F is for Francis, Dick

I discovered Dick Francis in high school. By that time his career as a crime writer was well underway so that  once I read his first novel, Dead Cert, there were plenty of books for me to catch up on. (He would eventually write 40, most of which became international best-sellers.) A former jockey (he rode for the Queen Mum), he set his mysteries against a backdrop of horse racing, an arena I wouldn't normally have cared very much about. Most of the books were one-offs, but a couple "starred" Sid Halley, a one-handed investigator who was played by Welsh actor Mike Gwilym in the television adaptation. Gwilym is retired now, but in his day he did everything from Shakespeare to tough guys and Jason Statham reminds me of him a lot. 
Francis died in 2010 but his son Felix has followed in his footsteps with mysteries branded with the Dick Francis name. There's one coming out later this year that features the return of Sid Halley. I haven't read any of Felix's books, but I may have to pick up that one.

F is for Fairy

Fairy. Faery. Faerie.
The Fay. The Fey. The Fee.
There aren't nearly enough fairies in urban fantasy to suit my tastes.
There's Wicked Lovely, of course. And there's Tinkerbelle.  Throw in Oberon. And there's Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series (which I'm about to start reading). But otherwise?  I'm coming up blank. Anyone know of any good fairy stories?

E is also for Etsy

Books and Bling.  It seems to be becoming a thing with me these days.

I have a YA book coming out this summer, a science fiction romance and for the giveaway, I want a particular thing--a piece of jewelry that looks a bit futuristic but is still something you could wear in your everyday life.  I had found the perfect thing (PERFECT) on Etsy but for reasons I don't remember, I didn't snap it right up.  And when I came back to the site--somebody had bought MY piece of jewelry.  I was ... QUITE annoyed.

I like this item from Red Ava Designs. It looks sort of like something an alien ambassador to earth might wear in a Star Trek movie.  I like that it's copper, which always seems warmer than silver to me. I like the sleek industrial design of it. My heroine (Luz) runs a farm on a planet called Frontier, and even though things are automated and she's not out there digging in the dirt herself, I don't think she gets dressed up much, so this might be the thing.

but I keep coming back to it.  And I'm thinking if that slow-paying client who aggravates me so much actually tops up my PayPal account over the weekend, I should take it as a SIGN that this is meant to be the piece of swag I give away when I'm ready to promote the book.

E is for Eudora--that's Miss Welty to you...

Eudora Welty wrote lit fic mostly, but my two favorite books of hers are The Robber Bridegroom, which is sort of a fairy tale based on the Grimm fairy tale, and The Ponder Heart, a hilarious book about "Uncle Daniel Ponder," a wealthy old man who ends up on trial for the alleged murder of his white trash teenage bride.  It's a short book, barely more than a novella, and it's got a lot to say about family,  a topic that also was at the heart of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Optimist's Daughter, which was published 42 years ago.

The Robber Bridegroom was turned into a Broadway musical in 1975 starring Barry Bostwick as the title character. The book and lyrics were written by Alfred Uhry (himself a Pulitzer Prize winner) and the music by Robert Waldman.  The show is popular in high schools, and you can find the original cast album here.

Eudora was one of a generation of writers who defined what's now called "Southern Literature." She was born 12 years after William Faulkner, and 15 years before Flannery O'Connor and Truman Capote.If you enjoy regional literature, you really should check her out.

D is for Davis, Lindsey

Mystery is my favorite genre and I love historical mystery most of all. Some of my favorite historical mysteries are set in Roman times. I love Kelli Stanley'sRoman Noir  books Nox Dormenda and The Curs-emaker, andthe books by Steven Saylor. But the first historical Roman mystery I ever read was Lindsey Davis' Silver Pigs, published in 1989. It was not her first novel, but the first in her "Falco" series of historic mysteries. Read her biography here.

If you'd like to explore historical mysteries set in Rome, check out the website The Detective and the Toga.  the first listing in the events section mentions Lindsey Davis' new book Enemies at Home. Wikipedia also has a really good article on the mystery subgenre. Read it here.

D is for Darkangel

My friend Christine Pope writes romances in a number of different flavors--contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction--and I like all of them. She writes strong heroines and her supporting characters are memorable as well. I'm very fond of her fairy tale series, Tales of the Latter Kingdoms (the most recent book is her retelling of Cinderella, Ashes of Roses), but I also have a soft  spot for her "Sedona Trilogy," with its UFOs and men in black.

This week Christine unveils the first book in her new series. It's a paranormal romance called Darkangel, and it's about a young witch whose search for her soulmate is complicated by clan politics and her own desire to meet the man who has been haunting her dreams. But first, she has to survive a nightmarish series of encounters with an evil that seems to be targeting her.  It's great stuff and there are two particularly engaging male characters that I wouldn't mind meeting.

I was never really a romance reader--mysteries is my genre, but with Christine's books, there's always something to enjoy. That's doubly true in Darkangel where the "game of thrones" playing out among the witch clans is just getting interesting as the book ends. (Never fear, the sequel is coming soon and a teaser chapter is included.) 

C is for CraigsList

As I have mentioned before, I get a fair amount of work from CraigsList ads. I trawl through the listings often enough that when someone repeatedly posts an ad, i notice it. (There's a YA writer in New York who's been offering "an intriguing proposition" for a young and hungry writer that has me intrigued, although I am pretty sure I'm not what he/she is looking for. But it IS a bad sign that the ad has been running on and off for a couple of months now. Is the poster just REALLY picky or is there something that's not being said in the ad?)

A lot of strange gigs end up under the writer/editor category and some are just annoying. I get why translation jobs are there--there's no other category that really fits--but when I see the jobs for office work or hotel clerking, or other non-eriting/editing jobs, I get kind of cranky.

A lot of people complain that many of the writing "jobs" and "gigs" are actually unpaid but oddly, that doesn't bother me that much. I've been known to take on unpaid gigs if I thought they sounded interesting. That's how I ended up editor of Astonishing Adventures Magazine, a job that opened up many doors for me.

My favorite job offer this week was the person who wanted a Klingon speaker to translate a poem into the alien language for $50. Why not? Good luck on that.

Reading CL postings can occasionally be like sifting through the messages in your email spam folder. You have to weed out the million dollar offers and the great deals on cheap meds, and the greetings from lonely Russian girls who want to be your pen pal. This is a headline I saw today:
 2,500-10,000 Overnight NO SCAM (NYC/NJ)

I know what you're thinking. WOW!  Let me get a piece of that. (Or not.) CraigsList i love you but seriously, you need to rewrite your policies.