Leaving behind a cheating ex-boyfriend and her stressful job as an ER nurse, Darcy Cavanaugh goes on a fall foliage cruise with her best friend Marie. Lost in a sea of senior citizens, Darcy and Marie, the shipboard nurse, do their best to enjoy the free mimosas, Elvis impersonations, and nosey shipmates. But sailing the high seas is anything but fun when jewelry is stolen and a cabin steward is murdered.
I'm an ER nurse with training as Peer Counselor for Critical Incident Stress Management, the type of support provided to medical personnel and rescue workers after catastrophic events. It's been an honor to serve as clinical preceptor to many nurses, paramedics, firefighters and law enforcement officers.
My inspirational story, "By Accident", written after an equestrian accident that broke my neck, was chosen from 2,000 entries to appear in the best-selling, Chicken Soup For the Nurses Soul.
I'll admit to hearing those rumors about medical staff being prone to gallows humor, and that every hospital Trauma Room has pizza delivery on its Speed Dial. I'm pleading the Fifth Amendment. I will say, however, that I learned a valuable lesson from enduring life's gritty realities. It is simply this: She who laughs--lasts.
The reason my mysteries burble with comedy and a touch of romance is that I believe passionately that laughter and love are the very best medicine.
Born and raised in Northern California and the mother of two, I now live with my husband in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas. I am a cruise travel enthusiast and eagerly climb the gangway for book research that has found me singing onstage with a Newfoundland country band, hiking an Alaskan rainforest, doing the limbo atop a jet- powered catamaran and swimming with stingrays.
I hope my stories are good medicine for you!
