Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

COOKING

Terry Thompson-Anderson, with photos by Sandy Wilson

Breakfast in Texas: Recipes for Elegant Brunches, Down Home Classics, and Local Favorites

Hardcover, 978-1-4773-1044-1

311 pages, 8 x 10, 123 color photos, $35.00

April 2017

Reviewed by Angelina LaRue

Terry Thompson-Anderson has the ability to reach deep in the heart of Texans and know just what folks want to eat . . . and cook. Her masterful cookbooks hit the spot every time. Thompson-Anderson’s latest offering serves up breakfast in a big Texas way but with lots of variety. And not to worry, if it’s libations you’re looking for, there are plenty of lovely ways to quench your thirst as well.

The section on party ideas and menus ranges from fun teenage sleepover food to an elegant Mother’s Day brunch. Breakfast in Texas is a superb resource for planning everything from Sunday breakfast to all your special occasions. >>READ MORE

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

Middle-grade novel: Finding a place to call home

Thirteen-year-old Stevie Grace Tanner feels safe, loved and happy on a small farm outside of Taos, New Mexico, where her new age parents run a fruit and flower stand by the side of the road.

While Stevie is at school, a drunk driver plows into the stand, killing her parents. Now she is headed to Little Esther, Texas, south of Dallas, where her grandfather — whom she has never even heard of — operates the run-down Texas Sunrise Motel. As far as she knows, he is her only surviving relative.

Stevie — and grandpa Winston Himmel — are the main characters in award-winning Texas author Kimberly Willis Holt’s new middle-grade novel, Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel (Henry Holt, $16.99 hardcover). The author won the National Book Award in 1999 for her youth novel, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

Stevie (named for rock singer Stevie Nicks) and Winston don’t hit it off from the beginning. Winston sends a hired hand to meet her at the Dallas bus station instead of welcoming her in person. Her grandfather is grouchy and cheap, and Stevie can find no traces of her mother’s life in Winston’s home. No pictures. No relics. No stories. Winston doesn’t talk about her at all.

Stevie tries to think of ways to make the motel seem a little more vibrant and her grandfather a little happier. She cooks Winston’s favorite meal — chicken fried steak. She listens to his jazz records. She helps clean rooms when he is short-staffed. She enlists motel workers and residents to plant a garden while he is away for the weekend. But she has a hard time getting through to the sad old man.

Meanwhile, she begins to pick up snippets about her mother’s teenage years. And she learns about more surviving relatives — on her father’s side — that she had never heard him mention. Holt tells a powerful, fast-paced story focusing on family, friends, and finding a place to call home.

Hank the Cowdog: The newest Hank the Cowdog book, number 69 by master storyteller John R. Erickson, is The Case of the Wandering Goats (Maverick Books, $5.99 paperback). Number 70 is in the works and should be available in September: The Case of the Troublesome Lady.

I wrote John an email a few weeks ago asking how he and Kris were doing since the wildfire that destroyed their ranch home near Perryton. He replied: “Thanks for your email and concern. We lost our house, guest house, and my office, two banjos and all our clothes. We’ve been living in a small house we had in town. Most of our pastures burned but we lost no cattle. We’ve had some rain and the ranch is greening up.

“It has been a difficult time for us but we’re looking ahead to a new chapter. We’re planning to rebuild. Be well.”

Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is West Texas StoriesContact 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

5.14.2017 “Cock your hammer, hold on tight, and let the wild ponies run”: Mike Blakely’s always working on a new Western story in book or in song

Some of Lone Star Lit’s readers may know of Mike Blakely, the award-winning singer-songwriter. Some may know Mike Blakely, the award-winning novelist. Yes, he’s one and the same, and he talks with us this week in Lone Star Listens about how he manages to live two very different creative lives.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: What a fascinating life you have led, with life imitating art and vice versa, Mike. I understand that you grew up on the family ranch near Wharton, Texas, northeast of Victoria. What was that like?

