do when her caterer winds up dead in the VFW kitchen even before they pass out the first pig-in-a-blanket? Daughter Mace must find the killer, or Mama's Special Day could turn especially deadly.

At some signings, we'll do fun, book-and-wedding-themed events -- women in fashion-mishap bridesmaid frocks, men in pastel tuxes and boutonnieres. I haven't actually found a Pomeranian ring-bearer, complete with satin tux and top hat, like the book's Teensy. Give me time, though. Mama would insist on nothing less.

Watch Your Step

Always one to elevate the tone of literary discourse, I did a radio essay today about cow patties.

Yep, you can count on me to really step right up --- SQUISH --- and reveal the truth about the glamorous life of book-touring.

Check it out if you have a minute (Two minutes and 11 seconds, to be exact.) Here's the link, from my favorite NPR station in Tampa. for
Finding Old Florida.