Simon Pulse

Hardcover, 978-1-4814-6351-9, (also available as an e-book), 304 pgs., $17.99

March 14, 2017

Sixteen-year-old Leah Roberts lives in a broken family at the edge of the East Texas piney woods. Ten years ago, her family has been shattered in the aftermath of the death, in those woods, of her brother Sam. Leah’s father is Pastor Roberts, and he has a lot of rules (no lip gloss, no bikinis); one of those rules is never, ever go into the woods. But the forest is the only place Leah can let down her emotional walls, be herself. “This forest is my religion, the towering cathedral of trees my church, and I’m reborn every time I leave,” Leah tells us.

The forest is Leah’s comfort, both freedom and sanctuary, and holds her biggest secret. “Heavy steps echo through the trees, the surefooted sound of creatures that have nothing to fear in this world,” Leah says. Would that that were true. “I’ve watched something that technically doesn’t exist come and go in the forest behind our home for years.” Leah has never told anyone because she’s pretty sure they’d stop listening at “Bigfoot.” But the morning she first sees the human boy with the Sasquatch, she knows she has a difficult decision to make. “The walls are falling down around me, pushing me closer to the human embodiment of everything I love about the forest. Leah is gone,” she thinks, “and in her place is a girl walking with a boy who feels like home, the way it was before everything fell apart.”  >>READ MORE

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews   >> archive

Author interviews by Kay Ellington

12.24.2017  New York expat and Homesick Texan cookbook author Lisa Fain shares her Lone Star longings (and her divinity recipe)

Those of us from the Lone Star State know what it’s like to be homesick for Texas. But one Texpatriate has taken her craving for the comfort of home and comfort food to a whole new level. Lisa Fain, aka The Homesick Texan, has launched an award-winning blog and series of cookbooks based on the tastes of Texas. She talks with us in our Christmas Eve Lone Star Listens about her holiday food traditions and even shares a recipe.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: I understand that you are a seventh-generation Texan, Lisa. What do you know about the early generations of your family?

LISA FAIN: My family settled in North Texas in the 1840s, and they were primarily farmers until my grandparents’ generation. My great-great-great-great-grandfather John Coffman arrived from Tennessee with a headright for 1,000 acres in the Peters Colony, which is part of Collin County today. He was the first person in the area to have a wood-burning stove, and people would come over just to see it in action. Another great-great-great -great-grandfather, Elisha Chambers, was known as Tater Chambers because loved to grow sweet potatoes. Food has clearly played an important role in my family’s history! What’s cool is that my grandma today lives on land that’s been in the family since my ancestors first arrived, and we’ve been continuously growing things on that land since that time.

You grew up outside of Houston. Was it in a small town, suburb or “in the country”? What was that like, and how did that influence your life as a writer?

While I was born in Dallas and my family is from that area, when I was nine my dad got a job in Houston so we moved there. I grew up in the northwest suburbs, but they were on the outer reaches of the city and that area back then straddled the line between rural and suburban. I went to Cy-Fair High School, which in the late 1980s was the last stop before the town of Hempstead on Highway 290. There was nothing but farm land surrounding the school at that time, so seeing how much that area has developed since then still surprises me.  >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights  12.24.2017 >> GO this week   Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK

• No special events this week

DALLAS  Sun., Dec. 24  Half Price Books Mothership, Local Author Sundays: Meet local Indie authors and pick up their latest release, while supplies last

Mon., Dec. 25

Merry Christmas! Hope y’all got books.

Tues., Dec. 26

No public events today. Visit your local bookstore and spend the gift cards you received.

Wed., Dec. 27

No public events. Today is a good day to begin reading those books you received from the people who really love you — or just don’t want to see you. ’Cause now you’re busy reading.

AUSTIN  Thurs., Dec. 28 Recycled Reads Bookstore, Workshop: “Write. Create. Ponder.” with Bernadette Noll, 6PM

DALLAS  Thurs., Dec. 28 Half Price Books Mothership, Collectible Conversations: Dallas historian Bob Reitz will discuss the history of Dallas in the 1950s and ’60s through books, 6PM

McALLEN  Thurs., Dec. 28 Luna Coffee House, Celebration of Priscilla Celina Suarez, 2015-17 McAllen Poet Laureate and co-founder of the Gloria Anzaldua Legacy Project, 7PM

Fri., Dec. 29

No public events today. Finish that book you began reading on Wednesday.

