During my time in Rome, I will be working on my second novel, a satirical book about the death industry in America. The novel will follow a boutique funeral planner who specializes in customized, often eccentric end of life celebrations. Traditions are quickly eroding in the modern funeral industry. Ashes are stuffed into fireworks, integrated into manmade reefs, lofted in balloons, painted in portraits, and transformed into synthetic diamonds. Bodies are cryogenically frozen, liquefied, and set ablaze on rushing rivers. This novel will take the reader inside the odd world of contemporary funeral planning, showing the increasing commodification of death, while also following the main character’s desire to come to terms with his own mortality and reestablish contact with an estranged daughter who is mourning in her own unique way.