A Keg Beats a Six Pack ... Right?

Believe it or not, that is not a shot of my rock hard abs on the cover of that book. Sure they asked me to pose, but I couldn't fit the photo shoot into my already busy schedule so they had to settle for a measly six pack when they could have had an entire keg. He's probably not even a Texan. And I'm pretty dang certain he's not from Amarillo.

But this collection of stories is all about Amarillo and three of the four authors, Jodi Thomas, Phyliss Miranda, and Dewanna Pace, are as well. And I'm proud to call them my friends. The fourth author Linda Broday hails form Wichita Falls, Texas and though I have met her, she probably wouldn't know me if I stepped on her toe.

I also know the editor for this collection, Hilary Sares, and you would have to go some to find a nicer person in the business. I have blogged about a couple of my adventures involving Hilary. If you missed those hilarious stories, check them out here and here.

Here is a shot of me and Jodi from last years Frontiers In Writing Conference here in Amarillo. For info about this years conference in June click here. Or for the associated writing contest, click here. Deadline is March 1st, 2008.


Simply put, I, would not be writing and seeking publication without Jodi Thomas and her incredible generosity and willingness to encourage new writers. I've always been an avid reader but until I met Jodi I never thought becoming a published author was an attainable goal for a good ol' boy from Texas. She encouraged fan the spark of my literary hopes and guided me in the beginning until that spark turned into an outright flame. Jodi is a New York Times best selling author and RWA Hall of Famer after winning her third Rita award.

And in the very first class I took from Jodi I met Phyliss Miranda. For a good many years, I'd guess about five in all, me and Phyliss were in critique group together. Matter of fact, her story in this very anthology is one of the things she worked on in our group. I left the group before getting to read the last of it so like all of y'all I'll have to buy a copy of Give Me A Texan to find out how things turned out for her spunky newspaper woman.

All of the stories are set in Amarillo between the years of 1888-1916. So if you are a reader of historical romance, or would like to know a bit more about Texas history, particularly about like in and around Amarillo, or you just want to help out five classy ladies (the authors along with their editor) and friends of mine, pick up a copy from your local bookstore or click here to order from Amazon. And stop by their websites Jodi Thomas, Phyliss Miranda, Dewanna Pace, and Linda Broday and tell them I sent you.

Let me leave you with a brief story about Romance novels ...

I have taken a good amount of ribbing over the years from my predominantly male coworkers for writing Women's Fiction. Then one time I was in our maintenance shop reading a romance novel. I don't remember the title or the author, but it may have been one of Jennifer Archer's. another friend and fellow Amarilloan who has many published books to her credit.

Anyway one of the guys walked in saw the cover and commenced to giving me a ration of B.S. so I looked up, stared him the eye and said, "You know I need a name for this character in my novel I'm working on. It's about this guy with an extremely small penis and it just hit me that I should name him after you."

That was the last time any of my coworkers harassed me about a book I was reading or writing.