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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Writing Influences: J. Frank Dobie
Writing is a solitary occupation, just you and the blank screen or, before word processors, the blank page. Some would say reading is solitary as well, but I would disagree because you get to meet such interesting people, either the authors themselves or their subjects, through the printed or electronic pages they produce. Consequently, most […]