Squeee!

I feel like a badass librarian today. Unbeknownst to me, I have been corresponding with an author of books that I would probably read! Most authors I deal with are in the history field and write books that, generally speaking, I don't like to read. I love historical fiction, but most authors who reach out to the Society are the sort who will need annotations and footnotes. Lots of 'em. So, a week ago when I was approached by an author in Texas for an inter-library loan request of some film on Laura Ingalls Wilder, I thought it was for yet another non-fiction book on the Little House on the Prairie author. Today, I got the payment for the loan and shipped it out, but also decided to look up the author and find out more about her. She was very good about staying up-to-date with the status of the request and was really nice to talk to, but she seemed different than other authors I've dealt with so far.

Turns out, she is waaaaay different and waaaaaay awesome. She's written 50+ historical fiction books plus some juvenile fiction books. She focuses on mystery stories which seem to turn historical figures into detectives of sorts. She has an entire series about Beatrix Potter, which I am totally going to read now. She has two current mystery/romance series and she and her husband have their return address listed as "Partners In Crime", which is adorbz once you realize they're not actual criminals. My local library has 52 of her books and those are just the ones published under her actual name! She's got series' right and left under pseudonyms including (dun dun dunduuuuuun!) Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon. Those might not ring a bell immediately, so let me help you out: those are the pseudonyms used by the author of two crazy-influential juvenile book series: Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. (Several authors have ghostwritten for those series, but I personally have never spoken to them...til now!) I was geeking out all afternoon. I still think it's about the coolest thing that I've gotten to do so far. While geeking out to my co-worker, she began geeking out to me because apparently she was asked to do some research on Reba McEntire's family for that tv show "Who Do You Think You Are?" and she had to sign an affidavit to not talk about it until the show aired last March. I don't think she was able to find much on Reba's family in Missouri, but still, it's exciting to get to take part in these sorts of projects and work with people who are creating books and shows and documentaries that we would read or watch anyway.

Sigh. Good day at work, yo!