Events are moving online via Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Zoom, and other avenues.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Monday, April 6, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar April 6-12, 2020
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Lone Star Literary Life for April 5, 2020
Follow the link for the latest Texas bookish news, reviews, interviews, and goings-on, then subscribe to the newsletter--it's free!
Monday, March 30, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar March 30-April 5, 2020
Events are moving online via Facebook Live, Zoom, and other avenues.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Review: VALENTINE
“People think it’s all snakes and scorpions out there in the oil patch, but hell, those are the most harmless things in the county.”
“Sunday morning begins . . . with a young roughneck stretched out and sleeping hard in his pickup . . . His cowboy hat is pulled down far enough that the girl sitting outside on the dusty ground can see only his pale jaw, freckled and nearly hairless, a face that will never need a daily shave, no matter how old he gets, but she is hoping he dies young.”
In the light of day, Gloria RamÃrez can just make out a road leading to a ranch house. She can also see the roughneck’s skin and blood under her fingernails.
Go here to read the rest of the review!
Monday, March 23, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar March 23-29, 2020
Events are moving online via Facebook Live, Zoom, and other avenues.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Giveaway: POSTCARDS FROM LONNIE
POSTCARDS FROM LONNIE
HOW I REDISCOVERED MY BROTHER ON THE
STREET CORNER HE CALLED HOME
by
Lisa Johnson
Number of Pages: 200
Scroll down for the giveaway!
That conversation continued throughout the next four years as Lisa wrote questions on postcards addressed to herself, then mailed them in packets to Lonnie at the flower shop on his corner. He wrote his answers and mailed them back. Lonnie answered a lot of questions and even asked a few, too. His detailed, matter-of-fact responses gave Lisa an unfettered view of a population living on the fringes of society and the issues they face every day.
Postcards from Lonnie is a dialogue between Lonnie, who speaks through the postcards, and his sister, who not only learns a lot about her brother but also about herself. Intimate and revealing, this is a unique family memoir and a universal story of love, respect, family, and ultimately hope.
Lisa Johnson was born in Middletown, Ohio, at Middletown Hospital, where her brother, Lonnie, was born almost five years earlier. Two years after Lisa was born, they settled in Houston, Texas. In a couple more years, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Before Lisa started elementary school, they moved again, to Atlanta, Georgia. Lonnie was in fifth grade and was starting to misbehave in his classroom, not “applying himself.” A new first-grader, Lisa applied herself big time, and, once she got a taste of the praise and affirmation that came with high grades, she was hooked for life.
By the time Lisa was in junior high, they had moved again, to Topeka, Kansas, and as she started high school, they moved back to Houston.
Lisa went to college, Lonnie got married. Lisa got married, Lonnie’s daughter was born. Lonnie got divorced, Lisa got divorced. Lonnie’s daughter drowned in the bathtub. Lisa graduated from college, went to graduate school (where she got a good taste of misbehavior but lived through it). Lisa moved to Houston to mooch off their parents for a year or so. Lonnie remarried. Lisa moved to New York to teach at Queens College, CUNY, but soon found her dream job as a copywriter in a large New York ad agency.
Lonnie got divorced and disappeared onto the streets of Houston. Lisa moved to Atlanta. Their dad died. One Christmas Day, Lonnie and Lisa dreamed up an idea for a book. She started sending Lonnie questions on postcards, and he answered every one.
Lisa quit the advertising business to go to seminary — loved seminary, hated being a church-based chief executive officer. She returned to Houston, where their mom still lived. Lonnie died. Lisa found a job writing corporate stuff for a large oil-related company.
Then Lisa finished the book she and her brother had dreamed up: Postcards from Lonnie: How I Rediscovered My Brother on the Street Corner He Called Home.
