Writers......

For any passionate reader, there are fiction writers who stand out for a variety of reasons. (Non-fiction writers also stand out, of course, but often for different reasons....)

Writers whose technique you admire; writers whose characters you identify with; writers whose books you simply enjoy.

Then there is a shorter list of writers, much shorter: those whose work has had a profound effect on you. Whether their work has moved you deeply, or taught you something, or been associated with a particular time of your life; whether it has been there for you when times were bad or whether it has made you laugh hysterically when there wasn't much good around you, these works and their writers are etched more deeply on your soul than most of what you read.

Some of those writers---Louisa May Alcott, for example, or Laura Ingalls Wilder---have lived and died before you were born, or at least old enough to read. Some of them may have overlapped your life, but died before you discovered them: C. S. Lewis comes to mind.

And then there are the ones whose work you were well aware was entrenched into your being while they were still actively writing; writers whose death leaves you with a very real sense of personal loss. Asimov. Heinlein.

And this week, for me, Robert B. Parker. The world is just a bit dimmer place without him at his desk in Boston. He brought us a few series characters: Spenser with Susan Silverman and Hawk, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall spoke to us in a contemporary setting; Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch from a century back or so. There were other characters that had no series.

But his people all had something in common: their view of the world, and how it works, and what a person owes themselves. And I appreciated that view and learned from it.

I will miss you, Robert. May your soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Series I'm Currently Reading....

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series: had read this once before, up to whatever was current at the time (O is for Outlaw?). Currently ready to start the last book so far, T is for Trespass.

Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series: Also had read before, up to whatever was current at the time. I'm currently up to "Both Ends of the Night", or 17 books down, 10 to go.

Sara Paretsky's V I Warshawski series. Probably only four or five books in the series when I last read it. I'm now up to # 10 (Hard Time) of 13.

Robert B. Parker's Spenser series: Hadn't ever read it before. Wasn't much moved by the tv series, but really got into it with the made for tv movies with Joe Mantegna. I'm up to "Walking Shadow", which is # 21 of 35.

Michael Jecks' Simon Puttock series: I think that had three or four books, if that many, when last I encountered it. I'm on the second of 24 now (The Merchant's Partner).

And as mentioned before here, Piers Anthony's Xanth series: have read the first book, ready for the second (The Source of Magic), 30 to go beyond that.