"Uninvited" and “Unleashed” are provocative books for teens

March 22, 2016, Boerne Star

 The date is March 15, 2021. The place is Boerne, Texas. On that day, the U.S. Surgeon General releases a new report on Homicidal Tendency Syndrome, a genetic predisposition for murder. When high school senior Davy Hamilton tests positive for the “kill gene,” she is ripped from her family and friends and sent to a special camp for teenagers who have the genetic mutation.

 In her two dystopic young adult novels, Uninvited and Unleashed, Sophie Jordan tells the story of a high school senior, Davy, who is a gifted musician and a straight-A student. Davy seems to have it all—beauty, intelligence, family wealth, and an awesome boyfriend. She’s all set to attend Julliard after she graduates from high school and her future looks bright. Davy’s world, however, is shattered when all of the students in her school are tested for the “kill gene” and she is revealed as a carrier. She is transferred to another school where she will complete her senior year caged with other students like herself. While at the special school Davy is befriended by an older boy named Sean who quickly becomes her protector.

           In the first book, Uninvited, after a carrier commits a mass shooting at a Houston mall, citizens who have the “kill gene” are methodically tattooed with a large “H” on their necks and transported to special camps. Davy is taken from her home and sent to a special unit for gifted teenagers. To her relief, Sean is banished to the same camp. 

           Davy describes her journey. “They’re taking us to a place called Mount Haven. This much I glean during the van ride and plane trip. Our group grows as we travel. By the time we land in New Mexico, there are nineteen of us. . . we get plenty of stares as we’re led through the airport and ushered through security. At least ten of us bear the imprints, and people actually press to far walls and clutch their children close as we pass.”

           While at the camp, Davy and Sean hatch a plan to escape. In Unleashed, the sequel to Uninvited, Davy, Sean, and some of their friends from Mount Haven undertake a dangerous cross-country journey to Mexico to find freedom.

           These plot-driven books are full of conflict, both inner and environmental, and Jordan successfully creates suspense from numerous twists and turns. The story-line is intense and the characters are well-developed. The story is told as a first person account by Davy, the primary protagonist of the novels.

           Author Sophie Jordan grew up on a pecan farm in the Texas hill country. A former high school English teacher, she is a “New York Times” and “USA Today” best-selling author. She has also written numerous historical romance novels and now resides in Houston. She obviously understands the teenage mind and, while not overtly “preachy,” these books do carry a message. Are you satisfied with just going with the flow, or do you want to do what’s right—a theme appropriate for all teens. Check out Jordan’s website http://www.sophiejordan.net/. Her books are available from all major booksellers.

No bull—Ben Rehder’s “Bum Steer” is an entertaining read

Sept. 18, 2015, Boerne Star

     When Billy Don Craddock shoved $142,000 in chips onto a Vegas casino blackjack table, his good buddy Red O’Brien felt like the quart of cheap beer in his stomach was going to erupt. Half of the money that Billy Don just bet belonged to Red. When Billy Don first bragged to Red a few months ago that he was a damn good blackjack player, Red thought it was liquor talking. After playing a few hands, however, Red became convinced that Billy Don had been harboring a very lucrative gambling talent that could lift them from their run-down trailer trash existence into a life of luxury and leisure.

     When Billy Don was sixteen, his father took him to Vegas. “My old man drug me along ‘cause he said I was a better player than he was,” Billy Don explained to Red, “and he was right. See, you learn when to hit and when to stay, when to split, double down, and all that stuff. There are charts you can memorize that tell you what to do. But there are other times when you’re operating on nothing more than a gut feeling. Sometimes you gotta go with it. I was always good at that part.”

     Billy Don was good at adding numbers in his head, too. His dad made him deal cards for hours at a time. Even though Billy Don hated doing it, he humored his dad and even passed math that year because he had learned to add numbers at a phenomenal clip.

     In true Ben Rehder style, Bum Steer, the ninth installment of his rollicking Blanco county mysteries, is a tribute to Texas hillbilly humor. There are numerous unpredictable plot twists and turns that keep the story going at breakneck speed. Rehder’s cast of memorable characters reappear in this latest novel, but “Bum Steer” is a stand-alone story that does not require reading the previous books.

