Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archiveChildren’s books: adventures, dreams, bullying

Children’s adventures: A new series of children’s books, The Adventures of Willy Nilly & Thumper, has made quite a hit in Midland, home of the authors, Jim Henry and Jimmy Patterson.

The books ($6.95 paperback), beautifully illustrated by Marjorie van Heerden of South Africa, provide a bridge for young readers moving up from picture books to chapter books and include factual notes at the end.

Book one is The Lost Treasure of Mount Methuselah and book two is The Hermit’s Last Hairs. The stories, featuring a dog and his rabbit friend, were told by Henry to his children and grandchildren over the years and then adapted into print by Patterson. More tales are on the way, Patterson says. Check out the series website, willynillyandthumper.com.

Patterson is also the author of a very impressive volume about the history of Midland, A History of Character: The Story of Midland, Texas ($25 hardcover) that came out a couple of years ago. The first half of the book tells Midland’s story chronologically and topically, while the second section focuses on short profiles of about seventy significant “people of integrity, past and present.” Read more at historyofcharacter.com.

Bullying: Steven T. Moore, who teaches English at Abilene Christian University, has written a children’s book about Theodore Thumbswho is subjected to verbal taunts by bullies at school (Clear Fork Publishing, $16.99 hardcover). “Theodore Thumbs,” the author writes, “shows us how to overcome bullying in our schools, neighborhoods, and communities.”

Illustrated by Morgan Davis of Dallas, the story features a small, shy boy who has a hard time fitting in at school. At recess, the other children make fun of his clothes and his hair and make up a song ridiculing him. At home, his parents and neighbors assure Theodore that he is very special and give him his own special word to boost his self-confidence when others begin to tease him. For more, see clearforkpublishing.com.

Flying and faith: A dream can come true, but sometimes we need help in making it happen. That’s the theme of Abilene author Graham Hill Gutting’s children’s book, TR’s Dream: Never Give Up on Your Greatest Desires (Christian Faith Publishers, $13.95 paperback).

Gutting, who served in the Air Force and has ministered to children in church and secular venues, combines his passions for flying and faith in the story of TR, a trainer aircraft headed for the scrap heap until a miracle totally changes his future. At the end of the story, Gutting provides a “spiritual application,” relating TR’s experience to the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. A video about the book can be viewed on youtube.com.

Purple: TCU Press has published a coloring book for budding TCU fans — Color Me Purple — A TCU Coloring Book for All Ages, thirty-two pages of line drawings featuring various aspects of campus life and quite a few horned frogs ($6.95 paperback). Good idea for any campus.

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

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

8.14.2016 Jonah Lisa and Stephen Dyer: This season’s native-Texan power couple

Texan-born Jonah Lisa Dyer and Stephen Dyer are a married writing team who craft screenplays and novels. In a partnership exceeding twenty years, they’ve made lots of amazing things together — the films HysteriaAway and Back; a cozy home in the mountains of Idaho; a family; and most recently, the YA novel The Season.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Jonah Lisa and Stephen, I’ll start with the question that every couple gets. How did you two meet?

JONAH LISA DYER: We met in Dallas in 1993 at Deep Ellum Theatre’s Christmas party. Stephen’s sister, Dallas screenwriter Gretchen Dyer (The Playroom, Late Bloomers) had seen me in a play and kind of picked me out as a match for her little brother. She invited him to the party so she could introduce us. We weren’t her only introduction that ended up getting married. She had a gift.

Maybe it’s because I, too, am a coauthor of a series of novels, but I seem to run into more and more people working as coauthors. How did you two start writing together?

STEPHEN DYER: We were living in New York in the early 2000s. I was producing indie films and Jonah Lisa was acting but was dipping her toe into standup comedy. We started out writing her standup material and realized we worked really well together. She would come up with something, I would build on it, she would build on that, or vice versa.

JONAH LISA: It was fun at a time when we were both feeling sort of burned out on producing and acting. Also, right around that time Stephen had this great romantic comedy idea that he’d been trying to get his sister to write and she just wasn’t interested in it. Finally I said, “Stop trying to give away your idea! She doesn’t like it! WE should write it!” And we did.

STEPHEN: It didn’t sell but it made people laugh out loud, and that got us a bunch of attention with production companies & studios. That’s when we really decided to transition into writing full-time. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 8.14.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

LITERARY FESTIVALS IN TEXAS THIS WEEK: Houston (Click for details)AUSTIN Mon., Aug. 15 BookPeople, JAYME LYNN BLASCHKE speaking & signing Inside The Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse, 7PM(Also reading at The Twig Book Shop, San Antonio, Fri., Aug. 19, 6PMHOUSTON Tues., Aug. 16, Murder By the Book, Lisa Scottoline will sign and discuss Damaged, 6:30PMDALLAS Wed., Aug. 17, Lucky Dog Books – Oak Cliff, OPEN MIC STORYTELLING: FIGURES OF SPEAK, 7PMAUSTIN Thurs., Aug. 18, BookPeople, WRITERS’ LEAGUE OF TEXAS Presents: BLACK LITERATURE MATTERS: A CONVERSATION ON WRITING AND RACE with Michael Hurd, Varian Johnson, Doyin Oyeniyi, and Jennifer M. Wilks, 7PMEL PASO Sat., Aug. 19, Memorial Park Public Library, Tumblewords Project workshop with Benjamin Alire Sáenz: What Are You Most Afraid Of?, 12:45PMSUGAR LAND Sun., Aug. 21, The Ismaili Jamatkhana and Center, moderated panel discussion: THE WRITING PROCESS: FROM INCUBATION TO PUBLICATION with Bapsi Sidhwa, Rodney Walther, and Ann Weisgarber, + book signing, 2PM

News Briefs 8.14.16

Lone Star Literary thanks Indiegogo donors

Back in the spring, we asked for your help to ensure that Lone Star Literary Life could grow and improve our ability to bring you the bookish news, reviews, and interviews you want and depend on, every week. You rose to the challenge — with more than $5,700 in donations! We’d like to say a huge thank-you to all the supporters of Lone Star Literary Life who lent a hand (and scored some pretty good perks)..>>READ MORE