BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR SUSAN SANTANGELO

Our guest today is mystery author Susan Santangelo. Susan has been a feature writer, drama critic, and editor for daily and weekly newspapers in the New York metropolitan area, including a stint at Cosmopolitan magazine. She now writes the Baby Boomer Mysteries. A portion of the sales from this series is donated to the Breast Cancer Survival Center, a non-profit organization based in Connecticut which Susan founded in 1999 after being diagnosed with cancer herself. Read more about Susan and her books at her website. 

Susan is offering a copies of Retirement Can Be Murder and Moving Can Be Murder, along with a pair of Retirement Can Be Murder socks, to one of our readers. To enter the drawing, post a comment to the blog, and remember to check back on Sunday to see if you’re the lucky winner. -- AP

“Danger! Men doing laundry.”

That’s a sign hanging in the home of a friend of mine with a recently retired husband, and there’s a whole lotta truth in it!

When I started writing the Baby Boomer mysteries, I wanted to showcase the emotional impact of the aging process on Boomers. The series features Carol Andrews and her Beloved Husband Jim as they travel along life’s highway toward their twilight years. With one dead body thrown in.  Each book in the series (there are a total of 7 planned) is told from the wife’s perspective – big surprise there – and are written in the first person.

But the series didn’t start out that way.

The original premise was for my husband, who is also a writer, and me to co-author the books. I already had the first book title in mind: Retirement Can Be Murder. One chapter would be told from the wife’s point of view, the next from the husband’s, etc. Truthfully, my husband (My Personal Beloved) was thinking about retirement himself, and I was desperate to find something for us to do together besides learning to play golf. Plus, I didn’t want him interfering with the way I’d been (successfully) running our household for the past 40 years.      

I wrote the first chapter and showed it to him. He said, “That’s really cute. Write the second chapter.” And so on. And so on. Meanwhile, I was leaving breaks in between my chapters for his, while also trying to develop the plot line. By the time I got to Chapter 5 and he had written nothing, I finally asked him what his plan was. And he admitted he wasn’t into the project. “You write it,” he said, “and I’ll critique it.”

Huh?? As if!

I came up with a tag-line, which I use under each book title, “Every wife has a story.”  I’m realizing more and more, as I do book signings and talks, how true that is. Wives all over the country are identifying with the series. Many have shared their own (hilarious) stories of living with a retired husband. And several have asked me if Retirement Can Be Murder is a “How To” book, or if the wife kills the husband. Or vice versa. And these women were serious!

Hmm. Maybe at the end of the series. Or not.  

Thanks for joining us today, Susan! Readers, Susan says “every wife has a story.” Isn’t that the truth! Post a comment to enter the drawing for copies of Susan’s two books and a pair of Retirement Can Be Murder socks. -- AP