A book, and a short story!!!

Ben English is a native of the Big Bend area, now retired and he’s written one helluva book about growing up in the region, and follows through to the present day. It’s coming out from TCU Press, the end of October. TCU Press still hasn’t decided on whether or not there will be a Kindle edition.

Click the cover to pre-order!

The blurb-

It was a time before Terlingua Ranch and chili cook-offs, and when you could drive a hundred miles without seeing another vehicle or another person.  The year was 1961, and the tides of humanity which ebbed and flowed into the lower reaches of the Big Bend were at their historical nadir.  It was a vast, empty land spotted by isolated ranch headquarters, a national park with few visitors, and the many ruins of a past shrouded in legend, lore, and improbable truths. There was no television, no daytime radio, few telephones, and very few people. 
 
Ben H. English came to the Big Bend at the age of two, the fifth of six generations of his family to call this enigmatic region home.  With his family headquartered at the old Lajitas Trading Post, he worked and lived on ranches and places now little more than forgotten dots on yellowing maps. He attended the one-room schoolhouse at Terlingua, prowled the banks of the Rio Grande, and crisscrossed the surrounding areas time and again on horseback and by foot.
 
Some fifty years later he writes about those many decades ago, as well as the history and legends of this singular land he knows so well.  Ben separates fact from fiction and brings the reader into a world that few these days can ever imagine, much less experience.  He also writes about the lower Big Bend as it is found now, and what one can still rediscover just over the next rise.  

And Tom Rogneby has a new short story up!!!

Click the cover to get it!

The blurb-

Martin Shelby, called the BoogeyMan by friend and foe, returns in “Working Vacation”, the BoogeyMan just wants to relax on the beach with his wife, but his plans change when an old friend tracks him down to call in a debt. Shelby races against the clock to find a missing client before the full weight of the world falls in on his quiet vacation.

Both great reads, one a history of SW Texas, as seen through the eyes of a 5th generation family, the other a short by a friend who is having fun with a new character!

Highly recommended!

Comments

A book, and a short story!!! — 7 Comments

  1. Big Bend country is my favorite part of Texas (with apologies to Amarillo).

  2. Hey Old NFO;

    Downloaded Tom’s newest offering, Thanks for the heads up 🙂

  3. I’ve been wanting to visit Big Bend for a while now and still haven’t made it. Your post has spurred me on!

    Thanks.

    • Fall and mid-Spring are great times to go. It’s not too hot, you get fall color and spring wild flowers, and the tourists are not too thick on the ground. Look for the desert bluebonnets – they get three feet high.