MIKE BLAKELY: Except for the fire ants, mosquitoes, and venomous cottonmouths, it wasn’t too bad! Seriously, it was a great way to grow up, living in the country and working on the ranch. At a young age, I learned to ride a horse and work cattle, haul hay, drive a tractor, build fences and barns, and generally work hard using my hands and my brain. For leisure, I learned to hunt and fish and enjoy wildlife and the great outdoors. I was taught to finish everything I started. Most importantly, I learned to earn everything I wanted.

>>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 5.14.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK: Houston, AustinHOUSTON Mon., May 15 Brazos Bookstore, Philip Caputo reads and signs SOME RISE BY SIN, 7PMALSO SIGNING Tues., May 16, River Oaks Bookstore, 3PMPLANO Mon., May 15 Ziziki’s Restaurant and Bar, Fresh Fiction hosts Amanda Quick reading and signing The Girl Who Knew Too Much, 7PM [ticket required]BASTROP Tues., May 16 First National Bank Meeting Room, Margie Crisp and William Montgomery discuss and sign The Nueces River, 7PMCOLLEGE STATION Tues, May 16 George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Library Issues Forum: Henry Chappell and Wyman Meinzer discuss and sign Horses to Ride, Cattle to Cut, 7PMDALLAS Tues., May 16 The Wild Detectives, Women Galore Literary Festival: Storytelling Night with Women Texas Film Festival, 7:30PMDALLAS Wed.., May 17 Half Price Books Mothership, Craig Johnson will discuss and sign The Highwayman: A Longmire Story, 7PM [pass required]COLLEGE STATION Thurs., May 18 Annenberg Presidential Conference Center, John Erickson will sing songs, accompanying himself on the banjo, and read from his Hank the Cowdog series, 10:30AM

SAN ANTONIO Fri., May 19 The Twig Book Shop, Star of TV’s M.A.S.H and animal activist Loretta Swit discussing and signing SwitHeart, 5PMAUSTIN Sat., May 20 The Broken Spoke, Donna Miller discusses The Broken Spoke: Austin’s Legendary Honky-Tonk, followed by Q&A and a signing, 12PMALSO SIGNING IN HOUSTON Sun., May 21 B&N – San Pedro, 2PMHOUSTON Sat., May 21 William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, The Texas Aesthetic XI: The Summer Soiree Series featuring Texas Identities: Moving Beyond Myth, Memory and Fallacy in Texas History by Light Townsend Cummins, 1PM

News Briefs 5.14.17

Round 1 results are in: Vote for your favorite Texas bookstore in Round 2, through May 20

Lone Star Lit’s second annual Texas Readers’ Favorite Bookstores voting, Round 2, continues through May 20, 2017.

In Round 1, book lovers in Texas and beyond have spoken: of the state’s nearly 300 independent, chain, and specialty bookstores, each of the following 43 received at least one vote in Round 1!

We received 736 votes for favorite bookstores in every corner of Texas (and one in Oklahoma, though sorry, that doesn’t count) — including write-in votes for a few stores that weren’t yet on our radar.

Round 2 Semifinalists:

>>READ MORE

————— A D V E R T I S E M E N T —————

Win BREAKFAST IN TEXAS

Terry Thompson-Anderson, with photos by Sandy Wilson

Breakfast in Texas: Recipes for Elegant Brunches, Down Home Classics, and Local Favorites

Hardcover, 978-1-4773-1044-1

311 pages, 8 x 10, 123 color photos

Texans love the morning meal, whether it’s bacon and eggs (often eaten in a breakfast taco) or something as distinctively nontraditional as saag paneer omelets, pon haus, or goat curry. A Lone Star breakfast can be a time for eating healthy, or for indulging in decadent food and drink. And with Texas’s rich regional and cultural diversity, an amazing variety of dishes graces the state’s breakfast and brunch tables. The first Texas cookbook dedicated exclusively to the morning meal, Breakfast in Texas gathers nearly one hundred recipes that range from perfectly prepared classics to the breakfast foods of our regional cuisines (Southern, Mexican, German, Czech, Indian, and Asian among them) to stand-out dishes from the state’s established and rising chefs and restaurants.

Enter to win here, courtesy of the University of Texas Press.

