Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
MEMOIR
Ken Mixon
Texas Banker / Oklahoma Hunter: (A Mostly True Story)
Paperback, 978-0-6927-6098-7, $23.00; September 2016
Ken Mixon claims that he comes from a family of storytellers, and he proves it with this entertaining memoir that is often informative and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.
While the book’s intended audiences are bankers and hunters (not necessarily in Texas and Oklahoma), many other readers can enjoy this pleasant, easy-to-read collection of “mostly true” stories. The chapters are drawn from Mixon’s life as a frequent state-border hopper.>>READ MORE
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Texas music is all over the map
“No state is more musical than Texas, whose very geography seems to hum,” writes Michael Corcoran in his new edition of All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music (University of North Texas Press, $29.95 hardcover).
First issued in 2005, the new edition was completely rewritten, Corcoran says, with new chapters on Janis Joplin, Guy Clark, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Freddie Fender, and others. Glancing at the list of musicians in the table of contents, one might wonder: But what about Buddy Holly, George Jones, Bob Wills, Blind Lemon Jefferson? Willie Nelson isn’t profiled, but sister Bobbie Nelson is, and of course Willie figures prominently in that one. Corcoran answers, “The focus here is on underappreciated artists, pioneers who haven’t fully received their due.”
Corcoran groups the profiled musicians by region — East Texas, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Waco area, Austin, San Antonio, and Rio Grande Valley, and West Texas. Texas music is also all over the map in terms of style — not just country and western, but rock, folk, jazz, blues and Tejano.
The forty-one artists getting full treatment include Rebert Harris of the Soul Stirrers, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Floyd Tillman, Archie Bell and The Drells, Ray Price, Townes Van Zandt, Billie Joe Shaver, T-Bone Walker, Cindy Walker, Johnny Gimble, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Selena, Lydia Mendoza, Waylon Jennings, the Chuck Wagon Gang, and Ernest Tubb. The author admits many more Texas musicians deserve to be profiled, but “there’s no way this book can be complete and still be portable.”
At the end of the 300-page book, he lists his thirty-four favorite Texas recordings by acts not profiled in this volume. Willie Nelson and Buddy Holly, of course, made that list, along with Charley Pride, Robert Earl Keen, Ivory Joe Hunter, Gary P. Nunn, George Strait, and other big names in Texas music.
First novel: Geraldine Justice of Dallas has written a Christian novel dealing with health care, nature, faith, community, and government secrecy. Mountain of Healing (WestBow Press, $17.95 paperback) is set in rural Appalachia and revolves around two elderly sisters and their simple, yet profound faith. When a nurse is sent to help care for one of the sisters whose cancer has come back, she finds beauty and inner peace on the mountain where the sisters live. But the mountain also harbors a deadly, sinister secret.
“My novel,” Justice writes, “looks at human and government failures that can have a far-reaching impact on caregivers and patients alike.”
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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
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2017 Kids’ Summer Reading: Check it out!
sponsored by Blue Wilow Bookshop
From read-to-me books to early readers, chapter books to middle readers to YA, you’ll find these terrific new titles at your neighborhood bookshop or online. >>READ MORE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
6.25.2017 David Courtney unmasked, on “The Texanist,” Temple, and teamwork with the late Jack Unruh
David Courtney, the Texas Monthly writer and editor behind the popular nom de plume The Texanist, talked with Lone Star Lit this week via email about his new collection. The Texanist: Fine Advice on Living also showcases a selection of acclaimed illustrator Jack Unruh’s work, gathering the best of the illustrations he created for Texas Monthly’s back-page column, along with the serious and not-so-serious questions that inspired them.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Dear Texanist: We are a startup digital news site that writes only about Texas books, authors, and Texas bookish events. What advice do you have for us? —Curious in Lubbock
THE TEXANIST: Now, here is a business model that cannot fail. Keep having smart, talented, interesting, handsome folks of wholly unassailable character on as your front-page profile guests and continued success will be assured. The Texanist wouldn’t change a thing.
Davd, when did you discover Texas Monthly and when did Texas Monthly discover you?
