Weather frightful? Texas literary events delightful!

 Yes, it's a snow day here in Texas which means -- it's nearly spring! With a new season of Texas-centric literary events to get us through the cold.

ASAP: The Writers Workshop of the sci-fi/fantasy/horror conference FenCon is back! It nearly escaped my notice, and the email I received said the entry deadline was January 7. But always hopeful, I sent a writing sample anyway and received the encouraging news that there are still slots to be filled. But hurry! Workshop attendance is limited to 20 writers, and workshop leader/author Kevin Ikenberry  needs time to read them before the workshop's opening February 13.

FenCon's official dates this year are February 14-15 but it opens early for writers. You'll need a FenCon membership ($55 and up) with writing workshop upgrade ($65) for the whole meal deal. See the site for full details.

January 11 - June 10: The Dallas Museum of Art's Arts & Letters program presents a series of notable authors, including Bill Gates (yes, that Bill Gates!), Percival Everett (James), David Sedaris and many, many more! See the site for the complete list of speakers, ticket prices and venues.

January 31: Deadline to register for the Writers League of Texas Agents Symposium, with online presentations by 10 agents February 22-November 22, 2025. The WLT alternates agents symposiums annually with its in-person conference, whose next date will be in 2026. Symposium registration is $449 for members, $509 for nonmembers. A $150 non-refundable deposit by January 31 will hold a spot for either members or nonmembers.

See the site for a listing of agents and topics. Information on additional WLT classes and programs (some free!) is available at the general site. I'll also post later about this year's WLT manuscript contest.

February 20: The HP LitFest hosts Mark Sullivan, New York Times best-selling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and more. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at the Highland Park High School auditorium, 4220 Emerson Ave., Dallas, with presentation at 7 p.m. 

Before becoming a novelist, Sullivan was also an award-winning journalist. The event is free, but donations are welcome. See the site for details.

March 1: The North Texas Teen Books Festival hosts more than 70 authors of middle-grade and young adult fiction at the Irving Convention Center, 500 West Las Colinas Blvd., Irving, Texas.

image by Arbaz Khan for Pixabay

Middle-grade keynote speakers are Karina Yan Glaser, Alan Gratz and Ruta Sepetys at 9 a.m. Young adult keynote speakers are Gabi Burto, Stephanie Garber and Lauren Roberts at 2:30 p.m. As always, the festival is free. You don't even have to be a teen to attend, but there's also an educators day February 28. See the site for details, including complete list of attending authors.

Still to come: The Dallas Writer's Garret returns with its Dallas Is Lit! literary festival May 15-18, including a mix of authors, performers, and book lovers. Check the site for additional information.

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Want more? Of course, you do! Check out Lone Star Literary Life for additional listings around the state. 

And yes, as dog is my witness, this site will post soon about writing contests!

Countdown to readers' favorite posts for 2019

What – 2019 is almost over? No worries – for these final days of this year, I’m rerunning the top 10 readers’ favorite posts, starting with one first published February 13: 

Outlaws & outtakes – stories on the cutting room floor 

In all previous instances when I’ve posted any of my short stories on this blog, they’ve been stories that have been published (sometimes multiple times) in other, independent venues. But about a year and a half ago, I wrote a number of short-shorts as exercises for a class that never found a paying market. The class assignment was limited to 500 words. In some cases the three t stories presented here slightly exceed that word count, but they’re still so short I’m grouping three of them into a single post – ranging from a horror Western to a Valentine-flavored spoof of classical divinities, to a historical-themed vignette.  

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THE GOLD AND THE GIRL

Luther Delbruck kneed his horse into place at the hitching post and dropped to the ground. He couldn’t be more than a few hours behind that lying claim jumper Harkness, the one who’d shot him and grabbed his bag of gold dust. But he’d plugged Harkness too. That slinking coyote couldn’t have more than a day left to live, not with the way he’d been bleeding. First, Luther would get his gold back. Then he’d teach Harkness a lesson. Him and any other son of a bitch that thought they could make a fool out of Luther Delbruck.

image: Pixabay

Then, and only then, he’d be able to see Maudie again. Take her the gold, see her one last time, prove to her that he was the man she knew he could be. Never mind the all the rest. He was the one she would love forever. All he had to do was live one day longer than Harkness. But for that to happen, he’d need some doctoring.

Dragging his wounded leg, Luther pushed through the door of the boarding house where Doc Faraday slept, drank, and sometimes even did a little doctoring. He tumbled into a heap in front of the old doctor.

“Delbruck! What the hell happened to you?”

“Leg. Shot.” Lying on the splintered floor, Luther tried to motion to his wounded left leg, to the trouser stiffened and black with old blood. A tug on his boot forced a scream of agony from him. Damn fool doctor. Damn fool. Shouldn’t ought to have come here, shouldn’t. . .

