Posted by Heidi Blakey on 15th August 2017
Hey gang, hellooo out there in reader land. It’s me, Kayce Lassiter (see me waving). Just stickin’ my head in today to say “Hey.” Hope you have the perfect cup of coffee in front of you and that everyone is having a fantabulous day. I believe it’s going to be a stunning one for me. Let’s make it so for both of us. Yeah!
For those of you who don’t know me, I write Cowgirl Fiction, which really means it’s set in the country… on a ranch, farm, or something equivalent. My stories are contemporary and my characters wear cowgirl/cowboy boots and hats, sometimes ride horses, sometimes drive convertibles. But they are always sorta “country” in one way or another, and you’ll often find at least one redneck in there somewhere. My heroines are pretty, strong and spunky, and my heroes are handsome, smart and capable - “can-do” kinds of gals and guys - with great senses of humor. As for me, I grew up country and have had horses and dogs my entire life, so I write what I know.
But you don’t have to be country to love my stories because they are about people - strange, normal, surprising, dysfunctional, bored, creative, sometimes magical people who are just trying to get through life the best they can, much like you and me. The way I get them through their challenges is with laughter, and that’s a universal tonic that can be found in the most mundane of daily activities and events.
My new release, Murder by Dummies, is the first book in The Marilyn Club series and is available for general release from today. Woo Hoo! And in honor of this new release, I thought I’d give you an inside peek at how the title for The Marilyn Club series came to be.
I was sitting at lunch one day with a close friend, Pam, and I was filling her in on something my father had done. There were many stories about my dad, but that particular day it was a story about how he had fixed a leaky catheter by duct-taping it to… well, you know where catheters go… yeah, that’s what he did.
My dad single-handedly kept the company that made duct tape in business. It wasn’t broke until it couldn’t be fixed with duct tape - then, and only then, was the item truly broken.
Anyway, I was relating the story to my friend Pam about how my dad had duct-taped the catheter to himself, and she laughed and said, “OMG, you are such a Marilyn.”
“Huh? Who’s Marilyn?” I didn’t know anyone named Marilyn at the time.
She pointed at me. “You are.”
I stared at her like her last marble had just rolled across the floor. We’d worked together for over ten years, and she still couldn’t remember who I was? Seriously? Hell, I’d been her team leader for at least a year now. How do you screw that up? “What the hell are you talking about?”
She laughed and pointed at me, leaning closer like she was about to share a priesthood secret. “Well, do you remember that old TV show, The Munsters?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“And do you remember the niece, Marilyn?”
I thought a minute, trying to remember.
She prompted, “The blonde. Remember?”
Now I remembered. “Oh yeah, I do. She was the only normal one in the bunch.”
Pam sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, satisfied that she’d made her point. “That’s you,” she pointed out, “The only normal one in the bunch.”
I had to laugh because anyone who knows me knows I ain’t normal either. But, somehow, next to my dad and the story about the duct-taped catheter, I must’ve looked like the poster child for normal. I guess everything truly is relative.
Life can be hard, and it can be challenging, but it can also be fun and full of laughter. You can choose to let the hard times get you down, or you can choose to laugh your way through it. My feeling is as long as you can laugh while going through hell, the devil won’t have a clue you’re there, because he doesn’t recognize laughter in hell. Laughter transforms us and makes us invisible to our enemies. Give it a try the next time things get rough.
So please allow Emily Redfeather, Jo Parker, and Brittney Redfeather, the girls of The Marilyn Club, to introduce you to their highly dysfunctional families. Let’s go for a ride with them through an ocean of crazies, and see just how far from “normal” life can get.
Remember me, Kayce Lassiter, the next time you are considering a book purchase to lift your spirits. Pick up your copy of Murder by Dummies today. And I want you to laugh with me every time you see the series title, The Marilyn Club, on the cover. Remember my crazy dad, crazy Willie, and the day he used duct tape to fix a leaky catheter. That’s my story, realistic and ridonkulous, and I’m stickin’ to it. Hang on real tight now, ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast!
Love ya,
Kayce
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