Janice Daugharty: 80 books

Obese, long-time school secretary Alene finally gets her first truck and boyfriend, a hitch-hiker who winds up in her bedroom in the house she shares with her saintly, finiky mother. Then Alene gets replaced at work by a young woman with a ponytail. The principle sends Alene to set up office in the...

Rattlesnakes measure "8 foot long," where I come from. AND some even chase you. Nobody knows what happens if they catch you. We tell our tales for hours, gathered round a pickup's tailgate, around campfires--even standing in line at the supermarket. Dead snakes dangling from...

For thirty years the Crandell family, near Albany, Georgia, have been going to Jackson Prison, near Atlanta, to witness the execution of the killer of four family members. So far, each time, the Crandell's have been greeted with a stay of execution, but finally they see justice done. Their celebration is soured by unexpected emotions as they view the murderer draw his last breath

Chelsea, my adopted great-niece, loves competing in beauty pageants. But because of a serious heart condition the least jolt or surprise can result in exaggerated shows of emotion. For instance, when Chelsea discovers that her new pageant friend has flipper-teeth she is shocked to tears.

Temple, little beauty-queen pro, knows that her mother, Cammie, has spiked drinks of her competitors. Once Cammie even "accidentally" stepped on a child's dress tail and ripped it from the bodice. But tonight is Temple's first contest in her mother's small hometown and Temple will be competing with her first real friend, daughter of one of Cammie's former high-school classmates.

Beth is pregnant again and her son is only seven-teen months old. Both she and her husband Donnie work but they can't seem to catch up their debts. They cannot afford another baby, so it's decided that Beth will get an abortion. They have no choice. She keeps putting it off. Then she goes to a shopping mall to get a haircut and everything comes undone.

What would you do if you were suddenly blessed with a piebald deer mount in your small living room? No problem if it was placed as a centerpiece by an enemy, but a husband of many years is a different story. Add to that, this husband really thinks "Piebald" is a masterpiece.

An old lady reaches out from the grave with a message on a dollar bill to her grown daughters and grandchildren. After the funeral, they gather at the old lady's home to go through her meager belongings. Fannie, boss over the family, finds the dollar bill and they all quarell over what the hand-written...

Dot Knight, Sunday school teacher supreme, sets out one summer evening with her class to invite a select group of Mexican migrants to revival. The object is to fill her class's pew, and in her crooked thinking the Mexicans should be easy pickings (vulnerable as they are). Really, Dot's object is to...

Orlando has a restraining order against her ex-husband, Froman, but that doesn't stop him from kidnapping and killing her. Then there is the Colonel, who has briefly met Orlando, another time, another place, seemingly disconnected, until Froman forms the link. Only the spirit could have known about the two women's shared death day.

I had been there most of the morning watching the living dead file in for their doctor's appointments. An old man in bib overalls sat down in the chair facing me. "I ain't staying," he said. His wife and son, I guessed, sat each side of him. "I ain't staying," he said again, repeating...

Adam's notions on hard work, sacrifice, crime and punishment are tested when he meets one of the juvenile delinquents from a govenment-funded rehab program crossing country with a wagon train. Vision Quest was created to keep young criminals from getting into further trouble. To Adam, at first, the program seems geared more toward reward than punishment.

I first met this Frances at a nursing home where my daddy lived for awhile before he died. She walked up to me in the hall and asked should she give them milk with their food. Next time she asked me to bring her a trouble-free "itty-bitty baby." And then I found out that this Frances was...

Earl Sanders, a black man from Washington, DC, is the only one worthy enough to dedicate the new library in his S. Ga. home county. He is the only one to go away and make good. But nobody, black or white, is willing to put him up for the night but a bitter, old black lady who wants to know one thing: why would he come back after he finally got out of these turpentine woods?