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A lot of area history . . . and a little bit of the law Love of golf spurs short stories Southern arizona authors : Successful tale of losses and the bomb Southern Arizona authors : Fun reads will entertain young and old 'Chopin Manuscript' wins top Audie southern arizona authors : 'Cool in Tucson' points Gunn toward Tucson Southern arizona authors : Singing Wind store to honor two writers 'Just Add Water' a fun look at gardening Tough lives of ranchers captured Southern Arizona authors

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Later this month, Patricia L. Lucas, who once taught in a Zambia mission school in Central Africa and now lives in Green Valley, will take her novel "Congo Mission" (Shorebird Publications, $20) to New York to the American Booksellers Association's annual convention, BookExpo America.

Lucas has booked a promotional slot in the Independent Booksellers Association booth on the convention floor from which she will try to attract the attention of the thousands of dealers, sellers, publishers, agents, critics and other assorted book industry affiliates who will be cruising the Javits Convention Center aisles. It is a more sophisticated effort than most writers of self-published or small-publishing-house titles make. But in some form, and sooner or later, marketing is the keystone to the success of any book, and self-promotion is the hardest thing most writers have to do.

Lucas' novel has the advantage of being timely. Though "Congo Mission" takes place almost a half-century ago, it is still happening. The background of the appalling treatment of black Africans under European colonial rule accounts in part for the chaos resulting from its overthrow. In Lucas' novel, a small Catholic American mission is destroyed and its personnel are killed and scattered. Still, her picture of Africa and its appeal to non-Africans is heartfelt and, except for its heavy reliance on Catholic dogma, easy to understand. In Tucson, "Congo Mission" is available at Mostly Books and Antigone Books.

Michael D. Yates, a retired economics professor at the University of Pittsburgh campus in Johnstown, Pa., knows the value of promotion. For "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist's Travelogue" (Monthly Preview Press $15.95), he has lined up more than a dozen promotional appearances. Hopefully, one of the first things he will tell his fans is that this is not a comprehensive guide to inexpensive lodging places. There are a few listed, but, basically, it's an entertaining, opinionated memoir based on Yates' first five years of retirement, during which he and his wife traveled. He had a variety of experiences, including a summer job at Yellowstone National Park and an editorship at Monthly Review, the publishers of this book.

Yates could relate to J. Ray Harwood's title, "I Hate My Damn Job!" (Lunar Heart Press, $12.95). Harwood has bounced around in a wide variety of employments. He knows the highs of a good job and the lows of a bad one and is now out to share. His subtitle is "13 Positive, Practical Ways to Change, Cope With or Escape Your Own Personal Situation."

Jack Walters is all for sharing, and opinions are his stock in trade. "The Last Angry Man" (Trafford, $21.95) is a compendium of most of the ideas that Walters has committed to paper between 2003 and 2006. Many have been published in the Star's Letters to the Editor. They are fun to read. He's really not so angry as serially concerned.

Marlene Bachmann's background includes a Tucson Police Department communications job — "some of the greatest years of my life," she writes. And from them she has distilled "Corridor of Death" (PublishAmerica, $19.95), which deals with relentless violence that is close to home. "Corridor of Death" in Tucson is South Sixth Avenue, where law enforcement confronts random mayhem weekly, if not daily.

Bachmann writes well and knows her material, which, in addition to police work, includes the local boxing scene.

To end on more cheerful notes, you can't go wrong spending time with Janice Emily Bowers and Nancy Mairs, two essayists whose engaging, thoughtful (and sometimes funny) work is included in "What Wildness Is This: Women Write About the Southwest" (University of Texas Press, $19.95). Altogether there are a dozen local authors. And it was good to see an excerpt included from Ann Woodin's long-ago lovely "Home Is the Desert" (1964).

"Ginny Tompkins: A Retrospective" ($25) is a handsome compilation of the art, mostly abstract, of newcomer Ginny Tompkins. . . . In "New Gourd Art With Ink Dyes" (Design Originals, $16.99), craftswoman Maria Dellos gives complete instructions in turning gourds into jewelry and works of art.