Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise: Being dead is boring.

It’s a little over a year since I was murdered (I’ll spare you the details, but you can find them in a book called NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED), and basically what goes on in a typical day is all routine:

1. Not “waking up.” Ghosts like me don’t sleep, really. I’m always conscious, but not always thinking about stuff to do. Even when you’re dead, you need to give your brain a rest once in a while. I like to go up to the attic in the house I’m in–MY house, which I bought and was renovating when I died–and chill. But now this woman who bought the house after me (her name is Alison) is talking about redoing the attic to be a guest room, and I won’t even have THAT! Can you imagine the selfishness? Just because she’s alive and is using the place as a guesthouse “to put a roof over my daughter’s head.” Go out and get a job, I say.

2. A “spook show.” Twice a day (and sometimes more) the guy who died with me, Paul Harrison–he was the private detective I hired as a bodyguard and look how THAT turned out!–and I have to put on a show for Alison’s guests. Why? I’m not really clear on it. But we made the deal with her so she could make money and Paul gets to use her as the outside (that is, alive) agent for his detecting. Me? I get nothing out of the arrangement, and am doing it strictly because I’m a nice person. Really. So we toss stuff around and play with Alison’s daughter Melissa, who is really the only decent person in the house–and the tourists here on the Jersey Shore get themselves a ghosty thrill. Big whoop.

3. Once in a while, I have to do online research for one of the cases Paul makes Alison investigate. And I HATE research, but of course I’m really good at it. Alison’s mother talked me into this one, and you don’t argue with Mrs. Kerby. She’s tough.

You see? The whole thing is a snorefest. If I could only sleep.
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You can read more about Maxie in AN UNINVITED GHOST, the second book in the “Haunted Guesthouse” mystery series. The first book in the series is NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED and the third book in the series, OLD HAUNTS, will be out in February 7, 2012.

The life and times of Maxie Malone is written by E.J. Copperman who is a mysterious figure, or has a mysterious figure, or writes figuratively in mysteries. In any event, a New Jersey native, E.J. has written for such publications as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, American Baby and USA Weekend. E.J., having worked as a newspaper reporter, teacher, magazine editor, and screenwriter, writes stories that combine humor and mystery with just the right amount of spooky supernatural happenings and a large does of Jersey attitude.

Sound like we’re being evasive? Well, the fact is that E.J. Copperman is the pseudonym of a well-known mystery novelist, now embarking on a new type of story that includes some elements of the supernatural as well as a fair number of laughs. And the Copperman novels will have a different attitude, a different setting and completely different characters than anything that has come before, so E.J. really is a new author.

Visit E.J. at www.ejcopperman.com

Books are available at retail and online booksellers.