I began writing at the age of eight, and wrote my way through the lean years, more than one marriage, single motherhood,and moving to the Big Apple on a wing and a prayer, with fifteen women's fiction novels to show for it. Every life experience I've weathered has found its way into my novels in one form or another:bad exes, births, deaths,divorces, pregnancy scares,true crime (I was nearly kidnapped, at age 12, by the stranger whose car your parents warned you not get it into). It's all part of the alchemy that makes for fictional gold. BONES AND ROSES, Book One of my Cypress Bay mystery series, marks my entry into the ranks of mystery novelists. I've been a fan of the genre since I fell under the spell of James M. Cain reading his masterpiece, "Mildred Pierce." SWIMSUIT BODY, Book Two of my Cypress Bay mystery series, was just released. Whether you read the first one or this is your introduction to the sunny California seaside town of Cypress Bay where dark twists abound, you'll enjoy Tish Ballard's further adventures in sleuthing. Property manager extraordinaire, she knows where the bodies are buried, literally in the case of celebrity client, Delilah Ward. I'm currently (and happily)wed to WABC-TV correspondent Sandy Kenyon, also known as the "taxi TV" film critic. We met when he was a radio talk show host and he interviewed me on air. How's that for a Hollywood meet-cute? My life's goal was to have a day job that didn't require me to wear pantyhose. Thankfully I've achieved that. Everything else is the icing on the cake. Bones and Roses is the first book in my Cypress Bay Mysteries series. Stop by www.eileengoudge.com to learn more about the book and for more excerpts, recipes and info on my novels.