Please help me find a book I'm looking for. Unfortunately, it is a
short story collection read long ago. And, of course, I do not know
the title or author or the book.

It is a sort of "women's book" of short stories. It contains two
stories whose names I sort of remember. The first is: How to
Date/Marry/Love a Hunter. The second is: How to be a mistress (or any
variation on that you can find). They are contained within the same
volume, and it would probably have been published in the early to mid
1990s.

Sorry I'm such a dingbat. And thanks for looking for me. :)

-Christa

Hello.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the first story must have
been "How to Talk to a Hunter" by Pam Houston. It was published in
1990, so the time period is right.   I'd be very surprised if two
different 1990s short stories existed with nearly identical "How to 
... a Hunter" titles.


As far as I can tell, "How to Talk to a Hunter" was published in two
short story collections:
 
"Cowboys Are My Weakness" (1993), short stories by Pam Houston,
available from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671793888/

And:

"The Best American Short Stories 1990"
Contents listed at vsc.edu:
http://scolar.vsc.edu:8003/VSCCAT/ABQ-7789
Available from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395515963/

Neither collection has a title with the word "mistress" in it, but
"The Best American Short Stories 1990" does contain stories with
titles such as "The Fireman's Wife" or "Commuter Marriage."

At the same time, according to reviews on Amazon, "Cowboys Are My
Weakness"  apparently has several stories about women involved in
"hopeless affairs." Thus, that collection may have been what you read:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0671793888/reviews/

search strategy: 
"short stories" "how to" "a hunter"

I hope this helps. Again, I'm pretty sure that "How to Talk to a
Hunter" must be the story that you want.

If neither "Cowboys Are My Weakness" nor "The Best American Short
Stories 1990" is the right collection, let me know via the "request
clarification" feature and I will continue my search. Thank you.

Hi there,
hope you don't mind me putting in my two-cents worth, but I think you
may also want to check our Lorrie Moore's collection of short stories
Self-Help.  Almost all those stories are in the "How-to" mode, such as
"How to be the other woman" "How to Become a Writer," etc.  The Pam
Houston story "How to talk to a Hunter" is in that same style.