The Obit Habit: A Novel

Viva is obsessed with obituaries.

She lives to see who died. After her own life-threatening experience, she turns her obsession into a course at Lakeview City College. Fresh obituaries provide insights into profound world changes, while death appears at Viva’s own front door. As Viva hits bottom, her students hijack the course and commit to building their own legacies. Raucous car washes and poetry marathons become fundraisers for the new library. Thanks to their example, and the forty-five plastic pink flamingoes that appear on her birthday, Viva begins to speak out, exposing her vulnerability, risking her job and her romance, and inspiring protests and calls for censorship.

As Viva raises her own quirky voice, she commits to living every single minute to the fullest, making the most of the time represented by a single dash separating birth and death dates on a tombstone. Viva Viva! becomes her mantra.

About the Author

Romalyn Tilghman's award-winning debut novel, To the Stars Through Difficulties, became a book club and library favorite and a best-seller in Germany. Romalyn enjoyed a career in arts management, working with the National Endowment for the Arts, private foundations, and nonprofit organizations. She served on the board of Americans for the Arts and other national boards and review panels. She received BA and MS degrees from the University of Kansas and studied writing at UCLA.