Hi there!

I'm Margaret Lashley. Thanks to fans like you, I’ve become the best-selling author of the Val Fremden Midlife Misadventures series, Freaky Florida Investigations, the Doreen Diller Humorous Mysteries, A Val Fremden Humorous Mystery, and Mind's Eye Investigators. Wow! I'm so grateful!

If you love snarky underdogs who’ve been thrown under the bus by life but keep coming back for more, you’ll love my main characters. Val Fremden, Bobbie Drex, Doreen Diller, and Deanna Young are some of the most unlikely heroes you’ll ever run across!

I have to admit, as an aficionado of the absurd, nothing is funnier to me than the downright lunacy of life itself. Whenever I need inspiration, I just go outside. (Okay, in Florida, finding crazy is pretty much a given.)

But why my obsessive passion for underdogs? Well, it takes one to know one.

Like the main characters in my novels, I haven’t lead a life of wealth or luxury. In fact, as it stands now, I’m set to inherit a half-eaten jar of Cheez Whiz…if my siblings don’t beat me to it.

During my illustrious career, I’ve been a roller-skating waitress, an actuarial assistant, an advertising copywriter, a real estate agent, a house flipper, an organic farmer, and a traveling vagabond/truth seeker. But no matter where I’ve gone or what I’ve done, I’ve always felt like a weirdo.

I’ve learned a heck of a lot in my life. But getting to know myself has been my greatest journey. Today, I know I’m smart. I’m direct. I’m jaded. I’m hopeful. I’m funny. I’m fierce. I’m a pushover. And I have a laugh that lures strangers over, wanting to join in the fun.
In other words, I’m a jumble of opposing talents and flaws and emotions. And it’s all good.

I enjoy underdogs because we’ve got spunk. And hope. And secrets that drive us to be different from the rest.

So dare to be different. It's the only way to be!

Margaret is a native of Florida and lives in sunny St. Petersburg surrounded by friends, both real and imaginary.