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
TWO WINNERS
Signed copy of Postcards from Lonnie
March 19-March 29, 2020
VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:
3/19/20
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Scrapbook
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3/19/20
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Notable Quotable
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3/20/20
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Review
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3/21/20
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Review
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3/22/20
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Excerpt
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3/23/20
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Review
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3/24/20
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Author Interview
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3/25/20
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Review
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3/26/20
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Review
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3/27/20
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Top Ten
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3/28/20
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Review
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Monday, March 16, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar March 16-22, 2020
As of press time, the information in this calendar is up to date. Please verify any event you want to attend for COVID-19 cancellations and closings.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Monday, March 9, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar March 9-15, 2020
Special events this week include a Spring Break Reading Camp in New Braunfels, the 35th annual Texas Storytelling Festival in Denton, and Mountain & Plains Independent Booksellers Spring Con in Richardson.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Friday, March 6, 2020
Book Blitz: BAYOU CITY BURNING
BAYOU CITY BURNING
Harry & Dizzy Lark, Book 1
by
D.B. BORTON
Mystery / Detective / Humor / Historical
Publisher: Boomerang Books
Publisher: Boomerang Books
Date of Publication: May 30, 2019
Number of Pages: 390
Houston is still a cowboy backwater, but Texas politicians dream big. P.I. Harry Lark is out to save the city for President Kennedy's moon mission. Dizzy Lark is out to save Harry.
Jani Brooks of Romance Reviews Today calls Bayou City Burning “a terrific mystery loaded with humor, lots of excitement, and fascinating, well written characters” and rates it “a Perfect 10 book.”
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Visit D.B. Borton's website to read the Prologue, Chapter One, and Chapter Two of Bayou City Burning!
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D. B. Borton is the author of two mystery series—the Cat Caliban series (Berkley, Hilliard and Harris) and the Gilda Liberty series (Fawcett)—as well as the recent novels Second Coming, Smoke, and Bayou City Burning (all from Boomerang Books). She is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Wesleyan University.
A native Texan, Borton became an ardent admirer of Nancy Drew at a young age. At the age of fourteen, she acquired her own blue roadster, trained on the freeways of Houston and the broad stretches of oil-endowed Texas highway, and began her travels. She also began a lifetime of political activism, working only for political candidates who lost. She left Texas at about the time everyone else arrived.
In graduate school, Borton converted a lifetime of passionate reading and late-night movie-watching into a doctorate in English. She discovered that people would pay her to discuss literature and writing, although not much. But because she found young people interesting and entertaining and challenging, she became a college teacher, and survived many generations of college students. Later, during a career crisis, she discovered that people would pay her to tell stories, although even less than they would pay her to discuss stories written by someone else.
Borton has lived in the Southwest and Midwest, and on the West Coast, where she has planted roses and collected three degrees in English without relinquishing her affection for the ways in which actual speakers constantly reinvent the language to meet their needs. In her spare time, she gardens, practices aikido, studies languages other than English, and, of course, watches movies and reads.
A native Texan, Borton became an ardent admirer of Nancy Drew at a young age. At the age of fourteen, she acquired her own blue roadster, trained on the freeways of Houston and the broad stretches of oil-endowed Texas highway, and began her travels. She also began a lifetime of political activism, working only for political candidates who lost. She left Texas at about the time everyone else arrived.
In graduate school, Borton converted a lifetime of passionate reading and late-night movie-watching into a doctorate in English. She discovered that people would pay her to discuss literature and writing, although not much. But because she found young people interesting and entertaining and challenging, she became a college teacher, and survived many generations of college students. Later, during a career crisis, she discovered that people would pay her to tell stories, although even less than they would pay her to discuss stories written by someone else.
Borton has lived in the Southwest and Midwest, and on the West Coast, where she has planted roses and collected three degrees in English without relinquishing her affection for the ways in which actual speakers constantly reinvent the language to meet their needs. In her spare time, she gardens, practices aikido, studies languages other than English, and, of course, watches movies and reads.
VISIT THE LONE STAR LIT TOUR PAGE FOR OTHER GREAT BLOGS PARTICIPATING IN THE BLITZ
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Monday, March 2, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar March 2-8, 2020
Bookish goings-on in Texas for the week of March 2-8, 2020, compiled exclusively for Lone Star Literary Life by Texas Book Lover.
Special events this week include the AWP annual conference, #DignidadLiteraria Read-In at AWP, and the Novel Ideas Art Book Fair, all in San Antonio; the North Texas Teen Book Festival in Irving; SMU's annual Women's Symposium, Women of Wonder Con, and the Women of the World Poetry Slam, all in Dallas; the Angelo State University Writers' Conference in San Angelo; and the first Victoria TX Book Festival.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Review: BARN 8
Does resistance of any scale matter? How do you fight “the existential power of size”? Sometimes all you can do is “lessen the lessening,” but that counts—a necessary something.
