"Til Death Do Us Part": The Story Behind the Story

 

 

 

Margaret S. Hamilton

 

 

 

Sometime before 2020, I wrote a story about a wedding cake baker whose wonderful four-tier creation was pitched in a dumpster when a toxic substitute sickened two hundred reception guests. Poppy Mather, baker extraordinaire, was on the case, determined to identify the culprit and clear her name.

 

Over the years, I changed everything in the story, from the location (small town Ohio to an even smaller Cape Cod town), Poppy’s signature cake (a cascade of sugar poppies became butter cream hydrangea blossoms), and the path of Poppy’s sleuthing which led her identification of a new culprit and the woman’s motive. I retained one original element: toxic lilies of the valley inserted into the substitute wedding cake.

 

“Til Death Do Us Part” remained on submission until Marla Bradeen accepted it for her wedding anthology, Malice, Matrimony, & Murder. Marla included her anthology authors in a Kickstarter campaign, blog tour, and separate mystery story folded into the anthology stories, with extra goodies awarded to the successful sleuth who solved the case.

 

The twenty-five anthology stories cover every aspect of a wedding and what could go wrong, from scheming brides and bridegrooms to their attendants and family members, photographers, florists, caterers, and wedding planners.

 

Enjoy!

 

Anthology authors: Joslyn Chase, Charlotte Morganti, P.M. Raymond, Paige Sleuth, Teresa Inge, Sally Milliken, Rebecca Olmstead, Nikki Knight, Shari Held, Barbara Howard, Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, KD Sherrinford, Stephen D. Rogers, Elaine Togneri, Lynn Hesse, Margaret S. Hamilton, Stella Oni, Robert Petyo, Pamela Kyel, Karen McCullough, Wil A. Emerson, Jack Bates, J. Aquino, Sharyn Kolberg, and Becky Clark.