Connections to the Past
One of the things I love about history is the connections you can make to the past. This past week, Harriet and I made a connection all the way back to the Declaration of Texas Independence through Noah T. Byars, who is buried in Brownwood’s Greenleaf Cemetery. A South Carolina native and subsequent Georgia resident, […]
Spur Begats Spur
It’s always good to see hard work pay off as it did last week for Patrick Dearen, a Sterling City native and longtime writer friend who now lives in Midland. Patrick earned a Spur Award from Western Writers of America for Best Western Traditional Novel for his book, The Big Drift, which is set in West […]
Western Writers Hall of Fame
During the Western Writers of America convention, I had the opportunity to attend this year’s induction into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. After the 2015 ceremony, the Hall of Fame, which is housed at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, has 91 members. Due to my association with WWA for […]
Fort Griffin Fandangle
Of all the Old West towns I’ve read about over the years, Fort Griffin, remains my favorite, but not until this year had I ever had the opportunity to attend the Fort Griffin Fandangle, produced by the citizens of nearby Albany, Texas. We attended the opening performance of the 77th edition of the Fandangle on […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
Cover Art
When painters or sculptors finish their artistic endeavors, they have something to display. When writers finish a project, they have a stack of typewritten pages, nothing they can frame for the wall or display on a coffee table. That’s why it is always nice for a writer to see what the publisher is planning for […]