"Stylish Sheds" author Debra Prinzing wanted all of the shed owners in her book to have real input in the chapters on their respective sheds. Buckhead shed owner Mary Martin, Prinzing said, took that to heart.

Martin combed through every version of the chapter about her little log cabin, correcting Prinzing's manuscript in places where the writer misinterpreted Southern idioms. "She'd say, 'Well, in the South, we don't call it that, we call it this,' " Prinzing said. In particular, Martin, who grew up in South Carolina, did not like calling her hideaway a shed. She called it her "little house," one that brought back memories of time spent in the family garden.

In this passage from "Sheds," she described the joy of remembering times past in the little house:

"One of my favorite memories is of 'Mah Mah,' my grandmother, telling me, 'Sugar, pick a few leaves to go with the jonquils,' " Martin said.

Sadly, Martin died in May, just days after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was 55.