I googled this and at fisrt found so little on Cathryn's death that I had some doubt that it was true. But, a quick scan on Earthwaves and I did not find posts from her after July, and found the below and other things on line:

by Joni Rodgers at 1:48 AM
I'm still choked up about Fred's post on the circle of publishing life and the death of novelist Cathryn Alpert, author of Rocket City, which was completely weird and wonderful. I still agree with Entertainment Weekly that she came up with one of the best opening lines ever: "Three melons and a dwarf sat in the front seat of Marilee’s ’72 Dodge, but the cop was not amused."

Chris

• Cathryn Alpert