     Three weeks before Billy Don’s and Red’s foray into the Vegas world of glitz, glamour, and gambling, Rodney Bauer’s red Brangus bull is shot dead in the middle of the night. As if that is not bad enough, a deceased young woman is discovered underneath the body of the bull and Sheriff Bobby Garza calls in game warden John Marlin to assist in the investigation. Just as expected, they find that the young woman has been gored to death. The evidence suggests that she was not alone with the bull and that someone had attempted to steal the prize steer. And, of course, Billy Don and Red become entangled in a web of murder and mayhem.

     Rehder’s first book in this series, Buck Fever, was nominated for an Edgar award. He has also authored ten “Die Laughing” crime novels and several standalone books including the YA book The Driving Lesson.

     Rehder is recognized for his satirical and irreverent approach to contemporary issues. Much like Carl Hiaasen, his novels parody the circumstances of everyday life. Bum Steer is a delight.

Every hunter's dream -- 'Stag Party'

Boerne Star, Jan. 20, 2015

It was every hunter’s dream. From his perch in a tree, Jasper Endicott scrutinized a huge herd of agitated bucks below him.
      “As he watched, more bucks arrived. Dozens more. They didn’t emerge tentatively from the brush, wary of danger, as deer usually did. Instead, they came bursting from the woods at full speed, caution to the wind. . .Their brains weren’t sophisticated enough to understand they’d been tricked.”
      It was a special scent that 102-year-old Harley Frizzell, an eccentric recluse, invented. He wanted to sell it and Jasper’s family was interested in buying the pheromone. The Endicott entertainment empire inspired hunters all over the country with their weekly reality television series.
       “A typical episode might include the men castrating bulls, shoeing horses, repairing a tractor . . . filling deer feeders, or building a barn.” But mostly the Endicotts hunted and they had a very large following.  Throngs of “wallhanger” bucks just for the picking would surely increase their ratings.
      Stag Party is Texas hill country author Ben Rehder’s eighth irreverent installment of his Blanco County mysteries. His cast of memorable characters reappear in this latest novel, but the book is a standalone story and does not depend upon reading the previous books.
      When Harley Frizzell’s lifeless body is discovered by Red O’Brian, Sheriff Bobby Garza questions Red and dismisses him as a suspect. Red, however, believes that he is number one on Garza’s list and enlists his buddy Billy Don to help him find the killer. He and Billy Don had recently won a feral pig shoot with a bounty of $25,000.00 for each of them. Red had considered buying Frizzel’s deer scent formula, but before he could cinch the deal, the old man was murdered.
      The two bungling rubes track down Frizzell’s girlfriend, a seventy-one-year-old hippie sculptor named Sparrow Holliday, who was purportedly the last person to see Frizzell alive. Could she have murdered him in a fit of jealous rage? Or did one of the Endicotts kill Frizzell to obtain the old man’s deer scent without having to pay for it?
      At the same time, 19-year-old PETA activist Liam Mooney and his partner Jessi Winslow, 18, set out from Nebraska to Texas to protest the Endicott’s fervent incitement of the public to kill innocent deer. The two misguided teens use Google Earth to locate the Endicott’s massive compound, which overlaps Kendall and Blanco counties, and they hatch a plan to burn the main house down.
      Lurking in the background of the story is Aaron Endicott, the sociopathic son who does not appear in the television show and who the Endicotts would rather not acknowledge. Aaron is a grotesque, colossal man with a pocked face and feral eyes. Aggressive and combative, the youngest Endicott seems always on the offensive for violent encounters. When Liam and Jessi mistake Aaron’s cabin in the Endicott compound for the main house and set it on fire, Aaron confronts the young couple and fireworks ensue.
      Stag Party ( ISBN-13: 978-1505440263, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, December 15, 2014) is bawdy, clever, irreverent, and infinitely entertaining. It is available on Amazon as a kindle e-book or paperback.