My earliest memories of the magazine are as a kid growing up in Temple. My parents were subscribers and, like many a young Texan, I remember seeing various issues lying around the house. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 6.25.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
SAN ANTONIO Sun., June 25 The Twig Book Shop, Sandy Loker signs Can I Sniff My Way to Heaven?, 11AMLUBBOCK Mon., June 26 Lubbock Public Library – Groves, Bill Neeley will discuss and sign The Quest of Don Juan Seguin, 6:30PMAUSTIN Tues., June 27 Malvern Books, Malvern’s Multi-Verse with BookWoman’s Susan Post, 7PMDALLAS Wed., June 28 Dallas Museum of Art, Arts & Letters Live hosts Art historian, critic, biographer, and Pulitzer-Prize nominated Hayden Herrera discussing and signing Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, 7:30PMAUSTIN Wed., June 28 Houston Public Library – Central, Books & Bylines: “Murder in Texas” with Attorney and Houston Chronicle courts reporter Brian Rogers and Kathryn Casey, author of Possessed: The Infamous Texas Stiletto Murder, 7PMDALLAS Thurs., June 29 Deep Vellum Books, Texas author Price Ainsworth discusses and signs A MINOR FALL, 6PMALSO SIGNING IN HOUSTON, Fri., June 30, Brazos Books, 7 PMSAN ANTONIO Thurs., June 29 Briscoe Western Art Museum, Helen Kleberg Groves signs her new book, Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch, 5:30PMFREDERICKSBURG Sat., July 1 Luckenbach Dance Hall, Donna Marie Miller signs The Broken Spoke: Austin’s Legendary Honky-Tonk + a performance by Dale Watson, TBASAN ANTONIO Sat., July 1 The Twig Book Shop, Barbara Renaud Gonzalez signs Las Nalgas de JLo?/JLO’s Booty, 11AMy Bash!, 7PMSOUTH PADRE ISLAND Sat., July 1 Paragraphs on Padre, Meet the Author Series: children’s book author Patty York Raymond, 1PM
News Briefs 6.25.17
Marfa to host first Poetry Festival Aug. 9–13
The first annual Marfa Poetry Festival—organized by Canarium Books and friends and hosted by Marfa Book Company and Hotel Saint George—will begin the evening of August 9 and end the afternoon of August 13, 2017. There will be readings, a book fair, film screenings, exhibitions, conversations, live music, and more. All events are free and open to the public. >>READ MORE
Above, from left: Liu, Thornton, Brickhouse
Writers’ League of Texas to host 24th annual Agents and Editors Conference June 30–July 2 in Austin
The 24th Annual Writers’ League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference will be held June 30 through July 2, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency in Austin. This conference always sells out, and there are a few openings still available. Registration costs $439 for members, $499 for non-members and can be done online at www.writersleague.org/calendar/2017ConferenceRegistration
Highlights of the conference include:
Saturday
A conversation with Carrie Thornton, Editorial Director of Dey Street Books, who has over twenty years of experience in the industry. Her clients have included Amy Poehler, Alan Cumming, and Kate Hudson. >>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 31 and will ship around Aug. 1.
- Examination and review copies will be available May 31 in watermarked pdf format.
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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.
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COMING UP ON TOUR: FICTION
Badlands by Melissa Lenhardt Visit with Melissa June 26–July 2, 2017
6/27 Notable Quotable 1 Momma On The Rocks
6/27 Notable Quotable 2 Forgotten Winds
6/28 Review: Blood Oath CGB Blog Tours
6/28 Review: Badlands StoreyBook Reviews
6/29 Review: Blood Oath Reading By Moonlight
6/29 Review: Badlands Margie’s Must Reads
6/30 Review: Blood Oath The Librarian Talks
6/30 Review: Badlands The Page Unbound
7/1 Review: Blood Oath My Book Fix Blog
7/1 Review: Badlands Books and Broomsticks
7/2 Badlands Excerpt 1 Books in the Garden
7/3 Bonus Review Blogging for the Love of Authors & Their Books
7/4 Bonus Review Hall Ways Blog
7/5 Badlands Excerpt 2 Texas Book Lover
7/6 Badlands Excerpt 3 Missus Gonzo
CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
Heart on the Line by Karen Witemeyer Visit with Karen through July 2, 2017
6/25 Review Missus Gonzo
6/26 Guest Post 1 StoreyBook Reviews
6/27 Review My Book Fix Blog
6/28 Excerpt 2 The Page Unbound
6/29 Guest Post 2 The Librarian Talks
6/30 Review Books in the Garden
7/1 Promo Books and Broomsticks
7/2 Review Forgotten Winds
CONTINUING ON TOUR: YOUNG READERS
The Eldridge Conspiracy: Sir Kaye the Boy Knight, Book 4 by Don M. Winn Visit with Don through June 28, 2017
6/25 Educators’ Special The Librarian Talks
6/26 Review CGB Blog Tours
6/27 Scrapbook Page 2 Texas Book Lover
6/28 Review Books and Broomsticks
CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
UNDER A SUMMER SKY by Melody Carlson Visit with Melody through June 26, 2017
6/25 Excerpt 3 The Page Unbound
6/26 REVIEW Reading By Moonlight
CONTINUING ON TOUR: NONFICTION
THE SWIMMING HOLES OF TEXAS by Julie Wernersbach and Carolyn Tracy Visit with Julie and Carolyn through June 22, 2017
6/18 Promo Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books
6/19 Sneak Peek 3 Forgotten Winds
6/20 Review The Librarian Talks
6/21 Promo CGB Blog Tours
6/22 Review The Page Unbound
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