Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
AHall of Fame author publishes his first novel at 86
James Ward Lee is a highly respected Texas author and editor, literary critic, entertaining speaker and storyteller, spinner of folk tales, and member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. And now, at the age of eighty-six, he’s a novelist.
His first novel, The Girls of the Golden West (TCU Press, $22.95 paper, $29.95 hardcover), features ninety-five-year-old retired teacher and storyteller extraordinaire John Quincy Adams the Second — no relation to the former president.
Adams, whom most folks in town call Professor, is regarded as the most distinguished resident of the East Texas hamlet of Bodark Springs. He reluctantly agrees to share his stories and wry observations with a young UT graduate student who bears a striking resemblance to a long lost, but not forgotten, ex-lover with whom he parted ways nearly forty years earlier.
Lee, professor emeritus of English at the University of North Texas and founding director of UNT Press, works in numerous literary references as Adams spins his tales and seeks to enlighten the young graduate student.
And, at ninety-five, the old man is in for a very unexpected — and pleasant — turn of events himself.
The Girls of the Golden West is an uplifting, intelligent, well-crafted novel. You can’t help but enjoy the stories and antics of John Quincy Adams the Second. And Lee is working on a sequel, so there may be more to come.
Lee is also the author of A Texas Jubilee, an exceptional collection of thirteen short stories. Published by TCU Press five years ago, it too was set in the fictional town of Bodark Springs. In 1987 he compiled Classics of Texas Fiction, a critically acclaimed summary of some of the best novels about Texas. It’s out of print, but you might find a copy in your local library.
Jim Lee, who lives in Fort Worth, will be one of the featured authors speaking on Friday, Sept. 22, at the West Texas Book Festival in Abilene, along with Jeff Guinn, Al Pickett, S.C. Gwynne, and Lisa Wingate. Read more about the festival at abilenetx.com/apl/friends.
Contents page: Often with self-published novels, but also with some novels from established publishers, the contents page will include something like this: Chapter 1, Page 7; Chapter 2, Page 14; Chapter 3, Page 22, etc.
What’s the point? If the chapters have headings, such as “Chapter 1: The Early Years,” then it’s appropriate to list the chapters and page numbers, especially with non-fiction titles. But if the chapters in a novel are just numbered, they don’t need to be listed on a contents page. It’s pretty obvious that Chapter 2 follows Chapter 1, and so forth.
Sometimes novels are divided into sections, such as Part 1: The Intruder; Part 2: Far From Home; etc. In that case, a contents page showing where each section begins could be helpful to readers so they can gauge how many pages they might plan to read on a given evening.
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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
Roaring Brook Press
Hardcover, 978-1-6267-2635-2, (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 336 pgs., $17.99
September 19, 2017
“Dutiful” Vivian is a junior at East Rockport High. She’s a “nice, normal” girl who tries to stay out of the spotlight, enduring another school year “like a long stretch of highway.” Vivian’s mom, Lisa, keeps a shoebox on the top shelf of her closet labeled “My Misspent Youth,” filled with old zines and photos of her Riot Grrrl days, punked-out in baby-doll dresses with combat boots, half her head shaved, “Riots not diets” inked down one arm. Lisa is a nurse now and wears lavender scrubs covered in butterflies, but when Vivian is upset, Lisa’s mementos of her youth comfort Vivian, even if she doesn’t yet understand why.
One day a boy interrupts a girl voicing her opinion in class one time too many with “Make me a sandwich” and something in Vivian ignites. She’s had enough of the humiliating dress code checks (while the boys wear T-shirts with “Great Legs—When Do They Open?” printed on them), the “bump ’n’ grab” in the hallways (the girls should take this assault and battery as “a compliment”). >>READ MORE
Mulholland Books
Hardcover, 978-0-3163-6329-4, (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 320 pgs., $26.00
September 12, 2017
The tiny town of Lark, deep into East Texas on Highway 59, has had two murders in the last week. That’s two more than the last six years. The first body is that of a black man from Chicago, a stranger in town. The second is a white woman, a local, whose body turns up in the bayou behind Geneva Sweet’s Sweets. Geneva Sweet has spent her entire sixty-nine years in Lark, the last several decades running her small diner. Geneva keeps her secrets and minds her own business, but other people are terrified of those secrets and minding her business, too.
Darren Matthews is descended from a line of lawyers and lawmen, most recently working a task force focused on the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, and one of the few black Texas Rangers. He’s got wife troubles, career troubles, bourbon troubles, and legal troubles; now he’s got Lark troubles. Assigned to investigate the murders in Lark, Darren finds himself stymied by his superiors who maybe don’t want to know what happened in those East Texas woods. >>READ MORE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
9.10.2017 Screenwriter and novelist C. Robert Cargill on the long, strange trip from poetry journal to newsroom to the Oscars and beyond
Native Texan C. Robert Cargill lives the life many writers dream of — with Hollywood and New York successes and an Austin address. But he’s worked hard and paid his dues along the way, as he explained in an email interview with Lone Star Lit this week.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: First of all, happy belated birthday. I understand that you were born Sept. 8, 1975, in San Antonio. You grew up in the Alamo City in the seventies and eighties. What was that like, and how did it inform your writing?
C. ROBERT CARGILL: Though born in San Antonio, I was a military brat and moved around the country until I ended up back in SA when I was fourteen. I did however spend the ’90s there, where I was immersed heavily in the poetry and literary scenes. My first semi-professional job was at a literary magazine named The Sun Poetic Times, and my first time in print was an editorial printed both in the San Antonio Light and the Express News when I was fifteen. I cut my teeth on a lot of poetry readings and learned an awful lot from the luminaries on the scene at the time.