Through the fog of pain and fever, he was dimly aware of a clatter of shoes on the wooden floor, a creak of hinges from the direction of a cabinet at the far end of the room. Then a puff of dust as something thumped onto the floor at his side. Black. Black bag. Doc Faraday’s medical bag. Luther tried to raise his head to get a look at his injury, but he could only flop back limply.

Something in the doctor’s hand flashed for an instant in the lamplight. There was a jolt, then a languor laid hold of him, the mix of drowsiness and clarity that Luther remembered from the time he was wounded in the war. Morphia.

Time lost its meaning. Dimly, he felt Faraday loosen his clothes, remove his boot. Words like when and who floated past him meaninglessly.

Until something cold touched the fever-hot flesh of his leg. He grabbed a scrap of consciousness by the tail and held on.

 “Wha’ you doin’, doc?” His mouth was so thick he could hardly form words.

“Getting ready to take your leg off, you fool.”

The words were like cold water dashed in Luther’s face. “No.” He pushed himself up.

“You’ll be dead by this time tomorrow if I don’t.”

“Gotta fin’ m’ gold. Got to get it to Maudie. Don’ have time to wait for any damn leg.”

Maudie. And the kid. God, he wished he could live long enough to see the kid.

“Just patch me up, doc. I gotta find that thievin’ claim jumper, Harkness. Got to get my gold back.”

“You leave here and you’re a dead man.”

“Says you. I got to get it to Maudie. She’s…” But he couldn’t tell Faraday what Maudie said she would do if he didn’t help her. Help her and the kid.

Only what if Harkness got to Maudie first? What if her face lit up in the way he remembered so well, not at the sight of him, but at the sight of Harkness with the gold in his hands?

With an effort that left him reeling, Luther pushed himself upright, ignoring Doc Faraday’s protests. His leg didn’t feel so bad any more. Morphia was a wonderful thing. He’d need more of it if he was to catch up with Harkness. Catch up and kill him and get the gold back. He grabbed the handle of the medicine bag.

“You let go of that, Delbruck. Let go right now or I swear I’ll set the marshal on—”

Luther pulled his revolver from his belt. The shot left a red and black hole in the middle of the doc’s face, a look of surprise on what was left of that face. Damn noisy old fool. No time for fools. He had to catch Harkness.

Because if Harkness reached Maudie first, if she looked too happy to get the gold, too happy it was Harkness bringing it to her and not him, not Luther Delbruck, he had to know. And he would. He’d be right behind Harkness. And after he killed him, well, he could manage to live long enough to steal one last kiss from Maudie’s sweet, lying mouth before he joined her in hell.

THE END

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EROS WALKS INTO A BAR

Eros walks into a bar and flops onto a stool. It feels as if he’s been wandering for hours, ever since leaving Psyche, ever since she had betrayed his trust so utterly.

“Beer and a chaser,” he says to the bartender. “Hades, make that three chasers.”

Book reviews and promos from an ezine just for Texas!

“I’ve always been a bookworm,” Kristine Hall confessed to a room full of authors at this month’s Dallas-area meeting of Mystery Writers of America. The new head of Lone Star Literary Life, Hall began her own literary life as an assistant in school libraries, gained a degree in library science, then started actively blogging about books, first on her own, then for Lone Star Literary Life, an online magazine dedicated to books written about Texas and by Texas authors.

What wasn’t there to love about book blogging? “You get free books! You get to read them and say what you like about them!”

She liked working for Lone Star Literary Life so much, she recently took over ownership of the magazine whose mission statement is "connecting readers with Texas books, Texas writers, and all things literary in Texas," including organizing blog tours of books and giving them more "real estate" on its pages.

As reviews in print publications get fewer and farther between, book review bloggers have increasingly taken over as significant sources of publicity for new volumes. "But although publicists often advertise blog tours – simultaneous exposure across multiple blogs – "it's a hit or miss thing because I can't make you write anything on your blog," Hall said.

Except that she can. Because she pays bloggers to review books. Probably not as much as they’re worth, she admitted, although most blog reviewers are avid readers who would work for love alone. 

Kristine Hall

Just as Lone Star Literary Life’s books and authors are about or from Texas (or at least have some connection to the state), its bloggers (now numbering 35 regulars) are also Texas-based. From these, authors can expect to receive a minimum of four reviews, and sometimes as many as seven or eight, at a cost to the author varying between $150 to just under $400.

Does payment guarantee good reviews? Sorry, there’s no buying of love from blog reviews, not even from having Lone Star Literary Life sending bloggers cover information, author biographies, and pictures.  

