Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
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 ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
New James Patterson novel set in Texas
James Patterson, whose books have reportedly sold 375 million copies, has a new novel set in Texas, and it quickly jumped to number one on the New York Times Best-Seller List.
Patterson teamed up with Andrew Bourelle to write Texas Ranger(Little, Brown, $28 hardcover) featuring fast-draw Texas Ranger Cory Yates as the main character. It could be the first in a series; Patterson hasn’t decided yet.
Yates is on temporary assignment in McAllen when he gets a call from his ex-wife back home in Redbud. She has been receiving death threats. It will take him five or six hours to get there. They talk for awhile, then hang up. When he calls back, he gets no answer, so he contacts 911 and asks the dispatcher to send a car to her house. He’s on the way.
Yates walks into a chilling scene but is told to stay away from the case because of his personal connections, which isn’t something he can very well do. And when a second, similar case grips the town, Yates figures he knows who’s responsible. He’s 90 percent sure, maybe close to 100 percent.
Patterson, of course, keeps the action flowing and the reader guessing, all the way to the end. The authors work in a lot of references to country music, as Yates hits it off with a beautiful singer at a local night club. But he’s also attracted to the girl he dumped back in high school just before the senior prom. She doesn’t seem to hold any grudges.
Texas Ranger is Patterson’s second Texas book this year. Back in March I reported that he had written a true crime book, Murder Interrupted, about a Texas murder-for-hire case.
Ranger Jack Dean: Veteran author Bob Alexander has penned Old Riot, New Ranger a thorough, well-researched biography of longtime twentieth-century Texas Ranger Jack Dean, who also served ten years as a U.S. Marshal (University of North Texas Press, $34.95 hardcover).
The 544-page tome includes more than 75 pages of photos and nearly 100 pages of notes, bibliography and index. It’s Alexander’s sixteenth non-fiction book dealing with lawmen and outlaws.
New London: The Daisy Children by Sofia Grant is a novel based on the New London, Texas, school explosion in 1937, the deadliest school disaster in American history with nearly 300 killed (William Morrow, $15.99 paperback). The author lives in California.
* * * * *
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
Twig’s Top Ten Bestsellers
Summer 2018
What are Texans reading these days, you ask? Lone Star Lit’s newest regular feature is a monthly list of trending titles at the Twig Book Shop, a leading independent bookseller in San Antonio. Click on any title for the Buy link. And we’ll also include a hotlink to related content in Lone Star Literary Life.
Claudia Guerra & Char Miller,300 Years of San Antonio & Bexar County 978-1-595348494
Michael CirlosHumans of San Antonio978-1-595347930
David Sedaris,Calypso 978-0-316392389
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself 978-1-422157992
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness 978-1633694361
Min Jin Lee,Pachinko 978-1-455563920
Amor Towles,A Gentleman in Moscow 978-0-670026197
Andy Weir,Artemis 978-0-553448146
Robert Wright,Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment 978-1-439195468
Jesmyn Ward,Sing, Unburied, Sing 978-1-501126079
LONE STAR CLASSIFIED LISTINGS
FEATURED: CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS
8.19.18 Fort Worth Poetry Society seeks submissions from poets and visual artists for an anthology on classical music, proceeds from which will benefit the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. No cost to enter; accepted submitters receive a free copy of the anthology. This link to the FWPS website provides complete details: https://fortworthpoetrysociety.wordpress.com/2018/07/23/call-for-submissions/.
6.3.18 The 2018 Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Prize
A prize of $750.00 and publication in The Ocotillo Review Winter 2019 will be awarded for a short story up to 4,200 words. Antonio Ruiz-Camacho will judge. Revenue generated will be donated to Parkinson’s research. Details: www.kallistogaiapress.org
>>READ MORE CLASSIFIED LISTINGS
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A RUMORED FORTUNE by Joanna Davidson Politano
Visit with Joanna Sept. 11–20, 2018
9/11/18 Notable Quotable Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
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Visit with Pat Sept. 12–21, 2018
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9/21/18 Review Missus Gonzo
CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
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Visit with Dana through Sept. 13, 2018
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9/10/18 Guest Post The Clueless Gent
9/11/18 Review Reading by Moonlight
9/12/18 Author Interview Books and Broomsticks
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Author interviews by Lone Star Lit staff
9.9.2018 Chris Barton on encouraging children’s natural gifts, the joys of collaborating with a gifted illustrator, and what the late Honorable Barbara Jordan might say in 2018
The next picture book by Austin author of children’s books Chris Barton, What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, comes out on September 25. Barton spoke with Lone Star Literary Life about the rewards of the writing life, where and how inspiration strikes, the process of finding and working with an illustrator, and future projects.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Mr. Barton, you wrote your first book as a student at Lamar Elementary in Sulphur Springs, Texas. You went on to write for the student newspaper in high school, and for The Daily Texan at UT Austin when you went to college. What is it about writing that feeds you?
