Mutt Madness continues as we count down to March 3rd, when To Fetch a Scoundrel, Four Fun “Tails” of Scandal and Murder will be released. This week's posts share a little about each story, and a peek behind the creative curtain as to where each author got her idea.
Today’s feature…
“RUFF GOODBYE” by Rosemary Shomaker
Bar owner Len Hayes’ frenemy Perry Lambert brings misery to all. Len finds himself strong-armed into shady business dealing by Winks family human attack dog Rocco Moretti, compliments of Perry. Len’s grief over his best friend Curt’s cancer death imbalances him, and everything unravels at Curt’s funeral home visitation. The bar’s stoic black Lab and Curt’s miniature poodle have Len’s back and resolve the mayhem.
The peace and beauty of an actual funeral home were the inspiration for “Ruff Goodbye” in To Fetch a Scoundrel. A member of my local mystery writing group, Sisters in Crime - Central Virginia, is a community outreach coordinator for the Dignity Memorial network of licensed funeral, cremation, and cemetery providers. She has sponsored chapter meetings and events at one of Dignity’s lovely facilities. Those visits to one particular funeral home and my increasingly frequent (I’m at that age now!) personal attendance at funeral home visitations for friends and acquaintances, fed my imagination.
The emotions embedded in those spaces, and the swirl of energy people bring to funeral homes each day, make such facilities fertile and explosive settings for fiction. No surprise that I am similarly drawn to graveyards and cemeteries! A second setting in “Ruff Goodbye” is a pub, so if the idea of reading a story set in a funeral home puts you off, give it a chance, as you may enjoy reading the parts where the characters in “Ruff Goodbye” spend time in main character Len Hayes’ bar, The Beacon. Further, if you like to drink fortified wine, you may like how port figures in the story. Enjoy the many dimensions to “Ruff Goodbye.”
You can learn more about all of the Mutt Mystery authors by clicking here.
Funeral homes as explosive, emotion laden places; indeed!
ReplyDeleteRosie is a great writer!!
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