Minerva Koenig’s hill country noir has more twists than a Texas corn maze

Boerne Star Nov. 4, 2014

Julia Kalas’ San Francisco construction business is a money laundering front for her gun-running hubby’s illegal enterprises. When members of a skinhead group shoot the two of them, Julia survives, turns states evidence, and joins the witness protection program. She is placed under the supervision of Theresa Hallstedt, the Police Chief of Azula, Texas—a small, boring hill country town. Chief Hallstedt has arranged for Julia to work at the local downtown watering hole, Hector Guerra’s bar.
      Hector is single and good looking and Julia sets him in her sights—“long black hair, big dark eyes, Aztec nose, delicious mouth. The man was gorgeous.” Hector and Chief Hallstedt are close friends and Hector was doing her a favor by hiring Julia.
      When Chief Hallstedt is found dead on the roof of the bar, the local sheriff tries to pin the murder on Hector. Julia jumps into the melee, determined to find the real killer. She risks exposing her criminal past by contacting her former associates for help. When a mummified hand shows up, she almost gets herself killed.
      “Nine Days” by Austin author Minerva Koenig (ISBN 9781250051943, Minotaur Books), is her debut novel and she doesn’t disappoint. With more twists and turns than a Texas corn maze, her flawed characters expose their foibles and stumble through a series of nefarious machinations that lead to a stunning revelation.
      Unlike so many of the boilerplate crime novels where the heroine is a gorgeous lanky blonde who drives an expensive sports car, Koenig’s protagonist is a short, chubby, almost-forty, meddling interloper who finds comfort tooling around in her pale yellow 1987 Dodge pick-up truck.
      Other characters are just as quirky. Hector’s adoptive sister, Tova, is a calculating platinum blonde with a French twist and chilly, blue eyes. Richard Hallstedt, the police chief’s colorless estranged husband is a physician who is also a member of the city council and who is pushing for a package of commercial property tax incentives for a downtown revitalization project. Then there is Hallstedt’s alcoholic, busy-bodied maid, Maria, who stumbles upon something that turns the case upside down. Even the local curandera, Silvia Molina, inserts herself into the murder investigation. She follows Julia around town in her old, sunburned Cadillac and, when Julia confronts her, the sorceress turns to her tarot cards and reveals personal knowledge about Julia, leading her to conclude that her witness protection cover has been blown.
      The surprising conclusion explodes in an ironic twist, leaving plenty of room for a sequel.
      “Nine Days” is a gem. It’s hill country noir at its finest.

One Hundred and forty year-old Texas Ranger murder solved by Texas hill country author

This review appeared in the June 27, 2014, issue of the Boerne Star.

When author Cynthia Leal Massey began researching a history book about Helotes, Texas, she came upon bits and pieces of a story about the murder of Sergeant John Green, a Texas Ranger in the Minute Men Troop V of Medina County, mustered into service in September 1872. Almost one year later, in the summer of 1873, Green was shot and killed by another Ranger in his troop, Cesario Menchaca.

As she continued in her research, Massey stumbled upon another group of stories about naturalist Gabriel Wilson Marnoch, a prominent and eccentric Scottish emigrant who discovered four new reptile and amphibian species native to the Helotes hills. The Marnoch homestead, built in 1859, is a designated Texas Historic Landmark. When Massey discovered that there were links between John Green and Marnoch, she was hooked and spent the next few years writing her new book Death of a Texas Ranger: A True Story of Murder and Vengeance on the Texas Frontier, (Lyons Press, ISBN 978-0-7627-9305-1; $16.95).

“I realized this was more than a story about a killing,” writes Massey in the Preface of her book. “It was the story of an era. Green’s killing exemplifies the chaotic frontier society in Texas after the Civil War, a time fraught with political turmoil, cultural clashes, and a tenuous hold on life.”

