A fast and furious literary season for Texas

It’s May, the merry month when, in Texas, temperatures turn from pleasant to blistering, and the weather hazards shift from hailstorms and tornadoes to hurricanes. At least there are plenty of literary goings-on to distract us from any outside contretemps.

May 4-6: The force is still with writers looking for weekend passes to Writefest, the collaborative effort of Writespace and the Houston Writers’ Guild. Sad to say, registration for pitch sessions with agents/editors and for writing workshops is closed. But tickets are still available for the weekend festival (today through Sunday) and one passes for today and Saturday. Three-day pass tickets are $375, available only at the door, which include lunch with keynote speaker Justin Cronin (The Passages trilogy), socials, Sunday write-in, and more. 

Friday-only passes are $135, only available at the door, with access to panels, presentations, and offsite events.

image: pixabay

Saturday-only passes are $125 today, or $185 at the door, with a literary journal fair in addition to panels, presentations and offsite events.

Most events at Winter Street Studios, 2101 Winter Street, Houston. Check site for details and offsite event locations.

May 5: I don’t usually list regular writing group meetings (for that, see WORD (link)) but must mention that Suzanne Frank, director of SMU’s CAPE Creative Writing program is the speaker for Saturday’s meeting of Dallas Mystery Writers. Frank’s presentation is 10-noon at the Addison Olive Garden restaurant, 4240 Beltline Road in Addison. The meeting will be followed by lunch. Cost is $5 for those staying for lunch, $10 for attendees at the speaker-only presentation. 

May 12: Just for fun -- O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships, 409 E. 5^th Street, Austin (O. Henry Museum).

June 6 – August 1: Rejebian returns! This weekly summer book group showcases the lighter side of Texas books and authors, Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in Wesley Hall of Highland Park United Methodist Church. Presentations are free or make reservations for an optional dinner at 5:30 p.m. for $13. You can pay at the door for the meal, but please make reservations by calling 214-523-2240 so they’ll know how much food to cook! 

June 8-9: Robert E. Howard Days commemorate the life (and tragic death) of the creator of Conan the Cimmerian and other iconic fantasy adventures, in Howard’s hometown of Cross Plains, Texas. Events include tours of the REH Museum, Cross Plains and its environs (fictionalized as many of the settings for Howard stories), original Howard manuscripts at the Cross Plains library, and banquet with this year’s guest of honor, “Indiana Bill” Cavalier, a mainstay of Howard fandom. All events except the banquet are free. See the site for details and banquet registration.

June 9-10: The DFW Writers Conference is a multi-genre writers’ conference with agents, workshops and panels and inspiration galore, including keynote speaker Scott Westerfield. At Hurst Conference Center, 1600 Campus Drive, in Hurst. Each registration includes a pitch session with an agent, and additional pitch sessions are available for $40. Registration for both days is $399, Saturday-only $269, Sunday-only $229 (which includes the conferences infamous Gong Show lunch). Know a young writer? Teens 15-17 can get in both days for $149 (with adult ticket holder). And yes, teens also qualify for the agent pitch sessions. 

June 29-July 1: Writers’ League of Texas 2018 Agents and Editors Conference , Hyatt Regency Austin, 208 Barton Springs Road, Austin. It’s HUGE! At this time, there are at least 20 confirmed agents and four publishing editors (some accepting unagented submissions). At this time, the registration fee ($449 for Writers’ League members, $509 for nonmembers) does not include pitclhes to agents or editors, but pitches may be scheduled for an additional fee as time and space permit. 

Plus, again, lots and lots of presentations and panels with at least 100 publishing professionals. 

July 20-22: The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference is the place in Texas for narrative nonfiction writers, with workshops, panels, keynote speakers and yes – agents! At the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center, 1800 State Highway 26, in Grapevine. Registration $425. See the site for details.

August 3-5: ArmadilloCon is Texas’ summer heat-busting science fiction/fantasy convention with a writing workshop. Sure, you can attend the myriad panels and presentations with all your favorite speculative fiction authors and artists for only $45 (current price), but why not spring for the writing workshop too? Submit your original, unpublished science fiction, fantasy or horror short story and get info on writing craft plus critique sessions for $90, which includes full convention membership as well. But hurry – writing workshop submissions are due June 15! At the Omni Southpark Hotel, 4140 Governor’s Row, in Austin.  

Wordcraft -- Robert E. Howard Days in the heart of Texas

How many wonderful writers have come from Texas? More pertinent, how many have stayed in Texas? Among the few who toughed out Texas during some of the state’s bleakest days was Robert E. Howard, most famous now as the creator of Conan the Cimmerian (aka the Barbarian). But on June 11, 1936, Howard, then barely thirty years old and facing the imminent death of his beloved mother, ended his own life. Weirdly but reverently, fans still gather on the weekend closest to the anniversary of his death to remember him. This year that remembrance, titled Robert E. Howard Days is this Friday and Saturday, June 10-11.

