Death Becomes Us
Almost everyone with a pulse fears death, but not everyone fears life. With crippling social anxiety, I feared both. But after an accidental call to a funeral home during my mid-life crisis trip to grad school, I reluctantly embarked on a journey to explore professions that dealt with death in order to come to terms with my own mortality. The result of this quirky trip is Death Becomes Us, a humorous memoir about what happens when a middle-aged, anxiety-filled, life-avoider attempts to investigate the last taboo of American culture. And lives to tell the tale. Death Becomes Us is available on Amazon: Kindle Edition | Paperback | Audiobook
"This is death "lite" and it's an enjoyable, fun read, full of hilarious, touching and telling details as well as vividly depicted scenes and characters who literally jump off the page, regardless of their mortal status.”
— Judge, 24th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards
"This book will grab you from the first sentence, and hold you to the end, and along the way, Skjolsvik teaches us something on practically every page."
— David R. Dow, Cullen Professor, University of Houston Law Center and author of Things I've Learned from Dying
"An evocative andinsightful exploration of the neglected reality of death in American Society.Gently humorous and heartfelt."
— Sister Helen Prejean, Author of Dead Man Walking
Forever 51
“Full of vampires with spray tans and menopause trying to twelve step their way to salvation, Forever 51 takes vampire fiction into terrifying new territory: middle age. A very funny, very bloody book about growing older and getting dead.” – Grady Hendrix, New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Veronica is eternally fifty-one years old with a proclivity for problematic drinking. Like most hormonally challenged women negotiating the change of life, she is a hot mess. To retain her sanity, she attends weekly AA meetings and adheres to a strict diet of organic, locally-sourced, (mostly) cruelty-free human blood from the hospice facility where she works. Her life stopped being fun about a hundred years ago, right about the time her teenage daughter stole her soul and took off for California with a hot, older guy. These days, Veronica’s existence is just that – an existence, as flat and empty as her own non-reflection in the bathroom mirror.
When her estranged daughter contacts her via Facebook, Veronica learns that she has one chance to escape her eternal personal summer: she must find and apologize to every one of the people she’s turned into vampires in the last century. That is, if they’re still out there. With raging hormones and a ticking clock, Veronica embarks on a last-ditch road trip to regain her mortality, reclaim her humanity, and ultimately, die on her own terms.
“Complex characters propel this diverting vampire tale.” Kirkus, To read the full Kirkus Review, Click here.
“In this must-read adventure, many states are crossed amid much horror and humor.” Booklist Click here for full review.
