Suicide Supper Club

In the Deep South, the grinding summer heat is enough to make people stupid. Four small town Southern women—each with distinct reasons to consider her life total crap—band together to forge “the easy way out.” But life has a way of turning out opposite of misdirected plans. Abby has no husband, no children, no living kin, and a painful family secret. Loiscell is a two-time breast cancer survivor facing recurrence with dwindling faith and courage. Sheila is a meek abused wife hiding behind a religious, volunteer-queen veneer. Estranged from her only child, Caroline “Choo-choo” Ivey desperately misses her late husband. As the relentless summer heat continues, conditions deteriorate for the women. Initially in jest, they propose group suicide: a nice meal, followed by a quick death courtesy of a paid assassin. Choo-choo offers to pay, and Sheila figures a way to enlist her husband to acquire a contact name. Then plans go haywire. The Suicide Supper Club was a finalist in the 2012 Florida Writers Association RPLA contest. The Suicide Supper Club tackles tough subjects—abuse, cancer, aging—but with humor. In the South, humor is as essential as breathing and often filters life’s harsh realities.

Rhett DeVane is a true Southerner, born and raised in the muggy, bug-infested forests of the Florida panhandle. For the past thirty-plus years, Rhett has made her home in Tallahassee, located in Florida's Big Bend area, where she splits her workdays between her two professions: dental hygienist and novelist. Rhett is the author of four published mainstream humorous fiction novels set in her hometown of Chattahoochee, a place with "two stoplights and a mental institution on the main drag": "The Madhatter's Guide to Chocolate", "Up the Devil's Belly", "Mama's Comfort Food", and "Cathead Crazy". She is coauthor of two novels: "Evenings on Dark Island" with Larry Rock and "Accidental Ambition" with Robert W. McKnight. "One of the best things," Rhett says, "is sharing my brand of Southern crazy with others. When I write, and especially when I step in front of a mic, the stand-up comedian that idles inside me snatches the wheel. I never know where that kook will take me." Rhett donates a portion of her book royalties to support causes in which she believes. "It is important-no, vital-that I use what life has provided, to help others. Even small amounts over time add up. I may be a tiny ripple in a big pond, but that ripple can still make a difference." Rhett writes to stay balanced. The way this world is today, it's a must. "Humor lifts me. I think it lifts others. As long as I am on this side of the dirt, I will find a way to laugh, and to share that with as many people as possible."