U - Authors from A to Z Challenge

Authors from A to Z is a posting challenge hosted by 

Heather at Proud Book Nerd. The challenge is simple: each day for the month of June (except Sundays) share your favorite authors whose last name corresponds to the letter for that day.  For more info, click the photo.

How I'm participating in the challenge:

I am trying to highlight at least three authors (YA or otherwise) per letter, some current favorites, others future favorites. If I cannot come up with three, I will substitute favorite books that start with the letter of that day. If that doesn't work, then just for fun I am going to list songs that start with the letter of that day. And if that doesn't work, well, it will be a surprise!

Today's Letter: U

Sam Ulee

I didn't have any authors for 'U' so I decided to do characters with a 'U' last name.  The first is from The Twilight Saga.  Sam is a the alpha of the La Push wolf pack and seen at first as an enemy by Bella and Jacob before the truth about the supernatural nature of the pack comes to light.  Strong, brave, and a decisive leader, Sam makes for a great example of what a Quileute warrior should be.  He causes a little uproar in Breaking Dawn, but overall you can count on Sam to do the right thing.  I bet if he were to write his memoir or autobiography, it would read like a captain's log, or go the opposite direction and be an angsty look at his shape-shifting life.

Dolores Umbridge

I really loved to loathe this character, who is the villain of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I wanted to punch her in the face from the moment she appeared, which means Rowling did her job well.  I really hoped Umbridge, a.k.a. toad-face, would come to a delightfully dreadful end, but alas, it doesn't appear from the books that she did.  Most I can figure, from some of the extra stuff I found on the interwebs about the future of the Harry Potter crew, is that once HP got in the ministry and was fixing it up (as in, getting rid of all the unjustness) Umbridge found herself unemployed.  If she were to write the story of her life, it would probably be a diatribe against the new management of the ministry and how glorious it was when Fudge and Thicknesse were in charge.

Grover Underwood

This character from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is one of those sidekick kinds who manages to do some pretty heroic things, even if by accident.  Grover is a fun character who definitely adds some levity to all the danger encountered by Percy and Co.  I really liked, from the first few books of the series, how Grover did a lot more than you expect sidekicks to do and really came into his own strengths.  If he were to write about his adventures, they would definitely include Percy and Annabeth, and probably his search for Pan.