SAN ANTONIO  Sat., Dec. 30  The Twig Book Shop, Melanie Little discusses and signs Experience Strength and Hope, a memoir of recovery, 11AM

DALLAS  Sun., Dec. 31  Half Price Books Mothership, Local Author Sundays: Meet local Indie authors and pick up their latest release, while supplies last

Finish all the great Texas books you didn’t get around to earlier in the year so you can begin New Year’s with resolutions to discover new ones in 2018!

Refer to our Best Texas Reads of 2017 list if you need a refresher.

News Briefs 12.24.17

More than 300 booksellers receive 2017 holiday bonuses from author James Patterson, including 12 from Texas

On Monday, December 18, 2017, bestselling author James Patterson announced the names of more than 300 independent booksellers receiving grants totaling $350,000 (up $100,000 over previous years) as part of his Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program. Patterson partnered with the American Booksellers Association to distribute the funds, which were awarded to individual booksellers in amounts ranging from $750 to $1,250. The full list of the recipients appears at BookWeb.org/bonus.

The grant application asked one question: “Why does this bookseller deserve a holiday bonus?”

Patterson personally selected winners from bookstores all across the country, and many of the recipients come from areas hard hit by natural disasters, including Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Copperfield’s in Napa, and various stores in Florida. Nominated booksellers were praised for their perseverance in the face of these hardships, as well as for their contagious enthusiasm, skilled hand-selling, innovation, and, most important, dedication to books and reading.  >>READ MORE

Texas libraries named Star Libraries for 2017

Eleven Texas Libraries were chosen by Library Journal and Baker & Taylor as Star Libraries for 2017. This is tenth year that this selection process has occurred. Nationwide, there were 259 Star Libraries, each receiving three-Star, four-Star, or five-Star designations.

From 2009 through 2015, the four measures included were circulation, library visits, program attendance, and public Internet computer use. LJ Index scores are produced by measuring the proportional relationships between each library’s statistics and the averages for its expenditure category. Last year, circulation of electronic materials, or

e-circ, became the fifth statistic to contribute to a library’s LJ Index score.  >>READ MORE

New Writers and Historians Project launched in Galveston

Humanities Texas makes grant to Bryan Museum

GALVESTON — Galveston’s Bryan Museum recently launched its New Writers and Historians Project, which aims to make the museum’s collection accessible to students while also promoting critical thinking and creative writing.

Over the last few months, the museum has developed a series of virtual reality videos for seventh-grade Texas history courses. These videos provide students the opportunity to explore the Bryan Museum by using touch controllers that interact with designated elements of the museum and its collection.>>READ MORE

Texas Writes at the Alvarado Public Library in Alvarado Jan. 13, 2018

Texas Writes is a statewide program that brings accomplished authors to rural libraries for a half day of presentations and panel discussions. Each event is free and open to the public.

This event will feature presentations from authors Jeramey Kraatz and Karen Witemeyer at the Alvarado Public Library in Alvadaro, Texas, Jan. 13, 2018, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.. More information on the presentations will be posted prior to the event. To pre-register for this event, contact the library at (817) 783-7323.

KidLit: Writing for Children and Teens

Writing for kids is a terribly rewarding endeavor, but can be tricky; How do you know what age group your story is for and ensure that your work is resonating with your audience? In this talk Jeramey Kraatz breaks down the differences between Middle Grade and Young Adult novels and focuses on strategies to make your kidlit stories as dynamic as possible.

Jeramey Kraatz is the author of The Cloak Room series and The Space Runners series from HarperCollins. He lives in Texas, where he writes scripts for the cartoon industry and teaches.

Tapping Into Personal Emotions to Create Unforgettable Characters

No matter what genre you write, the key to creating a memorable experience for your reader is to tap into that universal element that makes us all human—emotion. The good news is that you’ve already done all of the necessary research. You lived! This workshop will teach you how to take personal emotion and turn it into powerful prose that will grab a reader’s attention and capture their heart by developing a genuine author voice, utilizing a deep point of view with your characters, and mastering the aspects of narrative pacing.

Karen Witemeyer is a life-long bookworm, living her dream by writing historical novels. Her books have consistently hit bestseller lists and garnered numerous awards. She lives in Abilene with her family. www.karenwitemeyer.com

 ——­——— A D V E R T I S E M E N T —————

Lone Star Listens compilation available fall 2017, 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.

• Examination and review copies will be available fall 2017 in watermarked pdf format.