In the Cemetery Business

My friend Joy recently said she might want me to write her obituary. She said this jokingly as a compliment. “Well, after all,” she said, “you are in the cemetery business.”

Gravely speaking, I guess I am, but it’s only in a fictional way. I’ll have to admit that all three Darcy and Flora books have pictures of headstones on the cover. And, all three have words like Cemetery, Grave, Buried in the titles.

So, I did some serious thinking. What is a mild-mannered, one-time kindergarten teacher from rural Oklahoma doing writing books that have to do with murder? The answer is I like happy endings.

That sounds like a paradox but it’s true. Life has enough sad, scary, unexplained happenings. But, if I can take those happenings and give them a satisfactory conclusion, with the bad guys getting their just desserts and the good guys the winners, that’s a sort of victory over the real-life stuff, isn’t it? Throw in good friends, warm family, a touch of romance and a cup of coffee and I’ve got a cozy mystery.

It’s kind of fun to read a book that gives us a case of the shivers when we’re tucked up warm and safe in our favorite chair. Sometimes in real life, mysteries go unsolved and justice does not triumph but in my cozy mysteries, that is not true. To top it off, life with Darcy, Flora and Ned is fun. Gravely speaking.

Places to find long-buried secrets, unexplored caverns, and three intrepid women sleuths:

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