Deep in the Heart of Texas
The GUTSHOT STRAIGHT world tour started last week with a two-stop jaunt to Texas. I can’t speak for anyone else involved, but I had a total blast.
In Austin, my wife and I experienced pharmaceutical-grade hospitality from our hosts, Steve and Sue Ellen Harrigan. Steve is one of my favorite writers (and not just because he’s my cousin), the acclaimed, best-selling author of, most recently, GATES OF THE ALAMO and CHALLENGER PARK. More importantly, he is a hardcore barbecue afficiando, so we ate not only too well but wisely. For example, before taking us to Lockhart, Texas (a small hill country town that is to barbecue what Florence is to Renaissance art), Steve prepared us with an introductory lunch at the Salt Lick outside Austin – a place he described as “world-class entry-level.”
But even better than the barbecue was getting to meet so many great people in Austin. There was Gregory Curtis, writer and longtime editor of Texas Monthly. He also happens to be a magician, and gave Joe Coover’s performance in the video book trailer a hearty thumbs-up. I also had the great good fortune to meet novelist Elizabeth Crook, who is hilarious and smart and what my great-grandmother would have called “a pistol.” And novelist James Magnuson, who directs the prestigious Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, and who talks about balancing the demands of literary vs. genre writing better than anyone I’ve met. And writer Lawrence Wright, who needs no introduction for his non-fiction, but also beat GUTSHOT STRAIGHT to Panama and wrote a dementedly funny novel a few years ago, GOD’S FAVORITE, about Manuel Noriega and the papal Nunciate.
Who else? Shit! Too many! I’ve just realized I’m going to have to leave out a bunch of wonderful people. But I have to mention Mary Lowry whose warm good spirit is contagious, and who loved the exact things about my novel that I hoped people would love. Or, wait a second – maybe she just craftily figured out what those things were and SAID she loved them, which might make me like her even more.
Janice Langlinais could not have been more terrific handling the event at the Barnes & Noble Arboretum. And my old friend, p.r. queen Lisa Lawrence, whipped up more pre-event publicity in Austin than any debut novelist could hope for. Lisa, Christine Heiger, and I have known each other since junior high, when we were all St. Eugene. I’d forgotten that the school nichname was the Eagles, but Christine remembered. Christine, on the other hand, had forgotten what “sketching” was. I remembered what it was (grabbing the back bumper of a moving car when the streets were iced over and zipping along behind it), but I’d forgotten what it was called; Lisa remembered that.
Film producer Fred Miller showed up too. I worked with Fred a year or so ago on a feature project and it was one of the best collaborative experiences I’ve ever had. Fred mentioned to me, after meeting my wife, that I sure had “married up.” That captures two of the things I like best about Fred: (1) He’s funny and (2) He’s usually right.
And I would be remiss not to mention Bobby Zirkel and Robert Reyna, friends of Steve Harrigan’s from, respectively, high school and fifth grade. Robert rode a slow bus up from San Antonio for the reading, so he gets a special award for effort (way) above and beyond.
On to Houston and Murder By The Book, which is now officially one of my favorite all-time bookstores. David Thompson and McKenna Jordan were great hosts (David also runs the acclaimed Busted Flush Press, by the way), and Kinley Paisley made sure the proceedings ran like clockwork. Despite the frigid temperatures and, as David remarked wryly, “some little football game going on tonight” (UT playing for the national championship), we still had a decent turn-out. Several members of the audience asked excellent questions about the book and were a delight to chat with after the presentation (I wish I’d thought to write down their names).
At Murder by the Book I also had the opportunity to catch up with, or meet for the first time, various members of the extended Berney family. Robert Sharp was kind enough to drag along to the event two of my first cousins once removed, college students Sissy and Robbie Sharp, who were a lot of fun to hang out with. As was, as always, another first cousin once-removed, James Harrigan, who I’m glad isn’t a writer because he would be way, way funnier than I am. He dragged along his friend Kate, who has some great ideas for a new fashion line, and who promised me – you read it here, which makes it binding – ten percent of all future profits.
But even better than the barbecue was getting to meet so many great people in Austin. There was Gregory Curtis, writer and longtime editor of Texas Monthly. He also happens to be a magician, and gave Joe Coover’s performance in the video book trailer a hearty thumbs-up. I also had the great good fortune to meet novelist Elizabeth Crook, who is hilarious and smart and what my great-grandmother would have called “a pistol.” And novelist James Magnuson, who directs the prestigious Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, and who talks about balancing the demands of literary vs. genre writing better than anyone I’ve met. And writer Lawrence Wright, who needs no introduction for his non-fiction, but also beat GUTSHOT STRAIGHT to Panama and wrote a dementedly funny novel a few years ago, GOD’S FAVORITE, about Manuel Noriega and the papal Nunciate.
Who else? Shit! Too many! I’ve just realized I’m going to have to leave out a bunch of wonderful people. But I have to mention Mary Lowry whose warm good spirit is contagious, and who loved the exact things about my novel that I hoped people would love. Or, wait a second – maybe she just craftily figured out what those things were and SAID she loved them, which might make me like her even more.
Janice Langlinais could not have been more terrific handling the event at the Barnes & Noble Arboretum. And my old friend, p.r. queen Lisa Lawrence, whipped up more pre-event publicity in Austin than any debut novelist could hope for. Lisa, Christine Heiger, and I have known each other since junior high, when we were all St. Eugene. I’d forgotten that the school nichname was the Eagles, but Christine remembered. Christine, on the other hand, had forgotten what “sketching” was. I remembered what it was (grabbing the back bumper of a moving car when the streets were iced over and zipping along behind it), but I’d forgotten what it was called; Lisa remembered that.
Film producer Fred Miller showed up too. I worked with Fred a year or so ago on a feature project and it was one of the best collaborative experiences I’ve ever had. Fred mentioned to me, after meeting my wife, that I sure had “married up.” That captures two of the things I like best about Fred: (1) He’s funny and (2) He’s usually right.
And I would be remiss not to mention Bobby Zirkel and Robert Reyna, friends of Steve Harrigan’s from, respectively, high school and fifth grade. Robert rode a slow bus up from San Antonio for the reading, so he gets a special award for effort (way) above and beyond.
On to Houston and Murder By The Book, which is now officially one of my favorite all-time bookstores. David Thompson and McKenna Jordan were great hosts (David also runs the acclaimed Busted Flush Press, by the way), and Kinley Paisley made sure the proceedings ran like clockwork. Despite the frigid temperatures and, as David remarked wryly, “some little football game going on tonight” (UT playing for the national championship), we still had a decent turn-out. Several members of the audience asked excellent questions about the book and were a delight to chat with after the presentation (I wish I’d thought to write down their names).
At Murder by the Book I also had the opportunity to catch up with, or meet for the first time, various members of the extended Berney family. Robert Sharp was kind enough to drag along to the event two of my first cousins once removed, college students Sissy and Robbie Sharp, who were a lot of fun to hang out with. As was, as always, another first cousin once-removed, James Harrigan, who I’m glad isn’t a writer because he would be way, way funnier than I am. He dragged along his friend Kate, who has some great ideas for a new fashion line, and who promised me – you read it here, which makes it binding – ten percent of all future profits.
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