Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

A night with Johnny Cash remembered

In his engaging book Live from Aggieland: Legendary Performances in the Brazos Valley (Texas A&M University Press, $24.95 hardcover), author Rob Clark devotes one chapter to the Johnny Cash concert that was cancelled by A&M President Earl Rudder in 1965 after Cash was arrested in El Paso with a large supply of drugs.

As editor of the A&M student newspaper, The Battalion, I was right in the middle of that controversy, which resulted in Cash performing off campus at the Lakeview Amusement Club. Clark quotes me extensively, and correctly, throughout the chapter, and I enjoyed reliving the whole episode more than fifty years later.

Other chapters in Clark’s book cover Elvin Presley, Nat “King” Cole, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and Robert Earl Keen, R.E.M, the Ramones, and Garth Brooks, with “other notable moments” mentioning Johnny Mathis, Steve Martin, Reba McEntire, and others.

Of course, there have been many more acts, more than could be covered in a single book. Another notable one I recall from my days was when George Jones and Jerry Lee Lewis and other country musicians shared the stage for a night of the Louisiana Hayride broadcast live from a sold-out G. Rollie White arena in the spring of 1965. Jones was drunk and Lewis punched out the piano.

Going for a swim: You’ll feel cooler during the hot Texas summer just looking at the pictures in the full-color guide to The Swimming Holes of Texas by Julie Wernersbach and Carolyn Tracy (University of Texas Press, $21.95 paperback). And you’ll feel even cooler if you pick out one or two of the more than 100 swimming holes covered in the book and take a plunge.

The swimming sites are grouped by region — North, East, Central, South, West, and Austin and the Surrounding Area — so there should be several within easy driving distance of nearly everyone in Texas.

The authors provide practical information, such as phone numbers, web sites, hours, entrance fees, rules, amenities, and swimming tips. Each location gets two or three pages, including a color photograph that virtually lures you into the water.

Midland museum: The University of Oklahoma Press has published a 168-page full-color catalog, Museum of the Southwest: Selection from the Permanent Collection ($50 hardcover, $35 paper). The coffee-table book includes works of about seventy artists, including Thomas Hart Benton, Peter Hurd, Grant Wood, Norman Rockwell, and John James Audubon. A brief biographical essay accompanies each artist’s images.

* * * * *

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

Texas Center for the Book seeks applicants for 2017 Literacy Award

Austin — The Texas Center for the Book is seeking nonprofit organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in Texas. Qualifying organizations must be nominated by September 1, 2017.

The winning organization will receive a $1,000 cash award to assist in its future work promoting reading and combating illiteracy. This year as well, an honorable mention recipient will receive an $500 cash award. These awards provide public recognition to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations committed to addressing the continuing need for literacy services and that increase public awareness of the importance of literacy. The 2017 Literacy Award winner will be announced during the 2nd Annual Texas Author Summit at the Texas Book Festival on Nov. 2, 2017. >>READ MORE

* * * * *

2017 Kids’ Summer Reading: Check it out!

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

6.11.2017 Stella Dutton takes Texas kids along for a literary ride

From June 11 through July 16, Lone Star Literary will be featuring summer reads for Texas kids, and from time to time during these weeks, we’ll be featuring authors of children’s books. Today, meet Stella Dutton. Her most recent book is Pinto: The Chisholm Trail Pony, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail. Another of her titles is Tex the Mockingbird, which introduces children to Texas landmarks. We interviewed Dutton last week by email.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Can you tell us a little bit about your background, Stella? Where did you grow up?

STELLA DUTTON: My parents were part of “The Greatest Generation.” My father was a World War II veteran and a cowboy storyteller. My mother was a dedicated homemaker who encouraged my dreams. They both remembered the Great Depression and told me stories of the Dust Bowl days. I was born and raised in Oklahoma City, the youngest of seven children. My family was originally from Texas. My maternal great-great grandfather used his oxen to help build the State Capitol in Austin. Another great-great grandfather was a Texas Ranger.

What were your interests as a child?

I have always adored art and animals. As a child, I loved creating characters and giving them voices. I also spent many afternoons taking my Pomeranian for walks. This puppy inspired some of my book characters. As a teenager, I wanted to be an actress, and I loved MTV.

When did you first become interested in being a children’s book author?

