Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive7.10.16 Trailer Park Princess is back with rousing new adventures

When dog groomer Salem Grimes pulls into Sonic for a double-meat, double-cheese burger with extra mayo and jumbo fries, the last thing she’s expecting to find is another dead body.

But as she waits for her food to be delivered, she watches the garbage truck in the alley pick up a metal dumpster and — hold on! — was that a human body that just fell into the truck?

Sure enough, it was, and soon Salem Grimes and her eighty-something-year-old sidekick Viv — and an annoying guy named Dale — are on the case, whether the police like it or not (they don’t).

It’s another rousing tale by Lubbock author Kim Hunt Harris featuring Grimes, the unlikeliest of heroes. This one is The Trailer Park Princess with Unsightly Bulges, the second in a series. The first was The Trailer Park Princess and the Middle Finger of Fate, and a third is coming soon, The Trailer Park Princess Is Caught in the Crotchfire. Plus there are two “Trailer Park Princess” short stories available as e-books.

Harris mixes in a lot of humor and action, but also some serious contemplations regarding faith, family, friendship and social issues, into her stories, which are in paperback and e-book formats. Read more on her website, kimhuntharris.com.

Dyess AFB history: A new book on The History of Dyess Air Force Base: 1941 to the Present by retired Lt. Col. George A. Larson is a lavish and comprehensive full-color coffee-table sized volume (Schiffer Publishing, $59.99 hardcover).

The history actually precedes that of the actual Dyess base, as it incorporates the World War II years of Camp Barkeley and Tye Army Air field, later named the Abilene Army Air Field. Dyess opened as Abilene Air Force Base in 1956 and later that year officially took the Dyess name in memory of World War II hero Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess of Albany.

“Dyess is a historic military base,” the author writes, “and is an indispensable part of the nation’s defense against external threats to security.”

The book details with color photos and historical and technical text the various wings, groups and squadrons that have called Dyess home over the years, the changing missions of the base, and the airplanes based there.

Telling her story: Mary Stewart Heather of Lubbock, a retired travel agent, has done something more people ought to do. She has published her memoirs, Texas Girl: The Story of a Life, a well-written autobiographical account of the first ninety years of her life — from 1925 through 2015.

Heather writes that her book “is a personal account of the life of one woman during the devastating Depression years and those of World War II, and continues to the present day. It was written, primarily, as a family legacy but I feel that it would be of interest to many people who have experienced life on the South Plains during this era.”

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

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

East Texas Book Fest takes 2016 off, returning in 2017

After seven years, the East Texas Book Festival is taking a year off in 2016, according to the organization’s website. A new message posted on their site reads, “Thanks, everyone for a great 7th year. East Texas Book Fest is taking a break in 2016, but we plan to return to the Harvey Convention Center in Tyler in August, 2017. Watch here and on our Facebook page for 2017 announcements.” For more information visit their website, www.etxbookfest.org

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

7.10.2016 Richard Mabry, MD, muses on the military, a medical career, and “medical suspense with heart”

For the past decade Richard Mabry, a retired physician, has been as busy in his second career as a novelist of Christian medical thrillers as he was in his first. Along the way, he’s received rave reviews in Publishers WeeklyLibrary Journal and has been nominated for and won a variety of writing awards. He also served as vice-president of the American Christian Fiction Writers. Recently, he signed a three-novel deal with new Christian publisher, Gilead. This week he talks with us about his path to publishing.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Where did you grow up, and how did it influence your writing?

RICHARD MABRY: Other than about three years spent overseas at Uncle Sam’s “suggestion,” I’ve lived in Texas all my life. I didn’t go far from my hometown in north Texas for my pre-medical education, my medical degree, and my specialty training. So I know this area of Texas quite well.

How did that affect my writing? When my characters want something to drink with their meal, it’s iced tea or Dr Pepper. I haven’t had them barbecue a brisket in their back yard yet, but that’s probably coming up. The fictitious towns I create as settings are like the ones I grew up in or went to school or where I live now. Some people call this, “writing what you know.” I call it, “Avoid research wherever possible.” >>READ MORE

Lone Star Literary Life celebrates 2016 Texas Readers’ Favorite Bookstores TOP TEN

Texas readers have spoken! More than 1,000 of Lone Star Literary Life’s readers have cast ballots in our statewide contest to recognize Texas’s favorite bookstores. Their selections are as diverse as the state itself, and honorees include big indies, small indies, chain stores, used bookstores, and new bookstores in every far-flung corner of the state.