CHRIS BARTON: I’m getting better at writing, and I’m always learning a lot from it — I think we all enjoy doing things where we can sense our own improvement, and we all enjoy the feeling of getting smarter. And with writing, going all the way back to elementary school and all the way up to the present day, I’ve long found that there can be a great sense of community with other writers and readers, and I find that hugely fulfilling. I guess I’ve taken that sense of fulfilment to the extreme by marrying another author, Jennifer Ziegler, who writes novels for teens and tweens.
You’ve said that you tried your hand at children’s books because one of your sons repeatedly asked you to tell him a story. What were you doing for a living when that happened, and how did you transition to writing for children full time?
When I was still in college I had started working for an Austin-based company called The Reference Press, a publisher of consumer-friendly, somewhat cheeky profiles of companies. I was a writer and then an editor for that company, which became Hoover’s, Inc., and eventually got bought by Dun & Bradstreet. I was there for more than twenty years, and for the last fifteen and a half of those, I was pursuing my work as a children’s author on the side, getting up at 5 a.m. to do so.
Three things happened that led me to leave that job in June 2016: The office was relocating far enough from my house that the commute would have cut considerably into my author time. My book The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, illustrated by Don Tate, was named to the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List, which created opportunities to give presentations to a lot of schools in Texas and receive income from those school visits. And I was invited to be the author-in-residence at the Singapore American School, which I was not about to turn down but which used up all my vacation days for the year by mid-May. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 9.9.2018>> GO this weekMichelle Newby, Contributing Editor
SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK
- STAPLE! Independent Media Expo, Austin, September 8-9
- Heritage Auctions: Rare Books & Maps, Dallas, September 13
- Texas Word Wrangler Festival, Giddings, September 13-15
- Literacy Instruction for Texas presents Toast to Literacy, Dallas, September 14
- Jaipur Literature Festival, Houston, September 14-15
- Picture Book Retreat for Authors & Illustrators, Temple, September 14-16
ONGOING EVENTS
- Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books, Abilene, June 7-September 30
- “Dawoud Bey: Forty Years in Harlem” photography exhibition (from the book Dawoud Bey: Seeing Deeply), Austin, August 29-December 8
- The Texas Liberator: Witness to the Holocaust exhibition (from the book The Texas Liberators: Veteran Narratives from World War II), Houston, September 7-October 28
AUSTIN Mon., Sept. 10 BookPeople, JOHN LARISON speaking & signing Whiskey When We’re Dry (in conversation with John Pipkin), 7PM
DALLAS Tues., Sept. 11 Fair Park, Dallas Historical Society Brown Bag Luncheon with Carmen Goldthwaite, author of Texas Dames: Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History and Texas Ranch Women: Three Centuries of Mettle and Moxie, 12PM
HOUSTON Tues., Sept. 11 Congregation Emanu El, Preservation Houston’s History in Print author series presents architect and architectural photographer Bronson Dorsey discussing his new book, Lost, Texas: Photographs of Forgotten Buildings, 6:30PM
AUSTIN Wed, Sept. 12 BookWoman, Celebrating National Policewoman’s Day: A Reading and Discussion with Sarah Cortez and Susana Sanchez, 7:30PM
DALLAS Wed, Sept. 12 Interabang Books, Randy Kennedy reading and signing PRESIDIO, 7PM
ALSO READING IN AUSTIN Wed., Sept. 13 BookPeople, RANDY KENNEDY speaking & signing Presidio, 7PM
HOUSTON Wed., Sept. 12 River Oaks Bookstore, Mimi Swartz discussing and signing Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart, 5PM
SAN ANTONIO Thurs., Sept. 13The Movement Gallery, Noche de Recuerdos Poetry & Visual Art Showcase (an SA 300 event), 6PM
AUSTIN Fri., Sept. 14 BookPeople, GARY SHTEYNGART speaking and signing Lake Success, 7PM [ticketed event]
HOUSTON Sat., Sept. 15Kaboom Books, “I am Strength – Celebrating Women’s Lives” reading & book signing, 6:30PM
SAN ANTONIO Sat., Sept. 15 Dead Tree Books, Lynn Maverick Denzer signing Old Villita and La Villita Continues, 2PM
