Bride of the Living Dead
Big, beautiful & rebellious, San Francisco indie film critic Daria MacClellan is most comfortable in a monster movie poster T-shirt and blue jeans. Yet when family drama hijacks her engagement, she's trapped into a formal wedding with her perfectionist, anorexic sister, Sky, planning the whole thing. Daria adores her fiance, but her wedding seems to be spiraling into a horror film Will the spectre of a picture perfect wedding turn her into the Bride of the Living Dead?
The Story Behind This Book
Lynne knew she wanted to write a novel featuring a fat heroine with a take-no-prisoners attitude when the book she was reading hit the wall. She threw the novel when she reached a page where the book's heroine sneers at a fat character. It was one fat joke too many. She had to do something. Larger Than Death, the first book in Murray's mystery series featuring Josephine Fuller, a sleuth of size who doesn't apologize, won the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) Distinguished Achievement Award. Three other Josephine Fuller novels followed before the publisher (St. Martin's Minotaur) decide not to continue the series. Murray wonders if her books who sell better if they had a lower fat content. But she can't write books in which all the characters are thin. She doesn't live in a world like that, and the idea of such a narrow range of humanity saddens her. It doesn't exist in any reality outside of television, movies, and possibly concentration camps. "My friends and neighbors and the people I love and hate come in all sizes," Murray says. "In my fictional world, at least some of the fat characters have to stand up and face the issues that real fat people deal with every day of our lives." And that's what the heroine of her new romantic comedy novel, Bride of the Living Dead, does. When Murray set out to write a romantic comedy about love and marriage, she conjured up a rebellious, plus-sized heroine whose idea of dressing up is wearing a monster movie T-shirt and jeans to go to the movies. Yet when indie film critic Daria MacClellan meets her match, her wedding is hijacked by family drama and she finds herself heading for a formal wedding planned by Sky, her perfectionist, anorexic older sister. Dara adores her fiance and loves horror films, but her wedding seems to be spiraling out of control. Will the spectre of a picture-perfect pink -- or periwinkle -- wedding turn her into the Bride of the Living Dead? Murray is thrilled to be working with Pearlsong Press, a niche publisher featuring body positive fiction and nonfiction with a particular emphasis on Health At Every Size. Bride of the Living Dead is being published in original trade paperback and ebook format in June 2010.