Texas teen book festival reveals 2017 keynote authors

Young Adult book festival will feature bestselling authors Marie Lu and Jason Reynolds, and star of The Big Bang Theory Mayim Bialik

AUSTIN — The Texas Teen Book Festival has announced the keynote authors for the 9th edition of the annual festival, which will feature New York Times bestselling authors Marie Lu and Jason Reynolds, and actress Mayim Bialik from the popular series The Big Bang Theory. The 2017 festival will take place on Sat., Oct. 7, at St. Edward’s University. >>READ MORE

First annual Texas Sports Hall of Fame Book Festival announces lineup for July 15 in Waco

WACO — The Texas Sports Hall of Fame announces its first Book Festival, to be held Sat., July 15, 2017, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco. Admission is free.

Sponsored by Texas A&M University Press, Texas Tech University Press, and Waco City Cable Channel, the one day event will showcase the best in books devoted to Texas sports, and many legendary authors and athletes will be on hand for the event.

Featured authors:

• R. Gaines Baty, Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Baty

• Chad S. Conine, The Republic of Football: Legends of the Texas High School Game

• Mel Renfro (signing only), Forever a Cowboy

• Mac Engel, Pigskin Rapture: Four Days in the Life of Texas Football

• Robert Jacobus, Houston Cougars in the 1960s: Death Threats, the Veer Offense, and the Game of the Century

• Al Pickett, Mighty, Mighty Matadors: Lubbock Estacado High School Integration and a Championship Year

• Carlton Stowers, Where Dreams Die Hard: Staubach, Oh Brother, How They Played the Game and Texas Football Legends

• Jeff Miller, The Game Changers: Abner Haynes, Leon King, and the Fall of Major College Football’s Color Barrier in Texas

• Jim Reeves, Dallas Cowboys: The Legends of America’s Team

• Bill Brown, Houston Astros: Deep in the Heart – Blazing a Trail from Expansion to the World Series

• Frank Sikes, West Texas Middleweight: The Story of LaVern Roach

• Tim Price, Shooting for the Record: Adolph Toepperwein, Tom Frye, and Sharpshooting’s Forgotten Controversy

• Ed Housewright, Beyond Just Win: A Profile of G.A. Moore, Texas High School Football’s No. 1 Coach

• Ryan Bush, The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Rookies, the Shotgun, And a Hail Mary Vaulted the 1975 Dallas Cowboys Into the Super Bowl

• Putt Riddle, Friday’s Winners

>>READ MORE

s has directed and produced some of the most influential, important and popular historical documentaries of our time. >>READ MORE

Brookins to discuss her memoir, Rise, at WTAMU’s summer Roundup event June 5; Thomas, Lewis, Claire, Navarro also featured

CANYON — West Texas A&M University will welcome author and motivational speaker Cara Brookins as the keynote speaker for the West Texas Writers’ Academy Writers’ Roundup dinner on Monday, June 5. Brookins’s memoir, Rise: How a House Built a Family, details how she and her children left a traumatic situation and built a house from the ground up with their own hands. >>READ MORE

TOP BOOKISH DESTINATIONS 2017

From the spur of Texas’s boot-heel to the tip of the toe, we’ve traveled the state in search of some delectable destinations for book lovers. Check out all ten on the map as you plan your literary travels! >>READ MORE

Lone Star Listens compilation available Aug. 1, 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 Fall 2017

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.

Lone Star Listens will be available for preorder May 1 and will ship around Aug. 1.
Examination and review copies will be available May 1 in watermarked pdf format.

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LONE STAR CLASSIFIED LISTINGS

FEATURED: CONFERENCES

5.7.17 KENTUCKY WOMEN Writers Conference, Sept. 15–16, in Lexington. Workshops and craft talks in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and playwriting with Elena Passarello, Camille Dungy, Claire Vaye Watkins, Jessica Handler, Kayla Rae Whittaker, Martyna Majok, Melynda J. Price, and more. $200 with workshop; $125 without workshop; $30 students without workshop. Scholarships available. www.kentuckywomenwriters.org, (859) 257-2874.