Hooray, humans! The day has come at long last. Grave Humor is now available at all major retailers for your enjoyment.
Here’s a tiny snippet from the opening of the book for your enjoyment:
Had I been smarter or wiser, I never would’ve accepted the job offer at the funeral home. With my prospects few and far between, I hadn’t had a choice, not really. Who else would hire an eighteen-year-old high school drop out?
I could type.
Dead bodies didn’t bother me.
When the dead started chatting up a storm, I ignored them until the priest arrived. I almost liked the days when the corpses got talkative. The boss paid me triple the normal hourly rate per incident, and if nobody screamed, a gift card would magically appear on my desk the following morning. Without fail, the gift card would be for the grocery store, and it would offer me the rare opportunity to enjoy a luxury.
Luxuries came few and far between.
Tomorrow, I would take my gift card, fondle some honey rocks until I found the perfect pair to take home with me, and I’d crack them open and go to town on their sweet, sweet insides. I sighed happily at the thought of two perfect melons all for me.
It really was the little things in life.
“It’s no fun if you don’t scream, Anwen m’dear,” Old Man McGregor groused. “Must you suck all the joy from my funeral?”
“Your funeral is at noon tomorrow,” I reminded him. That was the problem with the newly dead. They got lost on the way, refusing to leave their bodies until someone came to lay them to their final rest. Old Man McGregor could make my life a living hell if I wasn’t careful.
In life, he’d enjoyed yanking on chains for the fun of it.
In death, all he had to do was sit up to yank on the entire town’s chain.
“You’re still going to suck the joy right out of it,” the old man whined.
I checked my watch. In an hour, Old Man McGregor’s wife and grandnephew would arrive for the viewing, which was scheduled to begin in three hours. I expected half the town would show up to pay their respects while the other half showed up to partake of the drama.
The dead getting up for a final chat tended to create a lot of drama, and after the first time it’d happened, attendance at viewings and funerals had skyrocketed.
People loved a free show.
Damn it all, I couldn’t afford to wait for my boss to arrive. If I wanted to get my greedy hands on a pair of honey rocks, the old goat needed to get back into his coffin where he belonged without pranking the entire town on his way to the grave. That meant one of two things. I could cut a deal with the cantankerous coot, or I could call for the priest myself.
The priest would arrive within ten minutes, as he didn’t appreciate when the dead refused to abide by the natural order of things. Corpses belonged in coffins or caskets, and Old Man McGregor had opted for a coffin rather than a casket.
I figured he knew he was a pain in the ass and wanted us to nail the lid closed so he wouldn’t get out once we put him in the ground where he belonged. Technically, the difference between caskets and coffins was one of shape, but generally, caskets were of better construction in addition to being rectangular. Traditionalists favored the coffin, as did many a vampire, claiming they were head and shoulders over the rest.
Every time someone cracked that damned pun, I wanted to beat them to death with their burial vessel of choice.
Personally, I liked cremation. Any urn would do, and you could store the ashes in a plastic container if an urn wasn’t available, although I’d heard of a few unfortunate incidents where someone had left their loved one out where a cat might use them as a litter box.
There wasn’t a whole lot anyone could do about urine-contaminated ashes, yet somehow, once a year, someone would stroll on in asking how to get Fluffy’s excrements out of their granny.
Oy, oy, oy.
At least Old Man McGregor wouldn’t be showing up again as a victim of cat pee and poor handling.
You can acquire Grave Humor now at the following retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo.
So, news. We have some of that. We’ll keep it brief and hopefully amusing so you can get back to the important things you must do!
1: Female is on new medication to help with her anxiety. It works. It works really well… except when it doesn’t. (Long story.)
2: She has mostly quit coffee, but she’s having a cup with whipped cream and extra cream today because it’s release day. She’s lactose intolerant. You can guess what happened.
She regrets nothing and is enjoying her coffee. (Except for those lactose intolerant parts she is really refusing to acknowledge.)
3: She is growing plants outside. They have not died yet. She adopted one plant from the grocery store that was on death’s door. It is surviving. We’re shocked.
4: Saturday is the female’s birthday, and Grave Humor is her birthday book. Hooray! Happy “You’re now fucking old” Day, female!
5: The female is currently addicted to black garlic salt and truffle salt.
6: They broke the water in the apartment complex today. We’re expecting hilarity for the rest of the week.
7: Whatever for Hire did great last week, and it might list, but if it doesn’t, it’s because she lost to a bunch of children learning to love books, and this is amazing. If she’s going to lose, losing to children reading books is an amazing way to lose. And if she wins, she’ll almost feel bad, except most of the children’s books in question have been on the list literally hundreds of time, so she won’t feel too badly about it.
8: SQUEE.
Have a great day, humans!
Tina in NJ
Happy book birthday, female! I hope Grave Humor is a resounding success. (I’m about halfway through right now.) Good luck with the water situation. Please let us now the List results when they come out.
Susan
I LOVED GRAVE HUMOR!!! How can you not love a book about non-zombie dead things. And it has the Devil and his wife! She totally rocks! It was such a tidbit to have her show up in the book. Now I REALLY can’t wait for A Chip on Her Shoulder. Thank you for writing such a fun book.
PS Happy Birthday!
Mary
Loving Grave Humor. What more can you ask for than non-zombie dead people and Satin in all his glory.
Thank you RJ for another fun read.
Valerie
Happy Birthday! Old is an attitude, not a number. I’ve known old 10 year- olds and young 85 year olds. Love both.
Judith
Happy Birthday. Loved Grave Humor. Got plenty of chuckles. I totally enjoy your humor. Please keep enjoying what you do. The rest of us appreciate it.
Ellen
Happy Birthday! Can’t wait to read Grave Humor!
Ellen
Happy Birthday! Keep up the good work!
Dorothy Thornton
Happy Birthday!
Grave Humor hit the spot. I really needed that. I love the snark and love I see in your stories. I can’t wait to read Darlene’s story. I also wonder one thing about Kanika, Mr. Mistoffolees was the first time she ever saw a cat faint… (giggle)