From the shadows of Houston’s skyscrapers to the winds whistling down the plains, from the Piney Woods of East Texas to the beachside burbs on the coast, Texas bookshops are connecting with their communities, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase Texas’s Top Ten Favorite Bookstores. Today, we unveil the full results of your votes! >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 7.10.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS AND FESTIVALS IN TEXAS THIS WEEK: Macondo Writers’ Workshop (San Antonio); WLT Writers’ Retreat (Alpine) begins July 17; and moreAUSTIN Tues., July 12, BookPeople, MysteryPeople Presents MARTIN LIMON speaking and signing Ping-Pong Heart, BILLY KRING speaking and signing TonTon, and MANNING WOLFE speaking & signing Dollar Signs: Texas Lady Lawyer vs. Boots King, 7PMHOUSTON Wed., July 13, Murder By the Book, Rachel Caine will sign and discuss Paper and Fire, the second book in the Great Library Series, 6:30PMALPINE Fri., July 15, Front Street Books, Elizabeth Garcia will read and sign The Trail of a Rattler, 5:30PMSAN ANTONIO Fri., July 15, Guadalupe Theater, Macondo Writers’ Workshop presents a reading by Tim Hernandez, 7PMFORT WORTH Sat., July 16, B&N, The Dock Bookshop, JAN BENNETT BIRKS discusses and signs HOPE NEXT EXIT, 3PMSOUTH PADRE ISLAND Sat., July 17, Paragraphs on Padre, Marie Cook discusses and signs The Texas Coast Experience (from Texas Now Magazine), 1PM

News Briefs 7.10.16

Gemini Ink debuts conference in San Antonio, July 21–24, with Siebles, Kaplan, Hernandez, Grande, Santos, and others

The 2016 Gemini Ink Writers Conference will include four days of panels, round tables, readings, and workshops at El Tropicano Hotel on the San Antonio Riverwalk from July 21-24.

The theme is the “State of the Book,” with a keynote address by Tom Payton of Trinity University Press. The featured writers are Tim Seibles, Janet Kaplan, Tim Z. Hernandez, Reyna Grande, and John Phillip Santos—who will join more than thirty acclaimed local and regional writers and scholars, including Jan Jarboe Russell, Wendy Barker, and Texas Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero. >>READ MORE

Writers’ League of Texas announces 2016 manuscript contest winners and finalists

General Fiction

Winner: Fieldings by Karen Stevenson

Finalists:

The Weight of Words Unspoken by Catherine Johnson

The Secondaries by Tobey Forney

Prayers for an Illegitimate God by Isabella Ides

The Fruits of the Two Seasons by D.F. Salvador

General Nonfiction

Winner: Artist Proof: The Case Between Hannah Wilke and Claes Oldenburg by Saundra Goldman

Finalists:

Violently If They Must by Brian MacPherson

The Spine of Our Choices by Allan Gerson

David and the Little Giants: How a Battle over Technology Became a Battle for My Soul by David Barstow

>>READ MORE

WLT’S Texas Writes Heads West to Marathon, Jeff Davis

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.

The Writers’ League of Texas, supported by a grant from the Tocker Foundation, established the Texas Writes program in 2013 with five visits to rural libraries in Central Texas. This year, again with the generous support of the Tocker Foundation, the program is more than doubling in size and expanding throughout the state. >>READ MORE

Photographer/author Enlow to give talk about Waggoner Ranch cowboys aboard Dallas trolley, sign books afterward, July 14

The award-winning photographic volume Cowboys of the Waggoner Ranch author Jeremy Enlow will kick off a new author lecture series in Dallas Thursday, July 14.

Enlow will talk aboard the Green Dragon trolley about what life is like on the famed Waggoner Ranch, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. The trolley will end at Klyde Warren Park, and Enlow will have a book signing from 6:30-8:30 p.m. under the Southwest Porch at the park.

This is a joint venture between Uptown Dallas Inc, McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) and Klyde Warren Park. >>READ MORE

Keynoters Set For Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference July 22-23, Grapevine

Gilbert King (Devil in the Grove) and Sheryl WuDunn (A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity) will give keynote speeches at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine. Prices include dinner. Advance registration required; for more information visit www.themayborn.com/registration.

King: 5:30 p.m. July 22 at Austin Ranch banquet hall, 2009 Anderson Gibson Road. $60.

WuDunn: 6 p.m. July 23 at Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center’s International Ballroom, 1800 State Highway 26 East. $100. >>READ MORE