So I received word yesterday that the Texas Book Festival has declined to accept
Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse as an official selection of this year's event. What this means is that I will not be participating in any of the scheduled panels, nor will my book be mentioned in any of the official materials. I'll be honest, I'm not terribly happy about this turn of events. Turns out I'm not alone in this, though, either--the excellent
Texas Jailhouse Music by Caroline Gnagy also received the official snub. Seems as if the best way to improve one's chances of making the cut is to 1) not be from Texas and 2) not write about Texas.
That doesn't mean I won't be at the Texas Book Festival entirely, however.
Arcadia/History Press will have a booth there, and I'll be there signing copies both Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 5-6). Nothing like crashing the party, eh?
Fortunately, the universe has intervened to lift my spirits somewhat. Yesterday, I received an unexpected phone call from Oliver Kitzman. For those of you who've read the book already, you'll recognize the name. He said some very kind things about my book, and for that I am grateful. I also received--again, unexpectedly--the above letter from former Texas Lt. Governor Bill Hobby. He didn't
have to do that. He didn't
have to agree to an interview with me several years ago. And he darn sure didn't
have to give me a pull-quote to help promote the book. But he did, and that's why Bill Hobby will forever remain a class act as far as I'm concerned.
In other news,
this week is a busy one. Starting tomorrow, I'll be at the
Theatre Company in Bryan/College Station for their production of (what else?) "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," signing books and answering questions about the historical Chicken Ranch. Showtimes are 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, August 13, and 2 p.m. Sunday, August 14. Monday, August 15 brings me to the legendary
BookPeople for a 7 p.m. signing in Austin. On Thursday, August 18, I'm at the
Nesbitt Memorial Library for a 7 p.m. signing and discussion. Friday, August 19 brings me back to San Antonio for a signing at
The Twig book store. Then August 20 is the big
Book Release Party at Casa de Blaschke, and Tuesday, August 23 sees me back in Houston for a 7 p.m. signing at
Brazos Bookstore. Whew! That's a
lot of events! The crazy thing is that I've got a bunch more coming up, although none, I believe, packed so tightly into one stretch of days.
Finally, Arcadia/History Press has taken my book and packaged it with several other recent Texas history titles to run an in-house promotion. Visitors to the publishers' website are greeted with this. How cool is that? And if you have interest in Texas history, check out these books--I used several of them as reference material in my own work, and they're pretty darn engrossing reads.
Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse is now available from both
Amazon.com and
BarnesAndNoble.com. It's also available as an ebook in the following formats:
Kindle,
Nook,
Google Play,
iBooks and
Kobo.
Title: Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse
Author: Jayme Lynn Blaschke
ISBN: 978.1.46713.563.4
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