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By now you have likely figured out how to operate the new e-reader or tablet you received over the holidays. Your next hurdle is discovering ways to download texts. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ProjectGutenberg.com and your local library are the most-used websites. The New York Times’ E-Book Best Sellers list will offer contemporary choices. Another way to narrow your search is to request Tulsa/Oklahoma writers in e-books or hardcover.
Reading about your home city or state adds an extra dimension to your pleasure. Familiarity with locales and culture enriches your understanding.
With that joy awaiting you, I suggest the following recently published authors:
Christopher Metcalf
Metcalf’s first action novel, “The Perfect Candidate,” is a good read. His self-published book acts as a fine model of how you, too, can work the e-book system if you desire to write and get noticed. Metcalf, a Jenks public relations professional, writes about CIA agent Lance Priest, who was recruited while attending The University of Tulsa. His name, Priest, is in sharp contrast to his character; he is described as “a liar, a cheat, a chameleon and a natural killer.” Just the fellow you want to bring home to dinner to meet the folks.
After training in the art and science of murder and mayhem, Priest is sent to the Middle East for his first assignment during Operation Desert Storm. This won’t be his last mission — many sequels are promised.
James Patrick Hunt
A Tulsa lawyer and author, Hunt, like Metcalf, is drawn to the antihero. Some of his 11 novels can be found in electronic form. His latest endeavor, only in hardback as yet, is “Police and Thieves,” part of his “Bridger” series.
The life of professional thief Dan Bridger gets complicated when he finds out his brother, Seth, has been murdered.
David Dary
Dary, retired head of The University of Oklahoma’s journalism college, writes a rousing collection of tales from Indian Territory and the Sooner State, “Stories of Old-Time Oklahoma,” published by OU Press. One section is about Oklahoma outlaws who robbed and rustled in gangs that ravaged the territory. Even so, they were popular figures with the common folk, as they are still today. Don’t overlook Tulsa’s best storyteller of outlaws (i.e., Pretty Boy Floyd), Michael Wallis, who spoke at Tulsa Town Hall in January.
Adrienne and David Kallweit
The Kallweits are Tulsa’s entrepreneur stars, winners of the 2007 Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit Award. Their business, SeekingSitters, a babysitting referral company, has 59 locations in 23 states. Given all their experience, they have authored “S.T.Y.L.E.” This is a complete guide to babysitting success, including online safety. Although praise of new technology is this column’s subject, along with its ease come dangers, too. A stranger can follow a babysitter via Twitter and Facebook. And Adrienne should know — she is also a licensed private investigator.
CC Lawhon
Self-help books abound. Lawhon has complied, from her education (a Master of Arts in education from Pepperdine) and personal interactions, another one, titled “Guru-YOU!” — and it is a cut above most. After learning from her father, a successful furniture store owner; working at local TV stations and corporations; and amassing an extensive career in education, she can direct you to “Remove Your Doubts: Find Your Purpose, Passion and Power.”
It’s interesting to discover what the whole guru mystique is all about. Lawhon has an online radio show and leads classes as well. Before she gained all this wisdom (or maybe how she gained it), she was former Tulsa Mayor Susan Savage’s children’s nanny.
Marilyn Talley Rains
Rains has written a children’s picture book, “Looks Like You Fed Your Face With Your Feet: Kids ‘n Manners.” Rains lives in Jenks and has two adult sons, yet she remembers well the embarrassment of misbehaving children. The title comes from the stanza:
Oh boy, oh boy
Eating out is a treat
Except that it looks
Like you fed your face with your feet.
With the addition of Joshua Allen’s wonderful illustrations, your kids can get the message without your nagging tongue: “Close your mouth when you chew.”
Before the holidays, digital texts accounted for 20 percent of the market. This percentage is expected to hike because readers will get hooked.