I reviewed Barn 8 (Graywolf Press) by Austin's Deb Olin Unferth for Lone Star Literary Life! Barn 8 is metaphysics grounded in dirt, generous and large hearted, economical yet evocative phrases, and long, breathless sentences of pure urgency.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar Feb. 24-March 1, 2020
Bookish goings-on in Texas for the week of February 24-March 1, 2020, compiled exclusively for Lone Star Literary Life by Texas Book Lover.
Special events this week include the Festival of International Books and Arts (FESTIBA) in Brownsville, the 5th annual People's Poetry Festival in Corpus Christi, the 124th annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association in Austin, and Library Palooza and Pop Con in San Antonio.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Monday, February 17, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar Feb. 17-23, 2020
Bookish goings-on in Texas for the week of February 17-23, 2020, compiled exclusively for Lone Star Literary Life by Texas Book Lover.
Special events this week include the Highland Park Literary Festival in Dallas, the 2020 Southern Plains Conference in Canyon, Poetry Out Loud State Finals Competition and the Complete Picture Book Intensive: A River of Words in Austin, the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, VersoFrontera in La Feria, the South Texas Literacy Symposium and the Festival of International Books and Arts (FESTIBA) in Brownsville, and the Border Regional Library Association Annual Awards Banquet in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Review: WE, THE WILDFLOWERS
“With her hot-pink hair, light dusting of freckles, and luminous green eyes, [Genny] looks like a very pissed-off version of Strawberry Shortcake …”
I reviewed We, the Wildflowers (Spencer Hill Press) by Texas's L. B. Simmons for Lone Star Literary Life! We, the Wildflowers is a harrowing story of damaged youth and gut-wrenching violence, redeemed by empowerment, the benediction of forgiveness (of others and ourselves), discovery of commonalities, and celebration of differences. The Wildflowers are more than the sum or their parts, stronger together.
I reviewed We, the Wildflowers (Spencer Hill Press) by Texas's L. B. Simmons for Lone Star Literary Life! We, the Wildflowers is a harrowing story of damaged youth and gut-wrenching violence, redeemed by empowerment, the benediction of forgiveness (of others and ourselves), discovery of commonalities, and celebration of differences. The Wildflowers are more than the sum or their parts, stronger together.
Monday, February 10, 2020
Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar Feb 10-16, 2020
Bookish goings-on in Texas for the week of February 10-16, 2020, compiled exclusively for Lone Star Literary Life by Texas Book Lover.
Special events this week include the Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival in Houston and the Central Texas Teen & Kids Comic Con in Round Rock. For a complete calendar of bookish events in Texas this week, including special events, daily listings, and exhibits, visit the GO! Calendar at Lone Star Lit.
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Giveaway: COLLISION OF LIES by Tom Threadgill
COLLISION OF LIES
(Detective Amara Alvarez, Book One)
by
TOM THREADGILL
Date of Publication: February 4, 2020
Number of Pages: 400
Scroll down for the giveaway!
With time running out, Amara must convince others--and herself--that despite all evidence to the contrary, the boy lives. And she will do everything in her power to bring him home.
A fresh voice in suspense, Tom Threadgill will have you questioning everything as you fly through the pages of this enthralling story.
PRAISE FOR COLLISION OF LIES:
"Threadgill plunges a detective from the San Antonio Property Crimes Division into a deep-laid plot involving murder, kidnapping, and myriad other crimes above her pay grade."
-- Kirkus Review
-- Lynette Eason, award-winning, bestselling author of the Blue Justice Series
CLICK TO PURCHASE
Tom Threadgill is a full-time author and a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). He is currently on the suspense/thriller publishing board for LPC Books, a division of Iron Stream Media. He lives with his wife in rural Tennessee.
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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
GRAND PRIZE: Copy of Collision of Lies + $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card
SECOND PRIZE: Copy of Collision of Lies + Composition Notebook Pouch
THIRD PRIZE: Copy of Collision of Lies
February 6-16, 2020
SECOND PRIZE: Copy of Collision of Lies + Composition Notebook Pouch
THIRD PRIZE: Copy of Collision of Lies
February 6-16, 2020
VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:
2/6/20
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2/6/20
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BONUS Post
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2/7/20
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Review
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2/8/20
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Guest Post
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2/9/20
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Author Interview
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2/10/20
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Review
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2/11/20
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Excerpt
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2/12/20
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Review
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2/13/20
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Excerpt
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2/14/20
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Review
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2/15/20
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Review
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