“These are honest reviews. You are not going to get all 5-stars or even all 4- to 5-stars,” Hall cautioned.

However, if reviews are consistently below the 4- to 5-star level, Hall will contact authors about how to handle less than favorable feedback with constructive criticism. 

“The place to spend money is on editing. . . (Although) a lot of people don’t notice (errors), and if they do notice, they don’t care because they’re interested in the story, (but) at least you can have a piece you can be proud of.” 

“I can’t guarantee sales, but I can guarantee exposure,” Hall said. 

Nor does buying a blog tour free authors from responsibility to act on their own behalf.

“A good author is going to be interactive. Go to those blogs, comment, and share on social media. . . Book bloggers are really enthusiastic about supporting authors. We’re all book nerds, so any attention from our authors is golden.”

And don’t judge a blog by its number of followers, Hall cautioned, but by the number of its page views.

Many of those who blog for Lone Star Literary Life have advanced academic degrees. All are required to post “notable and quotable” reviews to Amazon and at least two other outlets, such as Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Litsy, LinkedIn, and more. 

While much of the magazine is still a work in progress, one of Hall’s greatest prides is its “crown jewel” – the Bookish Texas page she heralds as “the most comprehensive listings of books and author events, festivals, readings, lectures, and signings” in the state, with new content out every Sunday morning.

The only downside now that Lone Star Literary Life is her fulltime life, Hall says? “I don’t have time to read (but) I’m really getting into audio books!”

Book reviews aren't scary! How to find & write them

A recent online writing critique session turned into a discussion of book reviews – how to get books reviewed as well as how to cope with reviewers when we do find them. It reminded me that I haven’t blogged about the how-tos of book reviewing recently, or mentioned one of the most helpful sites I’ve found for locating reviewers.

The most promising site by far for fiction -- Reedsy’s annually-updated list of book bloggers. Reedsy promises it to be a “vetted catalogue of active book blogs and thoughtful, quality book reviewers.” Search it by genre, by friendliness toward indie-published books, by average traffic, domain authority, and more. 

If you are a book blogger who would like to apply for inclusion in the catalogue, you can do that at the site as well.

For authors who long to see their reviews on paper, please understand that large metropolitan newspapers like The Dallas Morning News in my city, are tough places for book reviews. According to a former book page staff writer at the DMN, it receives several hundred books weekly from authors, but publishes at most only five. 

For a comprehensive list of newspapers and magazines that publish book reviews, check New Pages. And consider contacting smaller papers. A hometown, county or regional paper might be a good fit. Your local library may be able to make suggestions.

And speaking of regional publications -- for Texas writers – or authors of books with special appeal for Texas – I recommend Lone Star Literary Life. Check the site for what LSLL does – and doesn’t accept. Still, with limited time and space, it can’t publish free reviews of every acceptable book with a Texas focus. In that case, writers may opt to buy a review ($249 for fiction, $279 for nonfiction). Again, check the site for terms and conditions. 

Not a Texan or writing a Texas-focused book? Check with local writing groups for other regional outlets for reviews. 

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image: pixabay

OK, so, you write? Consider writing book reviews. You already know it’s one of the best things you can do to promote your fellow writers. 

Book reviews had always seemed reminiscent of the essays I always dreaded writing in school. But after posting a few blog posts dealing with books to Goodreads and Amazon, I decided I had the whole book reviewing thing down cold. Unlike school, nobody grades the review writers, which removes a lot of pressure. It’s a matter of using the same basic formula we learned in school – tell people what you’re going to say, say it, and tell them what you said. 

However, for potential reviewers who want more structure, I like the online tips from the Writing Center at University of North Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences:

•  Introduction (including the name of the author, title of book and main theme) – although as a fiction writer, I prefer starting with a “hook” in the opening paragraph, and including genre and intended age group (if relevant). 
• Summary of content (remembering not to reveal the ending!)
• Analysis and evaluation of the book
• Conclusion (restatement)

A few additional helpful suggestions from UNC as well as Writing-World.com: Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. Be precise. Check to be sure statements you attribute to the book are accurate.

There’s also an entire cottage industry on the Internet about how to write reviews for Amazon, including on Amazon itself. The book itself has to be available on Amazon before the online giant will accept it. But as I can personally attest, contrary to popular belief, reviewers don’t have to buy the actual book from Amazon. Presumably Amazon considers even non-buyer reviews a service to its customers. 

Amazon also likes reviewers of any of its products (not limited to books) to indicate why they liked or disliked a particular one. And it has suggested lengths – 75-500 words. 

Having written all this, I admit that I also have some requirements for reviews. I receive far more requests for reviews than I can honor. As a general rule, I also do not review indie-published books. And I’m wary of reviewing the books of friends, who have probably had their fill of my critical comments long before publication!