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THANKS FOR YOUR RESPONSE TO “TEXAS DAMES: SASSY AND SAVVY WOMEN THROUGHOUT LONESTAR HISTORY.”
I had the privilege of meeting so many of you, reconnecting with friends from high school, college and across a wide spectrum of acquaintances and friends at booksignings and events around the state.
Again, thank you.
Here’s what’s happened as a result of your enthusiasm for these women’s stories:
- The publisher, The History Press of Charleston, is pleased with the response of readers to these stories of early Texas women, saying it’s nearing a second printing.
- The E-book has come out, also to good response.
- Both the print and Kindle books have been given the coveted 5-star rating at Amazon.
- Now, the publisher’s asked for another proposal, a second book on the “Texas Dames” who came later, or some of them that is.
THE BOOK TOUR IN PICTURES…
Book Tour 2012 on PhotoPeach
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Texas Dames: Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History.The History Press of Charleston South Carolina (https://www.historypress.net/. ISBN 978.1.60949.812.2) has published the collection of “Texas Dames” stories that ran in a couple of dozen community newspapers around the state. The book highlights the women whose lives, lived in uncommon times by today’s standards, nudged and sometimes yanked Texas and Texans into gentler, more enlightened ways. Without them—from the early Indian girl Angelina who greeted strangers and interpreted her Caddo language, French and Spanish for explorers and priests, to a tomboy from Port Arthur-Beaumont who set Olympic track records and then rocked the women’s golf world—Texas would not be the same. Stories come from these women as well as early pioneers, the “Old 300” of Stephen F. Austin renown, business women, doctors, educators, ministers and suffragettes. It’s a calico quilt of Texas history through the eyes and lives of women. The stories and a potpourri of pictures will show readers the grand state’s history and its high stepping women.
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In 2012’s Chicken Soup of the Soul: The Magic of Mother’s and Daughters, my essay about my mother, our relationship and her last six months appeared. Titled “Burgers and Butterflies,” I wrote this story on the deck of my sailboat, using a flashlight, a couple of months after my Mom’s death. Sailing is healing and I found writing to be also. It’s a tender story and the response has been also, such as:
A gentleman from the Sudan now living and working in Saudi Arabia wrote: “Your story might be the kiss from my father that God welcomed him in Heaven…the dawn of our loved ones has come no doubt…”
He filled my heart with his message. No kinder words for a writer than that we have touched the heart of another along life’s journey, a reader from another culture and far away.
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Whispering Spirit, an Historical Family Saga
By
Carmen Goldthwaite
FROM CHAPTER ONE
The moonless night enveloped Marseilles. Out beyond the wall, the scent of fresh-plowed dirt filled the air. Stars twinkled and danced on the velvet curtain. A hush draped the landscape until the cathedral bells tolled, tolling not for the hour, but for emergency. City streets sprang to life. Smoke clogged the district. Brigades sloshed water at a blaze, but without intensity.
In the odd silence in her home, well away from the business district, the faint tolling of the bells woke Catherine Marie DeSpain. No one moved about. No snoring. She missed the morning sounds of family and the scent of olivewood smoke drifting up the stone and wood stairwell. She shrugged off her cocoon of hand-sewn quilts and stretched on tiptoes to peer out the small, wood-framed window of her bedroom, overlooking the road to the old port of Marseilles. A lantern from a passing carriage cast shadows that jumped and twitched like puppets on a string. The light flickered and then fell dark. Shod hooves of a team of horses clattered on the cobblestone street. A loud crack like a small pistol shot followed...
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Published Anthologies
Chicken Soup of the Soul:The Magic of Mothers and Daughters
Wild Women of the Old West, Fulcrum Publishing
The Way West, Tor Publishing.
COMING IN 2013:
Mid Year, The Colonade, a literary anthology. A fictional story I wrote, “Summer’s Kiln,” inspired by assorted true experiences—yet fictionalized—will be published. “Summer’s Kiln,” takes place in Far West Texas on an old family ranch with modern political problems. “Congratulations to Carmen Goldthwaite of Fort Worth, TX and her short story titled Summer's Kiln, 2012's third quarter fiction prize winner,” read the Colonade Writing Contest announcement from CJM Books. Website:
www.cjmbooks.com
Scheduled for January/February, The Writer’s Guide to 2013 where I’ve written articles on Sentence and syntax, Creative Nonfiction and Research for the publication of The Writer’s Institute, an excellent school for writers where I’ve enjoyed a 12-year relationship. Web site: longridgewritersgroup.com/
2012 Publications: Click on the title below to go to the website:
Texas Dames: Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History
Chicken Soup of the Soul: The Magic of Mothers and Daughters
Earlier Publications: Click on the title below to go to the website:
Wild Women of the Old West
The Way West