The novelist that wrote The Watchful Gods and Other Stories is Californian. Billie Letts is also Californian.
Walter Van Tilburg Clark (August 3, 1909  November 10, 1971) was an American novelist, short story writer, and educator. 
Billie Dean Letts (ne Gipson; May 30, 1938  August 2, 2014) was an American novelist and educator. 
The Watchful Gods and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Walter Van Tilburg Clark published in 1950. 
