The Hero Dies

The cover of Michael Ausiello’s new book.

Today’s the publication day of Michael Ausiello’s book Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies.

Readers of sites like TVGuide.com and TVLine may recognize his name – if you’re an “Aushole” who follows his news, spoilers and updates about shows.

But Ausiello also has a soap pedigree. He was an editor at Soaps In Depth for several years, and has always been open about his love for soaps in his mainstream press work.

He talks a bit about it in a new interview posted this week on TVLine, an excerpt from the book:

My mom also shared my love of soaps. Unfortunately, since I was a child of the Dark Ages—a time before VCRs, never mind DVRs—school proved a rather daunting obstacle to my daytime TV watching. But it was not an insurmountable obstacle. If the truancy cops had paid a little more attention to my absentee records, they’d have noticed that all of my illnesses coincided with pivotal episodes of Days of Our Lives. Bo and Hope’s wedding? I was home with a cold. The climax of Stefano DiMera’s evil prism plot? I was nursing a relentless cough. The death of Roman Brady? Nasty stomach bug.

This both made me laugh and also hit close to home for me.

My mom is at least partly responsible for my soap habit. She, too, watched DAYS, back in the Doug and Julie era.

Michael’s book is about the illness and death of his husband, who died of a rare form of cancer. You can read two articles about the book here and here. I’m looking forward to reading it.

I shared a social media post about my mom’s passing, which happened this week ten years ago. It’s hard to believe it was that long ago, after a long fight with a number of health issues, including cancer.

Michael’s book will no doubt be a tough read, but a moving one.

POSTSCRIPT: I’ll note here as well the sad news that Mark LaMura, who was such a talented actor and a key part of All My Children, died of cancer yesterday at 68.  That C word again.