Welcome to Pairings

I'm playing favorites with books while I count down the days to the Unspoken Book Club Launch July3. Catch three+ of my favorites.

In the Lone Star State, we celebrate Texas Writers Month in May. For the final part of this series in Pairings, featuring Texas authors all month, we finish with those who are just beginning — and a few who led the way.

Diving deep into the creative evolution of a seasoned art director turned full-time author on the Hill Country Authors Podcast.

Today in Texas Writers Month, we turn to the women. When you're reading Texas authors who write about Texas, and watching films set in Texas, having a woman's point of view is in itself a whole new genre. Here are nine Texas women writers to get to know.

With so many Texas authors to applaud and read in May during Texas Writers Month, are you wondering where to start?

On This Day 90 Years Ago, the Biggest, Baddest, Blackest Dust Storm of Them All Struck the Texas Panhandle — and set the stage for the opening of my historical novel, Unspoken (A Dust Novel) ... on Black Sunday: April 14, 1935.

Nearly a century ago, the unthinkable happened: The U.S. was five years into the biggest ecological disaster we'd ever known.

UNSPOKEN shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who persevere, with themes of estrangement and upheaval that still resonate today.

In the 1930s, these women captured Texas on film—the good, the bad, and the truly ugly.

When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt met a Texas dust storm in 1939, her encounter gave me an idea for my historical novel, Unspoken

All it took in 1885 to build Houston a city library was a book club, begun by women with a desire for "intellectual culture."

Just when you get used to land, lots of land, and starry skies above, Texas shows you something else. Take a Panhandle road trip in photos.

It’s ironic many extra words writers have to cut once they hit the magic length historical novels are: 100,000 - 120,000. Cue the angst.

When you’re researching historical fiction, it would be so much easier to rev up the Time Machine. Here's how I did without time travel.

How to amp up your photos: Think in threes when you lift your camera to your eye, squint and shoot.

Let's say you're not from Texas. (Cue Lyle Lovett) But you got here quick as you could. Now you want to learn how to be a Texan. Here's how.

Looking for some unique new traditions? Here are seven ways to celebrate Christmas Texas-Style, like they do in Austin, Texas.

There are miles and miles of Texas, and you can learn a lot about what Texans love about their great state in six days on the road.

Hitting the road is part of my creative process. And I never pass by a historical marker without braking.

There’s a saying in real estate, that it’s all about location. Location. Location. Location. It’s just as true in writing historical novels.