Mamie Sue Preston was actually my Granny's maiden name and I love it so much, I knew I needed to use it in a novel. Plus Granny was a spitfire which Mamie Sue is too.
When my editor at HarperCollins ask me for my suggestions about a cover idea, I let them read the first chapter of the novel where Emma Lee is at the cemetery doing her job as the undertaker of Eternal Slumber and she hears the dinging of a bell. She glances over at an old gravestone. There is a bell on top with a string dangling down from it and the bell is ever so slightly rocking back and forth.
Mamie Sue Preston was a hypochondriac and her tombstone epitaph says "I told you I was sick." In the old days people were accidentally buried alive due to various reasons like unable to detect a faint heartbeat. Finally they began putting bells on top of tombstones with a string attached. The string was fed into the ground and in the casket. If the person was buried alive, they were able to pull the string and ring the bell, signaling to the outside that they were still alive and get them out!
I thought it would be so funny for the story and cute for the cover. I'm thrilled they decided to use it!
You can preorder the first four novels in the Ghostly Southern Mystery Series today!!!
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