TOMBALL Sat., Sept. 15 Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue, Wyatt McSpadden signing TEXAS BBQ: Small Town to Downtown, 11AM
ALSO SIGNING IN HOUSTON Sun., Sept. 16 Saint Arnold Brewing Company, 1PM
SAN ANTONIO Sun., Sept. 16 The Twig Book Shop, 2019 Texas Poetry Calendar at The Twig, 6PM
News Briefs 9.9.18
Same Page Book Festival issues call for authors
DECATUR — The Decatur (Texas) Public Library has issued a call for authors to take part in the Same Page Book Festival. The event will take place on Saturday, September 29, 2018 from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the library, located at 1700 Highway 51 South in Decatur. Events will include an author fair for book sales and signings and author panels for readers and writers. The closing keynote speakers will be Carol and Doug Hutchison, authors of Behind the Texas Badge. >>READ MORE
Nominations open for Texas State Artists
AUSTIN — “There is a government code that says that the legislature will name a Texas poet laureate, a state musician, and then state visual artists—one in two-dimensional art and one in three-dimensional art,” says Anina Moore with the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Moore says artists don’t receive money for this honor but there are other benefits. “We do see some recipients able to market themselves more widely or become invited to festivals and other events based on the fact that they’ve been named as state poet laureate or visual artist, things like that.” >>READ MORE
Texas Book Festival announces 2018 author lineup
AUSTIN— The Texas Book Festival (TBF) announced the 2018 author lineup filled with plenty of Texas talent and nationally renowned authors, including Susan Orlean, John Scalzi, Phoebe Robinson, Scott Kelly, Julián Castro, Jose Antonio Vargas, Dessa, Ben Fountain, Carol Anderson, Mimi Swartz, and more. The 2018 TBF weekend takes place on October 27 and 28, spread throughout the grounds of the Texas State Capitol and along Austin’s iconic Congress Avenue.
Previously announced authors include Cecile Richards, Pete Souza, Tayari Jones, Erin Entrada Kelly, Sandra Cisneros, David Grann, Leslie Jamison, Mary Pope Osborne, Chloe Benjamin, Alexander Chee, Alfredo Corchado, Joe Holley, Sandhya Menon, Fatima Farheen Mizra, Walter Mosley, Tommy Orange, and V.E. Schwab.
Numerous Young Adult and children’s book authors are a part of this year’s TBF lineup, including Ransom Riggs, Dhonielle Clayton, Sharon Draper, Yuyi Morales, Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson, Soman Chainani, and Megan McDonald. In addition to great authors, TBF offers special programming throughout the weekend for kids, spanning from educational programs to family fun activities, games, and more. >>READ MORE
“Greatest Literary Show on Earth” makes Texas debut
The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) will come to Houston September 14–15 with a theme of “Shared Narratives.”
This is the first Texas visit for the JLF, described as “the greatest literary show on Earth.” The JLF began in India a little over a decade ago, with the intention of “bringing together the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue.”
The 2018 JLF will visit Australia and England before arriving in the United States. The Asia Society Texas Center is bringing JLF to Houston, then it will move on to New York and Boulder, Colorado.
“Engaging our diverse city in an array of international topics and speakers aligns perfectly with our deep commitment to promoting cultural understanding,” said Bonna Kol, president of Asia Society Texas Center.
Participating writers include Jay Aiyer, Omar El Akkad, Robin Davidson, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Namita Gokhale, Kurt Heinzelman, Lacy M. Johnson, McKenna Jordan, Rich Levy, Rubén Martinez, Sonal Mansingh, Jovan Mays, Jasminne Mendez, Marcus Moench, Rajesh Parameswaran, Sharad Paul, Daniel Peña, Shobha Rao, Kathy Reichs, Navtej Sarna, Anis Shivani, Mimi Swartz, Shashi Tharoor, Marina Tristán, Roberto Tejada, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, and Milan Vaishnav.
The Jaipur Literature Festival will be held at Asia Society Texas Center, 1370 Southmore, Houston. >>READ MORE
————— A D V E R T I S E M E N T —————
Lone Star Listens compilation available summer 2018, 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 Summer 2018
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.
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