John Green (born Johann Gruen) was originally from Fredericksburg. He and his sister were orphaned as children and Green was taken in by former Gillespie County Sheriff Louis Martin who had since become a cattle breeder. Martin’s large ranch was situated on the north bank of the Llano River, forty-two miles northwest of Fredericksburg. Green thrived under his care and learned the livestock business. He took off on his own at age seventeen and became successful, eventually marrying Augusta “Gussie” Specht, daughter of the Fredericksburg postmaster. They settled on Green’s hundred-acre Helotes ranch and established a horse breeding business. The Marnoch family was one of their neighbors.

Gabriel Marnoch had an affinity for attracting trouble. In addition to tax problems, he was indicted for “the offence of taking up and using an estray horse without complying with the law for regulating estrays,” a serious charge during that era. Cesario Menchaca attempted to serve Marnoch with a warrant for his arrest, but Marnoch ripped the warrant into pieces. He did not show up in court to answer the charges.

These three men—Green, Marnoch, and Menchaca—are seamlessly woven together in a fascinating tale of murder, betrayal, and vengeance. Menchaca appeared to have no motive for murdering Green, and after shooting him he fled to Mexico as a fugitive from justice. Thirty years later John Green’s son tracked Menchaca down. Menchaca claimed that the murder had been an accident—others believed that he had been hired by Gabriel Marnoch to kill John Green. After years of research, Massey believes that she uncovered the real reason for the murder.

Death of a Texas Ranger: A True Story of Murder and Vengeance on the Texas Frontier, is a fascinating book. Hill Country readers will recognize many of the names of the characters: Heubner, Braun, Mueller, McAllister, and numerous others. Massey also includes a section of interesting photos including an 1860’s photograph of John Green and a 1927 photo of his son, Will, when he served as a San Antonio police captain. An early 1900s photograph of the Marnoch homestead shows the 1,515-acre ranch land that later became the town of Helotes.

Ultimately Massey wanted to learn the truth behind the story of the murder of John Green. She says that she “came away from the project with a deeper appreciation for our Texas pioneers and a profound respect for the storytellers who keep alive their families’ important histories.”

The Wilder women on the Prairie

from the Tuesday, November 12, 2013 edition of the Boerne Star

It was President Ronald Reagan’s favorite TV show and Sarah Palin’s most beloved childhood book. Just like Reagan and Palin, the “Little House on the Prairie” stories are uniquely American. How they came to be written is the subject of  Susan Wittig Albert’s new book, A Wilder Rose: Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Their Little Houses.
From the time that they were first published in the 1930’s, the “Little House on the Prairie” books have captured the hearts of both children and adults. These endearing stories of  life on the American prairie chronicled a much simpler time in history, a nineteenth century lifestyle filled with stories of a close-knit family overcoming obstacles as they built their homestead and helped settle this country.

            While Albert’s book is fiction, it is based on fact. She used Wilder’s and Lane’s diaries, journals,  letters, and scholarly research materials as her guide. Just as Wilder and Lane were true to real life events in the “Little House” fictionalized stories, Albert is just as true to history in A Wilder Rose.

            Rose Wilder was the only child of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder. Born in 1886, she grew up under austere conditions. She and her parents lived a hard-scrabble life working long hours to eke out a living from the unforgiving South Dakota prairie. Because Laura’s attention was focused upon physically demanding manual work, she did not have a surplus of time to spend with her daughter. Rose often felt neglected.

            Not only did Rose feel that she was deprived the mothering she so desperately wanted and needed, she suffered from the absence of childhood friends. Her classmates poked fun at her bare feet, shabby clothes, and odd ways. Rose was envious of the other girls’ fancy store-bought dresses and she longed for even the plainest pair of shoes. She was an outsider, not only because of her clothes, but also because her behavior was bizarre—she even spoke her own language that she called “Fispooko.” Rose learned at a tender age to conceal her true feelings behind a fictional façade and she carried that trait with her throughout her life.

            There was not enough money for Rose to attend college, so she taught herself to write and learned several languages on her own. She worked as a journalist, some would say a “hack,” for publications such as the “San Francisco Bulletin,” the “Call,” and the Red Cross. Many of her stories were filed from distant locations—Paris, Russia, Albania—and she lived a rather wild, bohemian lifestyle. Rose made enough money to travel to exotic places and to flit in celebrity circles. She subsidized her parents’ income so that they could have some comfort in their advanced years.

