Short one this week… My book ‘s been turned into my agent (still expecting another round of revisions…but…but we’re getting close), a few kindly readers are taking a look at it, and before digging into my next WIP, I’ve been traveling for work this week through the hinterlands of Texas. I’m not a Texas native, and I’m a bit geographically challenged here, but this far corner area of SW Texas is a fascinating place – there’s a tremendous amount of history here, a lot of that early history bloody and desperate. One can’t help but feel the weight of the place while blasting over old roads listening to the Eagles. Trying to flip stations, you catch snatches of biblical sermons, rapid-fire Spanish, and a whole lot of country music. On that note, run, don’t walk, to pick up Jason Isbell’s album Southeastern. Isbell is a former member of Drive-by Truckers, and if I could write a book half as well as he writes lyrics, I’d be doing fine. He’s a helluva story teller.
One thing about all the time I’ve spent on the road this week, it’s given me plenty of time to think. I knotted and unknotted some new story ideas, and dwelled on some of the scratches and dents I still have to work out of the current book. I watched big rain storms sweep over low hills, spied the rattletrap houses set far back from the road, surrounded by a fistful of trees signaling the presence of their wells and springs, and got the occasional glimpse of a solitary cow or horse – lonesome and gaunt – staring back at me.
There’s gotta be a story in there somewhere.
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