I almost hit a stumbling block today, I’ve really struggled to find a female science fiction author beginning with Q but in the end I did find just one person. She’s not entirely an unknown but is known more for her association with someone special than by her writing. Also, the more I research her the more confused I get. Let me begin…

Dorothy Gertrude Quick Mayer born 1896 also seems to be Margaret Rogers Straub born in 1900. I can understand the problems with dates of birth, my great-grandfather’s date of birth was also moveable and changed depending on the certificate we looked at and it’s quite commonplace to use a pseudonym.

Quick has written a handful of books, one or two science fiction books, a couple of crime books, various short fictions and poems and an autobiography or two detailing her relationship with Mark Twain. The first thing we think of nowadays when we see a friendship of two people with really quite disparate ages is one of disapproval and wonder if there was something inappropriate going on. I don’t know if there was or wasn’t but I will say Quick was chaperoned, as were all the other Angel Fish. Maybe if we spent more time chaperoning our young people rather than sending them off on their own things wouldn’t happen.

The following picture is to a book filed under both fantasy and science fiction. You can buy it here. Do I recommend it? I recommend you look at it but buying is entirely in your discretion.

The Fifth Dagger reviewed only a few weeks ago by The Crime Segments is available for stupid price here. Look at the review, despite the panning I really want to read it. The text looks to hark back to a totally different era with a doctor being told by another doctor he should marry his patient to help her with her illness…this would never happen now, the doctor would be given his marching orders and should the patient stalk him her details would then be passed to the police.