I never read Lawrence, but I was intrigued and frequently delighted reading about Gerald's far-flung childhood habitats and the creatures he encountered/adopted/studied.

If I have a literary hero, it's probably Robin Hood. I have a collection including children's and YA novels (Wyeth and Hildebrandt illos!), romances, fantasies, and scholarly examinations of the myth and legend including an 1850's book with leather spine and quarterboards entitled Robin Hood: Being a collection of Ballads and tales from the Borderlands...and I forget the rest. It goes on quite a ways. It's a very odd little thing, but I'm pleased to have it. Second (heh. of course) would be F'nor of the Dragonweyrs, second in command to his more flamboyant brother F'lar, figurehead and leader of the weyrs. F'nor was rider of brown Canth, in McCaffrey's first two Pern novels, loyal, perceptive, observant, and reflective, more levelheaded than his brother, and a half-step out of the limelight. My kind of guy.

Girl heroes: Nancy Drew, Podkayne of Mars, Menolly of the Harperhall, Marion in McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood, Gillan in Norton's Year of the Unicorn, lots of Norton's women and girls, who seemed to function just fine with or without male support, Harriet Vane.

I'm sure there are more of either gender, these are all that come immediately to mind.

Flickr set of Gothic Romance covers from the 60s.

I used to have the Dennis Wheatley book with that exact cover. I may still (not sure I ever got around to reading it, but the Hammer movie was quite good).

I am pretty sure I still have the 2 Victoria Holt books at my mom's house.

Victoria Holt is Jean Plaidy--pass it on!

I think she has another pen name, too. I'm just too lazy to Google right now.

Phillipa something?

Phillipa Carr.

eep ... shades of summers past! I went through just about all of Victoria Holt - many with those same covers. And I still have that edition of Barbara Michaels' Witch and I also had the Dennis Wheatley one ... or at least, my father did.

And say it with me one more time:

AAAAAAAYYYYYYYIIIIIIII!!!!

FICTION: THRILLER

APOCALYPSE HAPPENS and THUNDER MOON Lori Handeland's SHAKESPEARE UNDEAD, inspired by a conversation with her editor at RWA and quickly turned into a proposal exploring the Bard and vampires, zombies and more, to Jennifer Enderlin of St. Martin's, for publication in spring 2010, by Irene Goodman at Irene Goodman Agency (world).

Inspired by a conversation with her editor. At RWA. Which was where I was last week. And it'll be published in the spring.

Oy.

Huh. I can't be too mad because I love Lori (she was one of my first authors at Kensington, and she really is a very talented author), but that's ... a stretch, for sure.