Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
FICTION
Jan Reid
Sins of the Younger Sons
TCU Press
Hardcover, 320 pages, 978-0-87565-428-7 (ebook also available); $32.50
June 2017
Reviewed by Si Dunn
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thousands of Basques left their economically and politically troubled homeland along the border between Spain and France. Many of them resettled thousands of miles away, in parts of South America, Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States, including along the Texas-Mexico border.
Austin writer Jan Reid’s intriguing new novel, Sins of the Younger Sons, takes readers back to the mountainous Basque country in the mid-1990s, through the eyes and actions of Luken “Luke” Burgoa. Luke is a Texan raised as a Basque inside the fences of his family’s Texas ranch, yet often dismissed as “just another South Texas Mexican” by suspicious neighbors. >>READ MORE
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Story for grandson to become seven-book fantasy series
Plano police captain Steve Copling is the author of the first book in a new series of young adult fantasy novels, Sage Alexander and the Hall of Nightmares (Brown Books, $18.99 hardcover).
The 400-page novel was Copling’s response to a request from his grandson, Sage Alexander Copling, then ten, to write him a book for Christmas. He gave the main character—- a legendary warrior with supernatural abilities who must save the human race from the Seven Princes of Hell — his grandson’s name.
It was originally a 28,000-word novella that became the basis for the longer novel. The next year he turned out another novella for Sage’s younger brother, Nikhil, which is the foundation for what will be the second book in the series.
The seven-book series is based on the seven deadly sins. Copling said his objective in developing the series was simply to write stories that Sage and Nikhil would enjoy reading.
“If I continue to focus on that goal,” he says, “I know that other kids their age will also love getting to know Sage Alexander and reading about his adventures.” Copling, who has spent more than thirty-five years in law enforcement and corporate security, has also written two adult crime novels, The Listener and The Shooting Season, which contain no profanity, a rarity in the mystery genre. A third crime novel is in the works.
Bluebonnet book is back: A new tenth anniversary edition of the popular and entertaining children’s book, Don’t Eat the Bluebonnets by Ellen Leaventhal and Ellen Rothberg, has been published by Clear Fork Publishing ($16.99 hardcover, $10.99 paperback).
Leaventhal explained that the original book was no longer in print, so she and Rothberg brought it back as a slightly revised story with a new illustrator, Joel Cook.
“So, is it the same story? Basically, but not completely,” Leaventhal writes. “In my humble opinion we came up with a much more child centered solution to the same problem. The text is more upbeat and child-like, and the fun illustrations by Joel Cook move the story along at a fast clip.
“Yes, messing with something proven is scary, but when given a chance to make something good even better, why wouldn’t we take it? It was that, or no more book.”
The story revolves around a cow, Sue Ellen, who doesn’t always do what other cows do. When they moo, she whistles. And when she is told, “Don’t eat the bluebonnets,” she does anyway. She eats them all, and then she is sorry. But what can she do about it? There must be a way to make it right again.
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Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is West Texas StoriesContact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
8.27.2017 Accounting for Austin author Sherry Thomas’s success
In less than a decade Austin author Sherry Thomas, a native of China, has taken the world of historical fiction by storm and will be publishing her thirteenth novel this fall. Her eclectic writing ranges from historical romance to historical young adult to historical mystery. She talked with us via email about emigrating to the U.S., Baton Rouge’s beignets, and the most romantic place in Texas — as well as her Baker (Street)’s dozen of novels.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: You have an interesting life story, Sherry. You were born in China, and at the age of thirteen emigrated to the U.S. Would you tell readers a little bit about your family, the town of your childhood, and how you came to the U.S.?
SHERRY THOMAS: I grew up in Qingdao. If anyone here has had beer from China, it’s most likely Tsingtao beer—same name, just different romanization. It’s a very new city, by Chinese standards, and was little more than a fishing village until it became a German concession following the Boxer Rebellion, at the turn of the twentieth century. So the old downtown is almost entirely neoclassical, as are the many colonial-era villas along the coast.
As a child, I lived with my mother and my grandparents. My grandparents had both been educated in English-medium schools in Shanghai in their youth. In fact, Grandpa had studied in the U.S. in the 1930s, going for a PhD in biology, but war broke out between China and Japan and he, being the eldest son, hurried home, taking only a master’s degree with him.
