Several weeks ago I was pleased to be contacted by Sharan Zwick, owner of The Galveston Bookshop. In 2015 Sharan hosted a signing for my book, Texas Gunslingers, an Arcadia Publication. Recently Frontier Forts of Texas became my sixth title for Arcadia, and they notified Sharan. Sharan and I scheduled Saturday afternoon, August 11, from two to four o'clock, for a signing that would feature Frontier Forts, along with several other of my titles.
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| Part of the PR by the Galveston Bookstore was a poster campaign |
Sharan's associate, Paul Randall, provided me a publicity packet of PR materials that had been generated for my signing. There was a busy crowd for more than two hours, and I was especially pleased to see Beverly Phillips Davis, who was a participant in one of my Traveling European History courses from Panola College some years ago.
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| Sharan Zwick, owner of the Galveston Bookstore |
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| With Beverly Phillips Davis, a former student of mine at Panola College |
I headed back toward Carthage shortly after four o'clock, because Saturday night was the 21st Annual Classic Country Music Festival of the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage. I am a member of the TCMHoF Museum Board, and every year I provide the program copy for the new inductees. For 2018 we inducted the legendary gospel group, The Chuck Wagon Gang, and Leon Rausch, "The Voice of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys." The popular Neal McCoy kept the crowd laughing as emcee, and lovely Linda Davis of Carthage was a great hit, as always. The show already had started by the time I arrived, but I had plenty of opportunity to enjoy excellent music and a lively crowd. This was the first time the show was held in the beautiful new auditorium at Carthage High School, which comfortably seats more than 2,200.
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| Texas Country Music Hall of Fame Inductee Leon Rausch |
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| Neal McCoy kept the crowd laughing as emcee |
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| The Chuck Wagon Gang |
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| The Texas Playboys in performance at Carthage |
I warmed up for this busy Saturday a few days earlier, when I spoke to the Carthage Rotary Club on the Regulator-Moderator War, a murderous conflict which occurred in our area during the 1840s. Recently, in fact, it has been my pleasure to bring programs to Rotary Clubs in Longview and in Colleyville.
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| With the Carthage Rotary leadership |
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| The Rotary crowd gathering |
