Within the last week, 2 of my favorite writers have passed away, and I have been quite simply, distraught. If you are a reader, you will understand. To put it in perspective, these two ladies are two of the three authors of whom I have always purchased hardcover books, full price. Hardcovers today run about $25. Dorothea Benton-Frank wrote 19 novels. So that tells you how invested I have been in her career. And I am really sad that 19 is the limit. Anne Rivers-Siddons wrote a non-fiction that I did not read, but I read all 19 of her novels, again, buying them in hardcover. Ray even bought one for me one time as a surprise because he saw it at the mall when he was working in New Orleans before I could get it. This was before Amazon Prime. That shows how much I adored her, even my non-book reading husband recognized her name and bought me her book.
Last year, Amanda drove me to New Orleans with my mom, and I got to meet Dorothea Benton-Frank, who was releasing a new book, and was awaiting her new grandchild. She was so excited, and was a delight to talk to. The gathering was small, so it really felt like I got to have a conversation with her, and we discussed her writing process. It was such a cool evening, and I will never forget meeting her.
The first book I read by Anne Rivers-Siddons was called Outer Banks and I read it on a trip with my mother-in-law to Florida. She was not my MIL at the time, but my boyfriend's mom, and we had a great time. It was our first road trip together by ourselves, and since we both liked to read, that's what we did in the evenings. We piled up in our hotel room, and read. I had grabbed a new book at Sam's and found myself intrigued by a new favorite author.
If you read a lot, fiction or non fiction, you begin to learn about the author. Even before we could follow the writer's private lives on Facebook and Twitter, there were the little bios on the back flap. And you learned about them by their style, their word usage, and their choice of topics. I really felt like I knew these two ladies. Even though I was only given the edited glimpses into their lives, I am so glad to have been given that. I will miss their work, and I will miss them.
