>> archiveBook brings back memories for Astros fans

Just in time for baseball season, Triumph Books has released 100 Things Astros Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by veteran Houston sports writer Brian McTaggart ($14.95 paperback).

The book will bring back a lot of memories for longtime Astros fans. Before the Astros were the Astros, they were the Houston Colt .45s, and I remember going to several games those first seasons, 1962–64. Then in 1965 they moved into the Astrodome — proclaimed the Eighth Wonder of the World -— and became the Astros.

President Lyndon Johnson, Rev. Billy Graham, and I were three of the 47,876 fans who attended the first game in the Astrodome on April 9, 1965, an exhibition game between the Astros and the New York Yankees. Yankees legend Mickey Mantle had the first hit in the Dome (a single in the first inning) and the first home run, but the Astros won 2–1 in extra innings on a single by Nellie Fox, playing his final season.

McTaggart leads off his list of one hundred things with a piece on Judge Roy Hofheinz, the visionary leader who helped bring baseball to Houston and laid out plans for the Astrodome. Number two on the list is Craig Biggio, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year. Number three is the Astrodome, and number four is Nolan Ryan, who pitched for the Astros for nine seasons.

After the 1988 season, McTaggart writes, owner John McMullen offered Ryan, a free agent, a 20 percent pay cut, thinking Ryan would elect to finish out his career in Houston anyway. Instead, he signed with the Texas Rangers, pitched five memorable seasons there, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing a Rangers cap. Ryan is now an adviser to the Astros.

Panhandle memoir: Shelley Armitage returned home to explore and write about her connection to the land where she grew up in and around the small Panhandle town of Vega, west of Amarillo on Interstate 40.

Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place (University of Oklahoma Press, $24.95 hardcover) evolved from long summer walks that triggered memories, family stories, and a renewed love and respect for the rugged llano environment.

“I rediscovered beauty in my own backyard,” Armitage said. “I had lived and taught abroad, studied and taught in many other states. I discovered the land and its secrets gave me a new voice in my writing and companioned me when my family was gone.”

Her personal narrative, incorporating nature, history, family, and regional lore, brings to mind two other notable Texas “ecomemoirs” that readers have enjoyed for years — Goodbye to a River by John Graves and A Personal Country by A. C. Greene. Good company indeed.

Armitage will be part of a panel discussing “The Challenges of Writing and Publishing Women’s History” at the West Texas Historical Association annual meeting at 1 p.m. Friday, April 8, at Abilene’s MCM Elegante Suites hotel.

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Glenn Dromgoole is co-author, with Carlton Stowers, of 101 Essential Texas Books Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Lit

UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Books in the Basin brings more than 40 authors to Odessa, April 9-10

Sandra Brown, Jodi Thomas, and The Fabulous Beekman Boys are just some of the bestselling authors that will appear at Books in the Basin April 9-10, 2016, in Odessa.

2016 marks the return of the Permian Basin’s Book Festival, which was last held in 2014. The Odessa Council for the Arts and the Humanities, Odessa College, and the Friends of the Ector County Library will host more than forty authors from across the country, state, and region.

Featured authors include Lev Grossman (SyFy’s The Magicians), Judd Winick (Hilo), Alfredo Corchado (Midnight in Mexico), The Fabulous Beekman Boys, Sandra Brown (Friction), and Jodi Thomas (Rustler’s Moon). Special guests include the Writer’s League of Texas, and Literary Death Match, coming back to West Texas. >>READ MORE

Lone Star College Launches Inaugural Book Festival for Greater Houston Area, Apr. 8–9

Nationally and internationally known authors will come to Lone Star College-Kingwood April 8–9, 2016, to speak to audiences about their ideas, meet with attendees, and sign copies of their works. More than 100 authors will be attending. Kingwood is in the Houston metropolitan area, approximately 20 miles from the city. >>READ MORE

North Texas Book Festival slated for Apr. 9

This year’s North Texas Book Festival will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 9, 2016, at Patterson-Appleton Center for the Visual Arts in Denton. Authors from throughout Texas and surrounding states are welcome to sign up for tables. >>READ MORE

DFW Writers Conference, April 23-24, announces special guest speakers, classes, agents, editors

DALLAS—The 2016 DFW Writers Conference, to be held April 23-24, 2016m at the Fort Worth Convention Center, has released a partial list of its classes and authors and the lists of agents and editors who will be attending as well. >>READ MORE

Houston Writers Guild presents three-day annual conference April 29–May 1, with authors Ford, Hutchins

The 2016 Houston Writers Guild annual conference will be held April 29–May 1, 2016 at the Marriott Houston Westchase, 2900 Briarpark Drive, Houston, Texas 77042. Registration and event times vary each day.

Friday night, April 29, the HWG Press will hold a Book Launch/Cocktail Reception. Conference attendees will be entertained by guest speaker Jay Asher. Light hors d’oeuvres will be served along with cash bar. The main event on April 30 will begin with keynote speaker Jamie Ford, followed by one-hour breakout sessions. In addition, there will be an opportunity for writers to pitch their work, in ten-minute sessions with agents and editors. >>READ MORE

Dallas Book Festival,
Apr. 30, Expands With
Best-selling Novelists, Award Winners

Several nationally prominent authors — including best-selling novelists and winners of both a Pulitzer and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize —  are headed to the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library for an expanded Dallas Book Festival.

Among those just announced for the free, all-day, April 30, 2016, event:

Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, which won the 2015 Dayton prize in nonfiction; Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower; Jessica Knoll, best-selling author of  Luckiest Girl Alive; Historian/analyst Andrew Bacevich, who is about to release America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History; Adam Mansbach, famous for that picture book that is known in its polite form as Seriously, Just Go to Sleep; Ghostwriter to the stars David Ritz, whose books include Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin, and Curtis Sittenfeld, the American Wife author who is about to release her newest book, Eligible, in April.

Local authors taking part will include Karen Blumenthal, Nancy Churnin, Tim Cowlishaw, AG Ford, Sarah Hepola, Don Tate and Merritt Tierce.  >>READ MORE