According to your bio, you’ve been a waiter, a video store clerk, a travel agent, a camp counselor, an airline reservation agent, a sandwich artist, a day care provider, a voice actor, and a freelance writer and film critic. How did your big break in writing screenplays come about?
The long story short is that I was a film critic for a decade, and Scott Derrickson had become a fan of my writing. He began emailing me and we became fast friends. One weekend we ended up in Las Vegas at the same time and decided to get together at the Mandalay Bay. Over drinks I pitched him the idea for Sinister and [he] flipped for it. We sold it to Jason Blum a week and a half later and Scott — who had read the rough draft of Dreams and Shadows — asked me if I would write it with him. We’ve been working together ever since. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 9.10.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
SAN ANTONIO Tues., Sept. 12 The Twig Book Shop, Writers’ League of Texas Panel Discussion: “How to Turn a Mess of Pages Into A Book” with Kate Winkler Dawson, Joe Jiménez, Chaitali Sen, and Nancy G. West, 6:30PMDALLAS Tues., Sept. 12 Interabang Books, Attica Locke will read and sign Bluebird, Bluebird, 7PMALSO SIGNING IN HOUSTON Wed., Sept. 13 Brazos Bookstore, 7PMLUBBOCK Tues., Sept. 12 Lubbock Public Library – Groves Branch, Building a Story Collection: Teddy Jones will read, discuss, and sign her new book of short stories, Nowhere Near, 6:30PMABILENE Thurs., Sept. 14 National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, 20th Anniversary exhibit opening with illustrator David Diaz, 6PMAUSTIN Thurs., Sept. 14 BookWoman, Second Thursday Open Mic featuring poet Sarah Cortez (hosted by Cindy Huyser), 7PMAUSTIN Fri., Sept. 15 Resistencia Bookstore, César Chavez and the Moral Right to Stay: A Plática & Discussion with José-Antonio Orosco, author of Toppling the Melting Pot, 7PMBOERNE Sat., Sept. 16 Patrick Heath Public Library, Spanish Collection Re-Opening Celebration with author and illustrator Xavier Garza, publisher and author Bryce Milligan, and poet Carmen Tafolla, 2PM
News Briefs 9.10.17
NCCIL Unveils Special Exhibit for 20th Anniversary
ABILENE — The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, located in Abilene, continues its 20th anniversary celebration with a special exhibition, “Twenty Years of Art,” featuring art from previous NCCIL artists. The exhibition runs through Oct. 28.
The NCCIL (pronounced “nickel”) has had activities and events throughout the year to celebrate the anniversary of the first museum dedicated to children’s picture-book art.
The NCCIL has organized more than 60 exhibitions of original artwork from a variety of artists, and has sent exhibits to 112 cities in 39 states. It has hosted about 200,000 elementary school children for its school tour program and donated more than 10,000 books to school libraries and classrooms. >> READ MORE
Min Jin Lee, Walter Isaacson, Attica Locke, and Kevin Young To Be Featured Presenters at TBF First Edition Literary Gala, November 3 in Austin
AUSTIN — The Texas Book Festival has announced the lineup of presenters at the 2017 First Edition Literary Gala, which includes national bestselling author Min Jin Lee; New York Times bestselling author and current president and CEO of the Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson; Attica Locke, award-winning author, writer, and producer on the Fox drama Empire; and award-winning poet, critic, and as of this November, poetry editor of the New Yorker Kevin Young. Skip Hollandsworth, award-winning journalist, screenwriter, and executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine, will emcee this year’s gala, to be held on Friday, November 3, at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin. >> READ MORE
First-ever all-day Lubbock Book Festival slated for Sat., Oct. 28
S. C. Gwynne to headline with The Perfect Pass; Hank the Cowdog author John R. Erickson keynoter for children
Lubbock enters the book festival arena this fall with the all-day Lubbock Book Festival on Saturday, Oct. 28. More than three dozen best-selling authors and regional favorites have been confirmed to read, sign books, and greet fans at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, a cornerstone of the Lubbock Cultural District.
Keynoters include S. C. Gwynne, author of the nonfiction bestsellers Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches (2010) and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson (2015). Most recently, Gwynne explores how throwing passes revolutionized Texas’ most popular sport in The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football (2016), including a nod to the innovations of Mike Leach, former Texas Tech University head coach.
More than 20 regional and national bestselling authors are scheduled to attend the Lubbock Book Festival, including Jodi Thomas, a member of the National Romance Writers Hall of Fame, and John R. Erickson, creator of the beloved Hank the Cowdog series for young readers. >> READ MORE
Spots remain for 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
————— 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.
NEW DATE FOR INDIEPALOOZA:
October 13–15, Houston
NEW DATE FOR INDIEPALOOZA:
October 13–15, Houston
LONE STAR CLASSIFIED LISTINGS
FEATURED: CALLS FOR ENTRIES
.10.17 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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CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
These Healing Hills by Ann B. Gabhart Visit with Ann through Sept. 14, 2017
10-Sep Review StoreyBook Reviews
11-Sep Scrapbook Page Books in the Garden
12-Sep Excerpt Reading by Moonlight
13-Sep Review Missus Gonzo
14-Sep Author Interview The Librarian Talks
CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
The Curse of Sacerdozio by Glen Aaron Visit with Glen through Sept. 15, 2017
11-Sep Promo Bibliotica
12-Sep Review Texan Girl Reads
13-Sep Excerpt Books in the Garden
13-Sep Promo Chapter Break Book Blog
14-Sep Review Forgotten Winds
15-Sep Review Reading by Moonlight
15-Sep Promo Books and Broomsticks
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