Twilight Thursday

Death by Chocolate

by

Julie Lyndsey

Thank you, Margay, for allowing me to stop by your blog today and talk about my favorite thing – BOOKS! This is my Death by Chocolate blog tour and I’m having fun meeting fellow readers and bloggers. After a two-bag trip to the library, I thought I’d tell you how I ended up writing this novel.

There’s nothing worse than a superior story line with paper thin characters. It won’t matter if you have the next must read story to tell, if you can’t command the characters to matter. DO you know what I’m saying? Have you ever picked up a book whose back cover blurb made your eyes go wide? Then you rush home, lock yourself in the closet and hide under the clothes so you can get started immediately? No? Then You don’t have a bunch of little kids like me or you’re a man. Anyhow, you tear into the book and find the imagery fascinating, the world building superb, the intrigue um intriguing, and the characters major lame, perhaps weak, bland, blah, who cares, why are they ruining your story characters? I have. I’ve stopped reading books I waited months to get my hands on because I didn’t care what happened to the characters. They were so flat and transparent the rest of the story lost its weight and my interest.

This dilemma led to my character Ruby Russell. I wanted a character as crazy-complicated as some of the people in my life.  Now, my friends don’t kill people, but they certainly flip flop on stands and grow and change and get fed up. Personally, I have a short temper. I only stay mad for about ten seconds, but I often freak out. I gave Ruby this lovely personality trait. For humor’s sake, I let my characters go to the extremes. I didn’t hold back and chaos inevitably ensued.

Ruby’s a suburban housewife, who feels more like a doormat. She tries very hard to make people smile.  Unfortunately, she goes about it the wrong way more times than not and her life becomes a series of pitying looks. When her husband cheats and she lashes out to force a confession, he winds up dead. She’s busy trying not to go to jail when she realizes it feels pretty nice not to be bullied anymore. Things get a little out of control after that and her best friend steps in to help out. Death by Chocolate is an exercise in outrageous. It’s meant to make you smile. After all, No matter how bad we mess up, it’s unlikely to affect the local census count!

If you’re in the mood to let loose and smile at the inconceivable, try my sweet ladies. But don’t try their goodies. You have been warned. LOL Death by Chocolate is available now on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. I hope it will make you smile : )

Death by Chocolate

Ruby Russell has reached her limit. When she discovers her hipster husband has a dirty little secret, she whips him up a Viagra-infused-chocolate mousse punishment, but in the morning, her husband's a stiff. Armed with a lifetime of crime show reruns and Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD, Ruby and her best friend Charlotte try to lay low until after Ruby's son's wedding, but a nosy therapist, meddling minister and local news reporter are making it very difficult to get away with murder.


About Julie:



I am a mother of three, wife to a sane person and Ring Master at the Lindsey Circus. Most days you'll find me online, amped up on caffeine & wielding a book.

You can find my blogging about the writer life at Musings from the Slush Pile
Tweeting my crazy at @JulieALindsey
Reading to soothe my obsession on GoodReads
And other books by me on Amazon