DATE & TIME   |  August 19th, 2023 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm or later–after the business meeting concludes.
LOCATION   |    Zoom and Gahanna Public Library Meeting Room 3, 310 Granville St., Gahanna, OH 43230. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Louise Pachella: Do Dead Bodies Sit Up? Accurately Portraying Death and Funerals. Presenting via zoom.

Do Dead Bodies Sit Up?

Accurately Portraying Death and Funerals

Louise Pachella will provide fundamental knowledge about dead bodies and mortuary procedures to help authors portray death accurately in their work. Attendees will learn about death processes and funeral preparation, including:

• autopsies
• embalming
• methods of getting rid of a body
• ways to create problems for characters.

After taking this class, attendees will know:

• proper postmortem terminology
• stages of decomposition
• how to avoid myths and misinformation.

Note: the conversation may be graphic to some, but there are no gruesome images on the slides.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social half hour through the business meeting and this program.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

 

About Our Speaker

Veteran funeral director, embalmer, and lifelong bookworm, Louise is fairly new to the writing and blogging scene. She had a passion for writing in her youth, which lay dormant during her busy career. She could no longer resist the urge to write during her hiatus as a stay at home mother. Louise finally found her purpose, educating and entertaining strangers on the internet about dead bodies and funerals.

Her blog, Read In Peace, combines her passion to educate with fun and humor. Full of tips and useful information about death and funerals, Louise balances the solemn subject with lighthearted “dissections” of related books and movies.

Louise is the author of Last Words: A Glossary for Death and Funerals and is currently working on her first book, a nonfiction guide called Embalming For Amateurs. Written with the layperson in mind, she details the embalming and funeral process in a clear and fascinating way. She reveals the mysterious things that happen behind closed doors, with equal parts humor and respect for the dead.

Aside from reading and writing, Louise enjoys napping, welding, racing demolition derby cars, and decorating her 8 foot tall pet T.rex for holidays. She lives in Southern California with her husband and three fierce daughters.

 

Connect with Louise

Please visit Susan’s website to learn more about her writing.