            It was largely because of Rose’s generous financial assistance that Laura gained the freedom to establish her credibility in her community. She joined ladies’ circles and began writing for the “Missouri Ruralist” and other farming publications. Throughout Rose’s life, she and her mother had a contentious relationship—sometimes openly, sometimes passively, but always grating just under the skin with only a word or slight causing an eruption.

            The stock market crash of 1929 wiped out Rose’s and her parents’ savings. Rose began ghost writing books for Lowell Thomas, Frederick O’Brien, and pulp biographies of Hollywood celebrities. Publishing houses took a beating during the great depression, but Rose was a prolific writer and managed to stay afloat. Laura had toyed with the idea of writing accounts of her childhood on the prairie and she sought Rose’s advice about the possibilities of publishing these stories. Rose saw a possible market for fictionalized versions of Laura’s life and, through her own agents and publishers, she made sure that her mother’s books were given an opportunity to succeed in the marketplace.

            Rose dutifully typed up the stories that Laura wrote by hand on orange tablets, sprucing them up and adding her own editorial flourishes and she was able to secure good publishing deals for Laura.

            “A Wilder Rose” is a fascinating story of a complex mother-daughter relationship and is a departure from Albert’s serialized fiction. On the surface, the “Little House” books are uncomplicated, simplistic stories of life on the American prairie but Albert does a masterful job of carrying the reader through the complexities of the evolution of Rose and her mother.

            For “Little House” fans this book is essential reading. For Susan Wittig Albert fans, it is pure pleasure.

 _____________________

 “A Wilder Rose: Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Their Little Houses,“ by Susan Wittig Albert,  ISBN-13: 978-0989203500, Persevero Press, September 2013.

Mike Blakely's "Come Sundown" is a symphony of words

This review was originally published March 29, 2007 in the Boerne Star


Mike Blakely’s latest historical novel, Come Sundown (Forge, $27.95, ISBN 0-312-86705-0, November 27, 2007), a literary saga chronicling the clash of cultures between native Americans and the white man and the conflict of values between the American north and south is as relevant in today’s world as it was during the Civil War. Blakely’s lead character, French fugitive, whiskey trader and adopted Comanche, Honoré Greenwood, relates the story of the American settlers’ confiscation of Indian land in the midst of fighting over slavery.

Says Greenwood, “I felt as if the fate of the entire world rested on my shoulders. In reality, looking back, I was nothing more than a pawn in a trifling struggle that would scarcely warrant a paragraph in the book of world history. But it was my paragraph to write, and I was prepared to fill my ink well with blood.”

Hence, with ensanguined pen, Greenwood, called Plenty Man by the Indians, recounts the tale of his involvement with the Indians during the American Civil War.

Long time friend and confidante of Kit Carson, Greenwood finds himself embroiled in a complicated test of loyalties between his compadre and his adopted band of Comanches. Summoned by Carson to join the New Mexico Volunteers of the Union Army as a scout, Greenwood leaves behind his beloved Cheyenne bride, Westerly, and joins Kit in Albuquerque. There, in New Mexico, he enlists in the Union army only to find that his old nemesis, Luther Sheffield, is also a member of his unit. Violent clashes and heavy combat at Valverde Ford and Glorieta Pass with the Texas Confederates, renegade Indian attacks, and the constant necessity of having to watch out for Sheffield’s attempts on his life all take a toll on Greenwood. Fearing that he will soon be pitted in battle against his adopted Comanches, Greenwood resigns his post as Kit Carson’s scout and returns to his tribe.

“Trouble raged in the West, where Colonel Kit Carson’s forces had invaded the very heart of Navaho country, striking where no soldiers had ever ridden before. I knew the hoops of time would roll and whir and come crashing to earth again, and I feared they would in time come violently trundling down the Canadian River Valley to my very home,” recounts a worried Greenwood. And in time, that was exactly what occurred.

