H is for "His Wife's Deceased Sister"

I ran across the short story, "His Wife's Deceased Sister" a few years ago when I was participating in Brian Lindemuth's "Short Story a Day" challenge. It was written by Frank R. Stockton.  If Stockton's name sounds familiar, it's because he wrote "The Lady or the Tiger?" one of a handful of short stories that almost all American kids read as children. ("The Most Dangerous Game," "The Ransom of Red Chief," and "To Build a Fire" are several of the others.)

"His Wife's Deceased Sister" is about a writer whose life is ruined when he writes a story so popular that no one thinks anything else can live up to it. Read it here.

G is for mystery writers Tess Gerritsen and Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George

There really aren't enough women writing crime fiction but there are two writers--whose work could not be more different--who have made their mark on the genre. They are Tess Gerritsen, who writes medical thrillers and created the series Rizzoli and Isles and Elizabeth George, who is an American but writes very "English" mysteries.
Elizabeth George has written a number of mysteires "starring" Inspector Lynley, and they have been turned into a BBC crime series. Her older brother Rober is also a novelist.
Tess Gerritsen was a doctor before she started writing fiction, part of a tradition of writing doctors that includes Arthur Conan Doyle, Robin Cook, Michael Crichton (he earned his degree but never practiced medicine) and James Rollins.

Tess Gerritsen

G is for Gutenberg

I grew up in a house where books were appreciated. There were always books around and you could expect that birthdays and Christmas would bring special books--hardback books. My father collected history books, particularly about the Civil War, and my mother loved mysteries but she also had a set of those gray, clothbound "Mocdern Library" editions of the clasics. The only one of those i remember reading was the Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam, but she had the Russian novelists as well. i am way behind on reading the Russians, except for Pushkin. (But I digress.)

My point is that in my family we all bought books and sometimes that meant spending a significant chunk of money. Even when I was in high school hardback books cost a lot and you didn't buy them on impulse. the idea of free books--even books that were in the public domain--was just a lovely fantasy.  FREE BOOKS!!!

And then came Project Gutenberg. On the project's landing page you'll find the slogan, "the first producer of free books" but really, it's so much more than that. For me, it's the equivalent of the "seed banks" that are preserving our genetic heritage and the DNA of species on the verge of extinction. If civilization collapsed today, Project Gutenberg's repository of past literature would allow us to carry on with the accumulated wisdom of the past. There's probably a short story in that. There are more than 45,000 books in their data base and it's growing every day. And think about this--Johannes gutenberg was born in the 14th century. Seven centuries ago...the past is prologue.

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.