Saturday, September 24, 2016
Sleeping Panther Press at the Arts Goggle
This morning I had the opportunity to see the proof copy of the Panther City Review. The journal looks great, and I am looking forward to the launch on Saturday, October 1 at The Last Word Bookstore in Fort Worth from 4 pm to 6 pm. The following Saturday, October 8, the authors will be at the Fort Worth Writers Boot Camp booth at the Arts Goggle. If you are in town, stop by and say howdy. I'll be there from 4 pm to 5 pm.
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Slats Rodgers and Old Soggy No. 1
This morning we had breakfast at the Beacon Restaurant at Hicks Field in Fort Worth. It's always pleasant to enjoy an omelette and a cup of coffee while watching the small planes take off and land. Being around the little airport, which was originally used as a World War One training facility, I got to thinking about Slats Rodgers, the first person to earn a pilot's license in Texas and also the first person to have that license revoked. To his credit or discredit, Slats was a stunt pilot, a bootlegger, a flight instructor, and a smuggler.
Slats was also a real character. He built his own airplane, Old Soggy No. 1, based on books he'd read in the library, and in 1912 he started flying. He survived 28 plane crashed. Interestingly enough, one of the survivors of his many crashes happened to be Bonnie Parker.
Slats and the other members of the Love Field Lunatics, a stunt flying group of which he was a part, used their acrobatics show as a cover for their smuggling operation. Slats' story, in my opinion, is absolutely fascinating. Why he has not been the subject of a major motion picture is beyond me.
Here is an article from Air and Space about Slats Rodgers.
Slats was also a real character. He built his own airplane, Old Soggy No. 1, based on books he'd read in the library, and in 1912 he started flying. He survived 28 plane crashed. Interestingly enough, one of the survivors of his many crashes happened to be Bonnie Parker.
Slats and the other members of the Love Field Lunatics, a stunt flying group of which he was a part, used their acrobatics show as a cover for their smuggling operation. Slats' story, in my opinion, is absolutely fascinating. Why he has not been the subject of a major motion picture is beyond me.
Here is an article from Air and Space about Slats Rodgers.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Panther City Review Launch
I am pleased to report that the Panther City Review will launch at The Last Word Bookstore in Fort Worth on October 1st from 4:00 to 6:00. The Last Word, in my opinion, is a fine place for the launch. Paul Combs, the owner of this indie bookstore, is committed to providing an outlet for local writers, and his bookstore is rapidly becoming an important meeting place for the local arts community.
Several up and coming North Texas writers will be featured in the review including Rob Bosquez, Robin Goodpaster, Ann Graham, Cary Nichols, Mark Nobles, Linda Simmons, and editor and publisher Rachel Pilcher. Two of my stories will also be included in the journal. Both "The Nine Lives of Ivy Lee Jones," which was a finalist in the Northeast Texas Writers' Organization's 2015 short story contest judged by #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, and "The Socrates of Waylon County," which received an honorable mention in the same contest, will be included. I am glad to see that these two stories have found a good home.
Several up and coming North Texas writers will be featured in the review including Rob Bosquez, Robin Goodpaster, Ann Graham, Cary Nichols, Mark Nobles, Linda Simmons, and editor and publisher Rachel Pilcher. Two of my stories will also be included in the journal. Both "The Nine Lives of Ivy Lee Jones," which was a finalist in the Northeast Texas Writers' Organization's 2015 short story contest judged by #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, and "The Socrates of Waylon County," which received an honorable mention in the same contest, will be included. I am glad to see that these two stories have found a good home.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
No Kinda Dancer
Despite the fact that I am no kind of dancer, I am an absolute Texas dancehall enthusiast. Martina took this picture of the extremely photogenic Greenwood Dancehall and Saloon in Bluff Dale. The building, erected in 1897, was originally a mercantile store up at Chalk Mountain, and a couple of decades later it was dragged to Glen Rose to serve several other commercial functions before finally coming to rest in Bluff Dale in the 2000s. After seeing the place, I told a buddy that it was somewhere between Gruene Hall and Luckenbach, which is funny considering that after looking online I saw that other folks had the same impression. This, of course, is about as fine a recommendation as a music venue can get, and the owners clearly pay homage to these two venerable halls. For example, old Texas license plates are used to cover holes in the floor a la Gruene Hall, and the Sunday picking circle comes straight out of the Luckenbach playbook. And heck, there are even boots hanging from the ceiling like at John T. Floore's Country Store in Helotes. This place is like a Texas dancehall greatest hits album.
Being no kind of dancer, I thought I would share a link to Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis' cover of "No Kinda Dancer" by Robert Earl Keene. They are playing at one of my favorite venues, the Continental Club Gallery in Austin.
Buffalo Bill on the State Highway
Martina and I took a ride out into the country yesterday. We stopped for a bite at a restaurant on the side of the state highway where we met a dead ringer for Buffalo Bill. The retired gentleman definitely looked the part. He wore a Van Dyke beard and kept his hair long beneath his cowboy hat. His jacket was the color of buckskin, and he wore a red bandanna around his neck. He was gregarious and good-natured and enjoyed swapping tales.
He talked about the outlaws in West Texas in the Big Bend country where he lived. He talked about a time when there was so little rain that even the cacti died. He told us about doing business in Fredericksburg and Ingram and Austin. After chewing the fat with him for half of the afternoon, Martina and I got into the car and headed toward home.
As we were leaving, Martina said, "I think we just met Gus McCrae." In speech and in spirit the man was just that. He was the Gus McCrae of Lonesome Dove. He was the man we both imagined while reading the book. Meeting such a colorful character made our afternoon. It's not every day that you meet a man that looks like Buffalo Bill and talks like Gus McCrae. It was a fine day in Texas.
He talked about the outlaws in West Texas in the Big Bend country where he lived. He talked about a time when there was so little rain that even the cacti died. He told us about doing business in Fredericksburg and Ingram and Austin. After chewing the fat with him for half of the afternoon, Martina and I got into the car and headed toward home.
As we were leaving, Martina said, "I think we just met Gus McCrae." In speech and in spirit the man was just that. He was the Gus McCrae of Lonesome Dove. He was the man we both imagined while reading the book. Meeting such a colorful character made our afternoon. It's not every day that you meet a man that looks like Buffalo Bill and talks like Gus McCrae. It was a fine day in Texas.
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