“I was in the big, bloody middle of it. It happened sixty-three years ago. . . They called it the Battle of Adobe Walls. It happened on November 25, 1864,” recalls Greenwood. “Telling this grieves me to this day. . . But you should know what I have suffered, so that you may appreciate the strength of the human spirit, and the will of man to rise above the heaviest of sorrows.”

Come Sundown is one of those rare books that you can’t put down, one that stays with you long after you’ve placed it back on the shelf. Blakely, also a singer-songwriter, skillfully crafts an unforgettable story of a war within a war—the Civil War and the Indian Wars spawned from enmities between the north and south—and does so with an approach skillfully orchestrated to have the reader feel that he/she is a character in the novel.

Blakely’s use of language is fluid, a poetic prose, and his dialogue is immaculate. His characters are endearing, believable, and enduring: Chief Shaved Head; Kills Something; seer and medicine man, Burnt Belly; Blue; Plenty Man’s wife, soul mate and companion, Westerly; Kit Carson, and, yes, even Greenwood’s nemesis Luther Sheffield.

Come Sundown is symphony for all the senses; a painting whose brush strokes have been laid on the canvas of a tale as strong and sure as those rendered by Charles M. Russell and with the bravado of a violin and bow in a baroque concerto delivered by Vivaldi himself.

Blakely is a Spur Award winner for his novel The Summer of Pearls.

Holiday spirit summons ghosts of past deeds

China Bayles is a gutsy woman. She walked away from a lucrative, high-profile career as a big ticket criminal defense lawyer in Houston, traded her high heels for sensible shoes, and used the contents of her 401K to buy an old stable in the heart of the little Texas Hill Country town of Pecan Springs. She opened an herb shop, Thyme and Seasons, on one side of the dwelling and rented the other side to Ruby Wilcox, a new age maven who China describes as “a hoot, that’s all anybody can say—and we certainly say it often enough.” Ruby’s shop, the Crystal Cave, offers books on astrology, tools for divination, and classes on getting in touch with your inner self.

China and Ruby are more than just business neighbors. They are best friends and co-owners of a catering company and they have an affinity for insinuating themselves into the middle of murder investigations, much to the chagrin of China’s new husband, Mike McQuaid, a private investigator and faculty member in the Criminal Justice Department at Central Texas State University. McQuaid has custody of his teenage son, Brian, and the couple is also raising China’s eleven year old niece, Caitlin.

Holly Blues, Susan Wittig Albert’s 18th China Bayles mystery, is set in Pecan Springs during the Christmas holidays. Sally Strahorn, McQuaid’s mentally ill ex-wife and Brian’s biological mother, appears out of the blue claiming to be penniless and homeless. Sally has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and her alter ego, Juanita, is a trouble maker.

Despite the fact that Sally has caused serious problems for the McQuaids in the past, in a burst of holiday generosity China impulsively encourages her to spend time with Brian and invites her stay with the family over the Christmas holidays. China soon realizes that her beneficence is sorely misplaced when Sally begins receiving menacing telephone calls from a stalker who is tied to the murders of her parents nearly a decade ago. When Sally’s sister, Leslie, is found dead in her home town of Lake City, Texas, Sally is named a person of interest.

Holly Blues, is a fast-paced whodunit packed with murder and mayhem, spiked with humor, and laced with uncommon sensibility. Albert’s characters are often quirky, but they are believable, warts and all. Her prose is tight and flows easily with details that give her characters depth and authenticity. For instance, the description of the Pecan Springs Chief of Police, dubbed “Smart Cookie’ by the author, is classic Albert:

“Sheila was uniformed in her usual natty blue and gray jacket, shirt, pants, and cap, her blonde hair scooped into a bun at the back of her head. Even so, and with a radio on one hip and a holstered weapon on the other, she’s beautiful. Somehow, it doesn’t seem fair that there’s so much firepower—intelligence, competence, confidence, and damned good looks—loaded into one woman. But while Smart Cookie might look like Miss Dallas costumed for the cover of Law Enforcement Magazine, I wouldn’t mess with her, if I were you. She can outshoot any of her officers, any day. And she don’t take no sass, as the locals say.”