Actually, there’s a preview Thursday, as Howard’s family home and museum at 625 W. Highway 36 in Cross Plains opens from 2-4 p.m. (Unlike the house’s regular open hours, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday of the festival, there will not be a docent available during the Thursday hours.)

Fittingly for the remembrance of a man who hated “clock-like regularity,” REH Days activities are low key and mostly fee-free. Visitors swap stories and swag at a small pavilion adjacent to the Howard house, drop in to the Cross Plains library with its exhibits of Howard’s magazine publications, and attend whichever of the panels of Howard fans and scholars appeal to them. Among this year’s speakers is Michael Scott Myers, screenwriter for the film The Whole Wide World, based the memoir One Who Walked Alone, by Novalyne Price Ellis, one of Howard’s rare sympathetic listeners.

Other speakers include writer Mark Finn, author of the World Fantasy-nominated biography Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, and Chris Gruber, editor of Boxing Stories, a compilation of the often humorous tales Howard was actually better known for in his own time.

For a complete schedule of events, see the Robert E. Howard Days 2016 site. (link) Visitors may also drop in at the gravesite of Howard and his parents (he and his mother died within a day of each other) at Greenleaf Cemetery in nearby Brownwood, Texas. 

In some ways, it’s easy to blame the tiny West Texas town of Cross Plains where Howard lived for his entire adult life, for his death. He, like his characters, was a “fish out of water,” as described by biographer Mark Finn. 

Howard’s chronically ailing mother smothered him, his country doctor father stood aloof, oblivious to Howard’s deepening depression. Neighbors thought him at best odd, at worst annoying, as he read his stories aloud while typing them near an open window in the small Howard home. (Fortunately for modern visitors, the Howard House Museum is now air-conditioned.)

Howard himself confessed to hating his days in both school and town. He became a writer, he said, not because of the stultifying environments of school and his small town (remarking “an oil boom. . . will teach a kid that Life’s a pretty rotten thing about as quick as anything I can think of”) but in spite of them.

“I am not criticizing those environments. . . ” Novalyne Price Ellis reported him as saying. “The fact that they were not conducive to literature and art is nothing in their disfavor. Never the less, it is no light thing to enter into a profession absolutely foreign and alien to the people among whom one’s lot is cast.”

Ironically, it was the bust of Cross Plains' short-lived oil boom that helped preserve Howard’s physical legacy. While more prosperous cities tore down or built over landmarks associated with more famous in their day Texas writers such as Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley) or Katherine Anne Porter (Pale Horse, Pale Rider), the Howard family home in Cross Plains was left standing until rescued and refurbished when the movie incarnations of Howard characters revived interest in his stories.

Drop in and marvel at the power of Howard’s imagination to transform the world, if not his little town.

Wordcraft – Summer literary events, flip-flops optional

Summer is coming up fast in Texas, and the season’s literary events are blossoming like wildflowers. Here’s a selection, starting this week with:

May 21: AuthorCon. Nearly 30 North Texas authors will gather from noon-4 p.m. in the Sachse Public Library, 3815 Sachse Rd., Building C., Sachse, TX. Representative genres include fiction for children, young adult and adult readers, and adult nonfiction. Hang out with your favorite authors and see what they have for sale in books and e-books. All purchases cash or check only. Check here for a complete list of authors and genres.

June 1-July 27: Rejebian Summer Series. Now in its 59^th year, this series of talks by book reviewers, authors, and entertainers was made possible by a gift from Vahram and Ermance Rejebian. Presentations run each Wednesday through June and July at 7 p.m. in Wesley Hall of Highland Park United Methodist Church, 3300 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas. Check here for a schedule of programs. They’re free, or add a 5:30 p.m. dinner reservation for $12 by calling 214-523-2240.

June 4-August 8: Dallas Mayor’s Summer Reading Club. This summer program helps keep kids’ reading skills sharp over the summer, but it’s also open to adults. Weekly prizes are available to young readers up to age 18, who report regular reading schedules. Adults over 18 can also participate in weekly prize drawings in any of three ways. An opening day party is scheduled for June 4 from 11 a.m. – 1p.m. at the Fretz Park Branch, 6990 Beltline Road, Dallas. Click here for details.

June 10-11: Robert E. Howard Days 2016, Cross Plains, Texas. Fans of Howard, creator of Conan and more, gather annually in the small West Texas town where the Texas author spent most of his all too brief life. Fans don’t need to register to visit Howard’s family home, now a museum, at the junction of J Street and Texas Highway 36 in Cross Plains or to swap and reminisce in the pavilion adjacent to the Howard home. However, a $15 registration fee assures visitors a place at the June 10 banquet and silent auction whose proceeds help maintain Howard’s family home. To register and view a complete list of activities, see the REH Days site.

