Notes From Texas

TCU Press has just published NOTES FROM TEXAS: ON WRITING IN THE LONE STAR STATE, which includes my essay "Barbarians, Cowboys, and Private Eyes: How I Became a Texas Writer". It's supposed to be an essay about Texas's influence on my writing, but there's a fair amount of autobiography in it, too, some of it cribbed from posts I've done here about the early days of my career. The other authors included are Judy Alter, Robert Flynn, Don Graham, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Paulette Jiles, Elmer Kelton, Larry L. King, James Ward Lee, Clay Reynolds, Joyce Gibson Roach, Red Steagall, Carlton Stowers, and Frances Brannen Vick. Pretty good company, I'd say. I've glanced at the other essays and they all look interesting. I'm always fascinated when writers talk about what they write and why.