While Holly Blues is part of a series of herbal mysteries, it can stand alone. The author inconspicuously weaves background information about her recurring characters into the first chapters of each book.

Albert earned her PhD in English from the University of California at Berkeley. She served as an Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin, and later became the first woman dean of Newcomb College in New Orleans. After a few years she returned to Texas as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Texas State University in San Marcos. She did not feel fulfilled as a college administrator and professor and one day walked out and never looked back.

Says Albert in her memoir, Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place, “And on that day I walked out of the university, I felt astonishingly, astoundingly free—as free as those wild birds—and I could sing my own glorious hurrah. It was only a step, but it was the first, and it was necessary.”

In addition to the China Bayles mysteries, Albert is the author of  The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, a mystery series featuring author Beatrix Potter. Albert and her husband, Bill, collaborated on the The Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries from 1994 – 2006. Albert is currently working on a new mystery series, The Darling Dahlias, the first of which is due out in July. She has also authored several non-fiction books.

Like I said, Susan Wittig Albert is a gutsy woman.

You can read the first chapter of Holly Blues at http://www.abouthyme.com/China/CH1HOLLYBLUES.pdf.

China Bayles fans can subscribe to Albert’s weekly newsletter, “All About Thyme” at http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001QhuZciaLI3XkXzIeiZE9mJAVHXYTEZdWkFq6OIvsnvq6DvRTlz-m4P_3qH8qtY10IuLxxEhZgm5mNOrS-pqeCc7xiC3MRiQg_ZnuZjiv-dioPuuiI8iVJhgOq-vFDIpNS-w0QwQtwHE%3D

This review was originally published in the San Antonio Express News on April 11, 2010 and in the Boerne Star on April 15, 2010.

Coleen Grissom ‘keeps on keeping on’ with "A Novel Approach to Life"

I have looked forward for over a year to the release of Dr. Coleen Grissom’s book, A Novel Approach to Life, a collection of five decades of her speeches. When I finally got my hands on a copy I settled in with a cup of tea and a pint of Crème Caramel frozen yogurt and dove into the life of one of Kendall County’s preeminent residents. If you have not had the pleasure of attending an event with Dr. Grissom slated as a speaker, you have most certainly missed out on one of life’s special treats. Her collection of speeches reveals her passion for life, her devotion to Trinity University, her unbridled enthusiasm for teaching English, and her faith in “humankind.”

As dean of students, Vice President for Student Affairs, and English professor at Trinity University for over fifty years, Grissom has witnessed the birth of the feminist movement, dealt with campus social upheaval, and, with an even hand and with some humor, handled the inception of the sexual revolution played out in the Trinity dormitories. She has enjoyed the company of some of the great writers of our time – Margaret Atwood, John Updike, John Irving, Toni Morison and others too numerous to mention. She has shared in the joys and successes of her students and has endured heartache along the way, as well.

In a section of speeches to Trinity faculty, staff, students, and alumni, Grissom writes “. . . it still disturbs me to recall even having to write remarks about the AIDS Quilt Collection, the acknowledgment of date or acquaintance rape on our lovely campus, [and] the death of a first-year man from hazing by a fraternity . . . “

While Dr. Grissom is revered and treasured for her oratory skills, her prose flows as smoothly and as naturally as her spoken words. I was shocked when I read in her introduction that she’s never really liked public speaking. Words seem to flow effortlessly from Grissom, gliding through the air with authority and proficiency without a hint of pomposity or pretension. Grissom is down-to-earth and accessible with a quirky wit.

“Although I found the delivering of my remarks onerous, what I did and do love is the process of composing, of writing . . . thinking of what I might say, organizing my ideas . . .”

Grissom’s speeches in A Novel Approach to Life are organized by “occasion” or “purpose.” The book is not all-inclusive, but rather a sampling of presentations delivered primarily during her tenure at Trinity University as an administrator, 1958 to 2000. It also includes examples of talks to other organizations such as the McNay Art Museum Docents, The Graham Ladensohn Memorial Lecture, the Texas Sod Association, and some gripping “Tributes, Toasts, Farewells.”

