Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

SUSPENSE FICTION

Greg Lynch

Black Rose Writing

Paperback, 978-1-61296-697-7 (also available as an ebook), 350 pgs., $19.95; May 2016

Billy Clayton, Dallas city councilman possessed of state senate aspirations, has a problem. The Cotton Bowl is scheduled for demolition to make room for a new sports complex, part of a bid to bring the Olympics to the Metroplex. Carino Sporting Venues, a company belonging to one of the mob families of New York City, wants the contract. The family has sent James Garelli, sadistic mob muscle, to Dallas to persuade the vote in favor of Carino. As it turns out, Billy Clayton is so very blackmail-able. >>READ MORE

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

A quick look at some new Texas books

Lauro F. Cavazos, who served as U.S. Secretary of Education and president of Texas Tech, tells his story in A Kineño’s Journey: On Family, Learning, and Public Service (Texas Tech University Press, $29.95 hardcover). Cavazos was born on the King Ranch, where his father instilled in him the importance of education, service to country, and upholding the family name.

West Texas Middleweight: The Story of LaVern Roach by Frank Sikes (Texas Tech University Press, $24.95 hardcover) tells how a skinny kid from Plainview would rise from obscurity to fame as a boxer until his life tragically ended in the ring in 1950. The sport of boxing would never be the same after his death.

An Abilene reader highly recommends Ask Me Nothing a novel by Carol Fox ($14.99 paperback), noting the story “is a very cleverly written multiple murder mystery with numerous twists, turns, surprises and cast of characters.” The novel, set in central Texas, deals with how ordinary people change when a brutal murder severs the ties of kinship, love, and loyalty.

In Who Killed These Girls? (Knopf, $27.95 hardcover), author Beverly Lowry revisits a high-profile Austin murder case of four teenage girls who were raped and murdered at a yogurt shop twenty-five years ago — December 6, 1991.

Texas Monthly executive editor Skip Hollandsworth takes a fresh look at a very old case in The Midnight Assassin (Henry Holt, $30 hardcover) about a serial killer who terrorized Austin in 1884-85.

For college students away from home for the first time and facing temptations that could have serious consequences, attorney and rugby coach Scot Courtney offers some practical legal advice in Legal Street Smarts (Texas Edition), a $9.95 paperback from Berkeley Place Books.

Comanche Marker Trees of Texas (Texas A&M University Press, $35 flexbound) is a well-researched look at the Native American practice of designating and using marker trees. Arborist Steve Houser, anthropologist Linda Pelon, and Comanche Nation preservation officer Jimmy W. Arterberry are the authors.

Texas Tech University Press is publishing Janet M. Neugebauer’s 500-plus-page biography of longtime West Texas congressman George Mahon. A Witness to History ($45 hardcover) is scheduled for December release.

Abilene novelist Lynn Vadney has written a love story about a second chance at happiness, Beautiful but Treacherous ($17.95 paperback). While traveling, a widow runs into an old college friend; they reflect on their lives and explore whether there is a future for them together.

Bound to Texas II by Sam Yocum Harper of Austin ($9.95 paperback) is the second historical novel about the author’s Texas pioneer family. This one focuses on the colorful life of Milam Andrew Harper, born in Texas on February 10, 1836; a couple of months later his father would fight at San Jacinto.

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

Texas Book Festival lists full 2016 lineup

AUSTIN — The Texas Book Festival is excited to host a lineup filled with nationally renowned presend of prominent artists—actors, comedians, d longest-running book festivals in the country, the Festival continues to be free and open to the public thanks to sponsors and volunteers. Additionally, the Festival brings more than 40,000 attendees, live music, kids’ activities, food trucks, book signings and sales, and 100 exhibitors all in and around the State Capitol over two full days. >>READ MORE

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

10.16.2016 Novelist Carol Dawson’s foray into history takes her down the highways and byways of her home state

Roads as metaphor have attracted a pretty wide variety of authors through the ages—from the Apostle Paul to Chaucer to Kerouac to McMurtry. The newest Texas tome to recognize the appeal of roads isMiles and Miles of Texasby Austin author Carol Dawson (with Roger Polson), with a foreword by none other than Willie Nelson. Dawson has been a force on the Texas literary and arts scene for three decades — from being a fine visual artist to writing widely respected literary fiction and nonfiction to teaching classes for the Writers’ League of Texas. She took a detour from promoting her latest book to be interviewed by email.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: So, Carol, what an interesting life you have experienced! I understand that you lived in New Zealand, England, Washington state, and Taos, New Mexico, to name a few places. But you grew up in Texas and returned to the Lone Star State a few years back. What brought you home?

