Texas Falling
I missed the first installment of Texas Rising as I was out of town, but picked up the second part of the History Channel’s mini-series. I must admit I was disappointed. While I favor historical movies and westerns, this one left me perplexed because of its historical inaccuracies, which far exceed acceptable dramatic license in […]
Writing Mentor: David McHam
One of my luckiest breaks in life was attending Baylor University when I did because I was able to get a journalism education under David McHam, who provided the foundation for my writing career and got me my first professional job in journalism. McHam, as everyone called him at Baylor, announced this month that he […]
Texas Bluebonnets
Landscape is an essential part of most westerns and this weekend we traveled to the Texas Hill Country around Mason in search of Lupinus texensis, better known as the Texas Bluebonnet. Yes, who can live in Texas without going on a wildflower safari each spring? Based on our drives through the Hill Country over the […]
Quanah’s Birthplace
I just returned this weekend from the annual meeting of the West Texas Historical Association, which always offers an interesting program of presentations on the region’s history. One of the most fascinating papers was by Holle Humphries on “Quanah Parker was Born Simultaneously in Both Texas and Oklahoma.” Her presentation explored the legends behind Quanah […]
Aliases
Occasionally, I get asked why I’ve written under various pennames. The answer can be simple or complex, but either way it carries on a great literary tradition. Mark Twain, of course, was actually Samuel L. Clemens, Lewis Carroll was really Charles Dodgson and George Orwell was Eric Arthur Blair in reality. Likewise, numerous women have […]
Liberty Valance
As a young boy I remember seeing a lot of John Wayne movies in the 1960s, but one I don’t recall is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I do remember the identically named Gene Pitney song, though it was not actually used in the picture. If I did see the movie, it probably didn’t […]
A New Acquaintance
One of the things I enjoy about history is getting to meet such interesting people. In researching Civil War journalism for a talk as part of Angelo State University’s Civil War Lecture Series this week, I first met Peter Wellington Alexander. I was drawn to him because modern historians have called him the Confederacy’s Ernie Pyle, […]
Lomax Is Back
For an author, seeing one of your books return to print is like running into an old friend that you haven’t seen for years. So, I am excited to see the return of The Memoirs of H.H. Lomax, starting this summer. I wrote three books in this series in the mid-1990s, and the first of those, […]
Games Writers Play
I’ve now received an electronic version of the finished cover of my next juvenile book, Just Call Me Uncle Sam. That’s when I finally feel like I’ve actually published a book, even though it won’t be available for awhile. This’ll be book No. 27 published under my name and various pseudonyms. I’ve written four others […]
Writing Influences: Mark Twain
For Christmas in 1960, my Aunt Ella Mae and Uncle Joe Whitworth gave me a copy of Huckleberry Finn. To my recollection that was my first exposure to Mark Twain, the last of the three writers I would say influenced my writing ambitions as a youth. Since I didn’t have a large personal library then, […]