Although the speeches cover an array of topics, they all share a common thread. Grissom approaches each of them with a great deal of quirky humor and prodigious insight. She implores her audience to think rationally, to view and appreciate life in all of its glory, and always “figure out what you care about and live a life that shows it. Do attempt brave and important things, and, for heaven’s sake, make time in your hectic, sometimes frenetic lives to read and then make time to read some more.”

A Novel Approach to Life is more than a collection of speeches. It is also a memoir of an extraordinary human being and is as multi-faceted as its author. In her speech “Opening Pajama Party, Class of 1970,” Grissom includes a letter written by a freshman student to her parents after her first three months at Trinity. The letter is priceless and one of the funniest passages that I have ever read in any book.

Over the years Grissom has reached beyond Trinity University and has shared her time and talent with various community organizations. In addition to teaching three courses per semester at Trinity, she also participates in various programs sponsored by Gemini Ink, a San Antonio non-profit organization that promotes the arts, and she serves as Master of Ceremonies for the annual Cancer and Research Therapy Center’s “Book and Author Luncheon.” She’s been known on occasion to auction herself off for charity with the winner receiving lunch and literary discussion.

A Novel Approach to Life is filled with astute observations of life, heartwarming stories of students and teachers, references to literary influences, and glimpses of Grissom’s unselfish devotion to all that she holds dear. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

A Novel Approach to Life (Trinity University Press, September 2008, ISBN-13: 9781595340559, 256pp, $25.00) is available through all major booksellers and directly from the Trinity University Press.

This review appeared in the Friday, October 3, 2008 edition of the Boerne Star.

Thomas Michael Riley will host music festival

Mark your calendars for Friday, May 30 through Sunday, June 1. Boerne’s own Thomas Michael Riley promises a great time at his first-ever “Back to the Basics” Music Festival at Luckenbach.

Music starts Friday night, May 30th, at 7:00 pm with Mike Blakely, T & C Miller, Tommy Alverson, Billy Joe Shaver headlining, and, of course Thomas Michael Riley.

On Saturday, the festivities begin again at noon and include Monte Montgomery, Susan Gibson, Tommy Alverson and his band, Quincy Harper, and Pauline Reese. Riley will close out the evening with what is sure to be another of his signature, high energy shows.

The festival wraps up on Sunday at noon with a special Luckenbach version of Cowboy Church with music by Riley and Mike Blakely.

Riley has twice been named ‘Hill Country Entertainer of the Year’ and is broadening his horizons through quarterly junkets to Nashville where he is collaborating with other songwriters and showcasing Texas music. He has released seven CD’s and has had eight songs covered by other Texas artists, including Gary P. Nunn, who took three of Riley’s tunes to the top of the Texas charts--‘Perfectly Normal,’ ‘Redneck Riviera’, and ‘Cow Pasture Pool.’

Riley will release his new CD “Tommy” at the festival. He says about his new release, “This is probably my best one… so far. I’ve written over five hundred songs and I try to raise the bar with my writing each time. Hopefully that’s what I’ve done here.”

“If you find a constant theme through my music, I think it would have to be life is a gift . . .so get out there and live it,” asserts Riley. “I write a lot of songs telling how we need to get our priorities right. Follow your heart; don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Help somebody. Sing, dance, love, cry, and laugh a little more. And, by all means, laugh at yourself.”

Advance ticket prices are $15.00 daily or $25.00 for the whole weekend. Kids twelve and under are free. Bring your RV or camp in your tent right on the Luckenbach Festival grounds. For tickets and camping reservations contact Luckenbach Texas at (888) 311-8990 or (830) 997-3224 or check out luckenbachtexas.com.

Sponsors for Riley’s ‘Back to the Basics’ festival will be treated to a special party and private concert Thursday evening. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor for the festival can contact Linda Worley at lindaworley55@aol.com. For additional information, log on to Riley's web site at thomasmichaelriley.com, call Luckenbach at (830) 997-3224, or visit luckenbachtexas.com.