Contributing Editor

MYSTERY

J J Rusz

The Window Trail: A Big Bend Country Mystery

CreateSpace

Paperback, 978-1-7224-2487-9, (also available as an e-book),  284 pgs., $12.99; July 4, 2018

In Big Bend National Park, the Window Trail is a 5.5-mile, out-and-back pathway that draws hikers, birders, and others to its rugged beauty.

In J J Rusz’s engrossing, well-crafted new novel, “the Window” is other things, as well. It becomes the scene of an infamous suicide that is spotlighted in a best-selling book, and curious visitors from afar flock to stand at the exact spot where a young man plunged to his death. Meanwhile, a gruesome murder is discovered by a newly hired Sul Ross State University assistant professor, Claire Harp, while she and a local student are showing the trail to two students visiting from Ohio. The Window also becomes the impetus for a slow-starting romance between Claire and Clayton Alton Shoot, the Brewster County deputy sheriff investigating the murder.

The Window Trail is the first book in a projected mystery series focusing on Far West Texas and some of its communities. J J Rusz is the pen name of John J. Ruszkiewicz, who recently retired after four decades teaching literature, rhetoric, and composition at the University of Texas at Austin. Rusz previously has written several college textbooks and now lives in the Alpine area.  >>READ MORE

TEXAS SPORTS

Jeff Fisher

High School Football in Texas: Amazing Football Stories from the Greatest Players of Texas

Sports Publishing

Hardcover, 978-1-6835-8181-9, (also available as an e-book), 256 pgs., $19.99; September 4, 2018

If you’re new to Texas, it won’t take you long to understand that high school football games are a statewide religion, as well as a billion-dollar-plus industry.

On fall Friday nights, stadium lights snap on across the Lone Star State. Bleachers fill, often to overflowing. And opposing teams charge onto the fields with much more at stake than winning their game or getting dates with cheerleaders.

As Jeff Fisher’s enjoyable new book, High School Football in Texas: Amazing Football Stories from the Greatest Players of Texas, makes clear, many high-school players suit up also for the slim chance that they will get recruited by top-rated university teams and later drafted to play for professional teams in the National Football League.  >>READ MORE

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

Case Keenum explains his priorities in life

After former Vikings quarterback Case Keenum threw the pass that will forever be known as the “Minneapolis Miracle” to win the divisional playoff game on Jan. 14, 2018, a sideline reporter asked him on national TV if that was the best moment of his life. Keenum, still almost speechless after the incredible game-winning play, didn’t hesitate.

“It’s probably going to go down as the third best moment of my life,” he said, “behind giving my life to Jesus Christ and marrying my wife.”

He expands on those priorities in his new book, Playing for More: Trust Beyond What You Can See (BH Publishing Group, $22.95 hardcover). The book goes on sale Tuesday.

“If you’d been there on our wedding day and seen (Kimberly) walk down the aisle, or if you’d spent every day with her since, then you’d understand why my marriage ranks higher than that play,” he writes. “Trust me, it’s no contest. Not even close.

“As for giving my life to Christ, I don’t see how anything can be placed above that… If you have a relationship with Christ that’s filled with complete and eternal joy, how can anything else compete?”

Don’t get him wrong — Case Keenum loves football. As a coach’s son, he grew up around the game — in the locker room, the weight room, on the practice field, on the sidelines. His dad, Steve, is his hero and role model, he writes. “Before every game, he texts me four things: Pray hard. Play hard. Take care of the ball. Have fun.”

Keenum hasn’t had a smooth ride to the top of the game. Only one major college recruited him out of Abilene’s Wylie High School — the University of Houston. Even after he set collegiate passing records there, no pro team drafted him. He was on the practice squad and served as a backup quarterback, had a few good starts in Houston and Los Angeles, but found himself again in a backup role last season with the Minnesota Vikings. When he finally emerged as the starter, he led them to a division championship, then signed with the Denver Broncos in the off-season to be their starting quarterback.

The ups and downs of his pro career, Keenum writes, have “taught me so much about humility and trusting that God has a plan for all of us.”

Keenum’s story, written with Andrew Perloff, is filled with football stories from high school, college and the pros, but the overriding theme is that faith and family rank ahead of football, as he said on national TV.

“Am I a football player who happens to be a Christian?” he writes. “No, I’m a Christian who happens to be a football player. That’s my calling. That’s my defining characteristic. Once I realized that, everything else fell into place. I became a better football player and, more importantly, a better person.”

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Glenn Dromgoole writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life

4th Annual Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop set for Oct. 13-14

Now in its fourth year, the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop annual event will feature writing coaches, agents, and publishers from around the country, October 13-14, 2018.

The two-day workshop event will be held in Midland, at the Marie Hall Academic Building at Midland College.

The workshop will feature ten speakers, including Margie Lawson, Christie Craig, Manning Wolfe, David Farland, Reavis Z. Wortham, Kristen Marten, Stephen Graham Jones, Donna M. Johnson, B. Alan Bourgeois and Arlene Gale.  >>READ MORE