Grandpa escaped the wrath of the Cultural Revolution much better than did most other people of his background and connections—he had two siblings who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1940s. So I enjoyed a rather idyllic childhood as a pampered only child, read just about every book I could find or borrow, spent as much time with my friends as my grandmother allowed, and in general didn’t mind my life at all. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 8.27.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
News Briefs 8.27.17
Texas Book Festival to launch Dan Rather’s new book, What Unites Us
Book tickets now available
The 2017 Texas Book Festival has announced it will host the official national launch of What Unites Us, the highly anticipated new book by Texan Dan Rather, one of the world’s best-known journalists. Rather will discuss his new book in conversation with Evan Smith, CEO and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, Sat., Nov. 4, 2017, at noon at the First Baptist Church on Trinity Street.
Book tickets are now available via the Texas Book Festival website. Ticket includes one pre-signed copy of the book and grants access to priority seating at his Festival session. This event will not include a public signing.
In this moment of crisis over America’s national identity, Rather has been reflecting—and writing passionately almost every day on social media—about the world we live in, what our core ideals have been and should be, and what it means to be an American. What Unites Us is a collection of wholly original essays that celebrate our shared values and remind us of what matters most in our great country. >> READ MORE
Sambuchino to lead off Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop, Sept. 15–17 in Midland
The Third Annual Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop will be held Sept. 15-17, 2017, at Midland College. Administered by the Permian Basin Bookies, a nonprofit organization of West Texas writers, and the Midland Public Library, the workshop aims to bring nationally recognized members of the writing community to the Permian Basin once a year to provide high level professional development for the local writing and literary community.
This year’s three-day event features an all-day overview of publishing options on Friday, fifteen different break-out sessions on craft and the business of publishing on Saturday, and special seminars on Christian publishing and screenplay writing on Sunday. >> READ MORE
Texas Center for the Book to award $1,000 to outstanding literacy organizations; seeking applications and nominations
Nominate your favorite organization that contributes to literacy
The Texas Center for the Book is seeking applicants for the 2017 Texas Center for the Book Literacy Award. The award honors qualified non-profit organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to increasing literacy with a $1,000 cash prize to assist in promoting reading and combating illiteracy. This year, an honorable mention recipient will also receive a $500 award. The nomination period for the 2017 Literacy Award is open from May 22- September 1, 2017 and the winner will be will be announced during the 2nd Annual Texas Author Summit kicking off the Texas Book Festival on Nov. 2, 2017.
For more information, visit the Center’s website.
————— A D V E R T I S E M E N T —————
Lone Star Listens compilation available Sept. 15, for readers, fans, and writers everywhere
The present generation of Texas authors is the most diverse ever in gender, age, and ethnicity, and in subject matter as well.
Week in, week out, Lone Star Literary has interviewed a range of Texas-related authors with a cross-section of genre and geography. To capture this era in Texas letters, we’re pleased to bring you
Lone Star Listens:
Texas Authors on Writing and Publishing
edited by Kay Ellington and Barbara Brannon; introduction by
Clay Reynolds
Available in trade paper, library hardcover, and ebook Fall 2017
360 pages, with b/w illustrations and index
Featuring novelists, poets, memoirists, editors, and publishers, including:
Rachel Caine • Chris Cander • Katherine Center • Chad S. Conine • Sarah Cortez • Elizabeth Crook • Nan Cuba • Carol Dawson • Patrick Dearen • Jim Donovan • Mac Engel • Sanderia Faye • Carlos Nicolás Flores • Ben Fountain • Jeff Guinn • Stephen Harrigan • Cliff Hudder • Stephen Graham Jones • Kathleen Kent • Joe R. Lansdale • Melissa Lenhardt • Attica Locke • Nikki Loftin • Thomas McNeely • Leila Meacham • John Pipkin • Joyce Gibson Roach • Antonio Ruiz-Camacho • Lisa Sandlin • Donna Snyder • Mary Helen Specht • Jodi Thomas • Amanda Eyre Ward • Ann Weisgarber • Donald Mace Williams
As a collection of insights into the writing and publishing life, the book will be useful in creative writing classes (not just in Texas alone) and other teaching settings, as well as for solo reading and study—and a great Texas reference volume.
- Lone Star Listens will be available for preorder May 31 and will ship around Aug. 1.
- Examination and review copies will be available May 31 in watermarked pdf format.
LONE STAR CLASSIFIED LISTINGS
FEATURED: CALLS FOR ENTRIES
8.20.17 Kallisto Gaia Press seeks submissions for Volume 2 of The Ocotillo Review. Send us your best Short Fiction, Narrative Nonfiction, and Poetry. We pay authors for the work we publish. Submit here; click here for guidelines and info.
>>READ MORE CLASSIFIED LISTINGS
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