My father always recited funny stories and poems. He was quite a character. This inspired me at a young age to create fun stories. Years later, when my daughter was two years old, she was diagnosed with a rare chromosome disorder. She was not walking or talking. I started making up stories and fun characters for her. These stories helped her with her speech therapy. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 6.11.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK: Dallas, Richardson, San AntonioAUSTIN Mon., June 12 University Co-op, Five-time Olympic medalist Sanya Richards-Ross will sign her new book, Chasing Grace, 2:30PMHOUSTON Mon., June 12 Blue Willow Bookshop, Sarah Dessen will discuss and sign her new novel, ONCE AND FOR ALL, 7PMAUSTIN Tues., June 12 BookPeople, DAVID SEDARIS speaking & signing Theft By Finding, and Ariel Levy speaking & signing The Rules Do Not Apply, 7PM [TICKET REQUIRED]COLORADO CITY Tues., June 12 Mitchell County Public Library, Dana Glossbrenner will discuss and sign The Lark and Women Behind Stained Glass, 5:30PMAUSTIN Tues., June 12 Dallas Museum of Art, Arts & Letters Live hosts Jonathan Safran Foer discussing and signing Here I Am (in conversation with Will Evans of Deep Vellum Publishing and Cinestate), 7:30PMAUSTIN Wed., June 14 B&N – Arboretum, Author Storytime with Lori Kline reading Almost a Minyan, 11AMDENTON Wed., June 14 Denton South Branch Library, Professor’s Corner: A Literary Discussion Group featuring Poems by Texas Poet Laureate Jan Seale, 7PMAUSTIN Sat., June 17 Malvern Books, launch party and concert to kick off the 2017 REVEL Solstice Festival: A Blank Canvas, a 17-event interactive chamber music, visual art, and poetry series: Award-winning poet Carrie Fountain reading her original work (with the acclaimed Bel Cuore Quartet), 6PMHOUSTON Sat., June 17 River Oaks Bookstore, John B. Boles discusses and signs Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty, 3PM

SAN ANTONIO Sat., June 17 The Twig Book Shop, Adria Andresen signs The Bunny Weaver, 11AM

News Briefs 6.11.17

Texas Book Festival reveals the first 12 authors for 2017 festival weekend

Festival to showcase acclaimed authors Claire Messud, Mark Bittman, and Angie Thomas

AUSTIN — The Texas Book Festival announced the first twelve authors in the lineup for the 2017 Texas Book Festival Weekend, Fri¬–Sat., Nov. 4–5, including artist, illustrator, and Caldecott Medal honoree Javaka Steptoe, bestselling young adult novelist Angie Thomas, and Top Chef judge Gail Simmons.

“Each year, we try to surpass what we’ve done before to engage and delight book lovers from all corners of the state who come to the annual Texas Book Festival to see their favorite authors and to discover new ones,” says Lois Kim, Festival executive director. >>READ MORE

2017 Top ELEVEN Readers’ Favorite Texas Bookstores

In case you missed it in May . . .

Texas readers have spoken. Nearly 2,500 of Lone Star Literary Life’s readers have cast ballots in 3 rounds of our statewide contest during May 2017 to recognize Texas’s favorite bookstores. Their final selections are as diverse as the state itself, and honorees include big indies, small indies, chain stores, used bookstores, and new bookstores in every corner of the state. And in the process, we were pleased to learn about places to buy books that we hadn’t even known before.

From the major cities of Dallas and Houston, to our state’s capitol city, from the historic Hill Country to the Piney Woods of East Texas, from the burbs to the beach, Texas bookshops are connecting with their communities. (Note that there was a tie for #6!) We are thrilled to showcase them in our second annual Lone Star Literary Life Readers’ Favorite Texas Bookstores — all 11 of them. >>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.

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 31 and will ship around Aug. 1.
Examination and review copies will be available May 31 in watermarked pdf format.

* * * * *

LONE STAR CLASSIFIED LISTINGS

FEATURED: EDITORIAL SERVICES

6.11.17 AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS as an editor, I know exactly what publishers look for in a book and I help my clients develop their work with this unique perspective in mind. I specialize in: manuscript development, revisions, book proposal writing, and consulting. Find more details at www.nickirichesin.com. Contact: nicki@nickirichesin.com.