When I finally came back to Texas from New Zealand (and living abroad elsewhere), I returned for a host of reasons: my publishers were in the U.S., my family was here, my parents were growing old, my children needed Texas centering. There were things I’d tremendously missed about living here, and other things I missed less. But ultimately, you can probably guess the core of truth: you can get the girl out of Texas, but you can’t get Texas out of her bones and blood cells. My travels and other life experiences had broadened me and widened my perspective, so that I found myself more ready to embrace my roots than ever before, for the best of reasons: it was purely a choice, rather than an accident of birth. There’s nothing quite like truly coming home. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 10.16.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS IN TEXAS THIS WEEK: Houston, Dallas, Southlake, RichardsonHOUSTON Mon., Oct. 17 Alley Theatre, Inprint’s Margarett Root Brown reading series presents Lauren Groff and Ann Patchett, 7:30PMHOUSTON Mon., Oct. 17 Lone Star College – N Harris, Gulf Coast Reads event: Jan Jarboe Russell discusses The Train to Crystal City, 12:30PMALSO SIGNING in Spring, Tues., Oct. 18, Community Center Forum, Gulf Coast Reads author talk, 6:30PMHOUSTON Tues., Oct. 11, Murder By the Book, Charlaine Harris will sign and discuss All the Little Liars, her first Aurora Teagarden mystery in 13 years, 6:30PMAUSTIN Tues., Oct. 18 BookWoman, author and sex educator Allison Moon reads from her award-winning book Girl Sex 101 and critically-acclaimed memoir Bad Dyke, followed by Q&A and book signing, 7PMHUNTSVILLE Tues., Oct. 18, Sam Houston State University, Bright Sky Press publisher Lucy Chambers discusses writing and book publishing, 2PMDALLAS Wed., Oct. 19, SMU – Hughes Trigg Theater, Bryan Cranston will read and discuss A Life in Parts, 1PMALSO SIGNING in Dripping Springs, Thurs., Oct. 20: Treaty Oak Distilling Ranch, Bryan Cranston reads and signs A Life in Parts, with Q&A and special screening, 6PM [ticket required]AUSTIN Thurs., Oct. 20 Central Presbyterian Church, Bestselling Author JODI PICOULT speaking & signing Small Great Things, 7PM [ticket required]HOUSTON Thurs., Oct. 20, Brazos Bookstore, Carol Dawson & Roger Allen Polson discuss and sign MILES AND MILES OF TEXAS, 7PMLUBBOCK Fri., Oct. 21, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts Graffiti Building, Nighthawks reading and signing with Ad Hoc Writers Barbara Brannon, Melissa Brewer, Sheila Delony, Richard Jespers, Marilyn Westfall, and Janice Whittington, 7 pm

News Briefs 10.16.16

Lone Star Literary’s Tour of Texas, Fall 2016

Walking the sidewalks of a world-class city and coming upon the treasure-house of a literary bookstore like Paris’s Shakespeare & Company, San Francisco’s City Lights, or Denver’s Tattered Cover stirs a particular thrill of discovery. That’s how it was when we pulled up to the curb around the corner from Deep Vellum Books, the bookseller-cum-publisher situated on the main drag of Dallas’s storied Deep Ellum quarter. (We weren’t the only journalists stopping by, either—the Dallas Morning News was just departing from their visit as we were arriving for ours.

Anne Hollander (above left; co-founder with Will Evans, who was out of town) and Tanya Wardell (right) gave us the lowdown: Deep Vellum Bookstore’s carefully curated shelves are arranged by publisher, not author or genre, allowing readers to follow the lists of the dedicated houses that specialize in literary translations, as well as get to know newcomers. >>READ MORE

Austin Book Arts Center celebrates one-year milestone with successful fund-raiser

The Austin Book Arts Center board of directors has announced that their First Birthday Bash at the North Door on September 28 raised almost $4,000 in funding. ABAC celebrated its first year of operation with letterpress printing, tiny books, music by Ruby and the Reckless, cupcakes, champagne, and a silent auction. Greg Ciotti of KOOP Radio was the Master of Ceremonies.

Below: Randy and the Reckless provides entertainment for the event.

The event was to celebrate the accomplishments made by the Austin Book Arts Center in the first year of operation, including the expansion of the ABAC studio into a larger space at the Flatbed Building. Since September 2015, 57 workshops have been offered to engage people in creative, interpretive, and educational experiences related to the arts of the book.

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Paragraphs on Padre Island hosts San Antonio Romance authors Oct. 22 during group’s fall retreat

Paragraphs on Padre Island Meet the Author Series presents “An Afternoon of Romance at the Bookstore” Sat., Oct. 22, 2–5 pm, with San Antonio Romance Authors members Roe Valentine, J. D. Favor, Jolene Navarro, Jaye Garland, Terri Wilson, Karen Kinna, and Susan LeMiles.

The book signings and discussion are being held in conjunction with San Antonio Romance Authors’ Fall Writer’s Retreat, taking place on South Padre Island October 21–23. This event will be a casual, relaxed affair with a chance for our guests to meet one on one with the authors.

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