How many friends can one dog lose?

Too darn many! I'm usually a jolly fellow, but these days I'm starting to wonder if the ultimate purpose of life is to produce sadness.

Another good friend and neighbor--Shannon--died yesterday. I am really down and can only imagine how distraught her sister, Libby, and their own dog, Daisy, must feel.

Before today, I just knew Shannon and Libby as the nice ladies who took turns walking Daisy, a hound that they adopted and soon nicknamed "The Mouth of the South" due to her strange and rather howl-y way of barking. But Shannon, it turns out, was also a talented and successful writer. Mostly she co-wrote books known as romance novels. She wrote so many that she and her coauthors published them using different aliases. When authors go by fake names, these are usually called pseudonyms or noms de plume, so you can tell them from the ones used by criminals. Some of Shannon's writing names were Madeline Harper, Elizabeth Habersham, Anna James, Leigh Bristol, and Taylor Brady. Here are pictures of just a few of her books:

The list goes on and on. Mike says you can tell from some of the cover pictures why romance novels are also known as bodice rippers. He didn't say which pictures, though. I'll try to figure it out when I'm in a better mood.

Later in her career Shannon turned to a different genre, one that I'll admit is more in keeping with my own taste (pardon the pun): Cookbooks!

Yummy! This book is published by Pineapple Press, which M says specializes in Florida history and culture topics. Here's a link to the book's page on the publisher's website. And this one tells a little about the authors.

Goodbye, Shannon. M and J and I will miss you.