June 24-26: Writers’ League of Texas 2016 Agents & Editors Conference. This is one of the major literary events in the state, at the Hyatt Regency, 208 Barton Springs Road in Austin. So far, more than 20 agents and editors are schedule to attend, staff numerous workshops and panels and be available for consultations. Registration is $489 through May 23. For details, including lists of agents and editors, and how to schedule conferences, see the WLT site. 

July 22-24: LexiCon Writers Convention, Hilton Garden Inn, 3110 Colorado Boulevard, Denton, TX. It’s the fifth and final year for this interactive writers’ conference whose classes and workshops include experts in a variety of fields. Cost is $100 for returning attendees, $150 for newcomers. Additional costs for the Friday night meet and greet dinner. See the site  or email info@LexiConWritersConvention.com for details.

July 22-24: Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference is the only major conference in North Texas devoted solely to nonfiction. Its home is the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center, 1800 State Highway 26, in Grapevine. Dozens of featured speakers, three agents specializing in nonfiction, panels and workshops. Registration is $425. The Mayborn also hosts writing contests in three categories: personal essay, reported narrative and book manuscript. Applications are due June 1. See the site for details, or contact writing contest coordinator Jo Ann Livingston at maybornconferenceinfo@unt.edu.  

July 29-31: ArmadilloCon, Omni Southpark Hotel, 4140 Governor’s Row, Austin. This science fiction/fantasy literary convention includes a writers’ workshop taught by a panel of professionals. Deadline for registration and story submission to the writers’ workshop is June 15. The workshop is $85 (which includes a three-day convention membership). A three-day adult membership without the workshop is $55, with special rates for children and students, and one or two day memberships. Check here for details and online registration.

(Next Tuesday: more about summer writing contests)

Wordcraft -- Writing advice from a barbarian

In her memoir of Robert E. Howard, Novalyne Price Ellis details an amazing amount of writing advice from the creator of Conan. In honor of June’s annual Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas, the closest place to a home town for him, I’ve combed the memoir and selections of his letters and stories for continuing advice from the master. Answers to the interview questions are taken verbatim from Howard’s writings or conversations, as reported by Ms. Ellis, but not always in the context that was intended.

I understand you’re a writer, Mr. Howard.
Yeah, that’s right. I write for the pulps.

How did you get started?
At the age of fifteen, having never seen a writer, a poet, a publisher or a magazine editor, and having only the vaguest ideas of procedure, I began working on the profession I had chosen.

Given your unfamiliarity of the business, how did you choose writing as a profession?
I tried a lot of other jobs and I didn’t like ‘em. I worked on a farm and that was no good at all, but clerking in a store is about the worst job you can have. So I decided the only way I could get out of working for a living was to start writing.

Isn’t writing work?
Well, not by the sweat of your brow at any rate. You can stay at home. All you have to contend with is a typewriter and it just puts down what you want it to.

Was there something in your environment that encouraged you to be a writer?
It seems to me that many writers, by virtue of environments of culture, art and education, slip into writing because of their environments. I became a writer in spite of my environments. Understand, I am not criticizing those environments. They were good, solid and worthy. The fact that they were not conducive to literature and art is nothing in their disfavor. Never the less, it is no light thing to enter into a profession absolutely foreign and alien to the people among whom one’s lot is cast.

I understand your first story appeared in a school publication. Did you enjoy school?
I hated school.

Why was that? You seem like someone who would have been a good student.
It wasn’t the work I minded. . . .What I hated was the confinement -- the clock- like regularity of everything; the regulation of my speech and actions; most of all the idea that someone considered himself or herself in authority over me, with the right to questions my actions and interfere with my thoughts.

What advice do you have for other writers?
I don’t usually give advice.

Perhaps you could at least tell us something about the way you write. For instance, when you start to write a story, do you start with a character or an idea for a plot?
(Appearing to relent) Mostly with a character, I suppose. I’ve got a character going now. . . That Conan’s the damnedest bastard I ever saw. He gets himself into all kinds of scrapes.

So, do you carry on a conversation with him, getting to know him?
I sure don’t try to give advice when he tells me all that junk. I just sit back and listen.

Speaking of listening, I’ve heard that some of your neighbors aren’t always happy about the noise when you read your stories aloud as you write. Has anyone ever complained to you?
I was out working on my car (and) while I was working, like a fool, I was talking, trying to figure out something about a yarn I was stuck on. I wasn’t talking too loud, but I got to a place where ol’ Conan was fighting, and I said, “Fool. Dog of hell. Die!” About that time, a timid little voice said, “Robert, is your mother home?”

What do you say when people ask how you come up with characters such as Conan?
(I) always say, “He’s a combination of a lot of people I have known.”. . . (But) to tell the truth, I don’t know how a man gets a character for a story, anymore than I know how he falls in love. . . I doubt any writer knows for sure where his characters come from.

At this point Howard looked pointedly at his watch and rose, impatient to return to his typewriter. But I hope to secure a promise of another interview for next Wednesday.

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(Quotations from One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis and Howard’s letters quoted in The Best of Robert E. Howard, vol. 1, published by DelRey Books.