Mackey Murdock grew up on a stock farm sandwiched between four of Texas' larger ranches. In tune to the rhythm of horses, livestock, and the people who nurse them, his writing echoes that early beat. Later, he served in the Korean War, taught school, and spent thirty-three years in industrial management. Sitting down wind from too-early retirement gave him an opportunity to realize a desire to bring to life, in fiction and nonfiction, America's Western heritage, and he started writing. Now that, too, reaches career proportions. He is an active member of Western Writers of America, DFW Writer's Workshop, and lives with his wife, Joanne, in Plano, Texas.

Longhorn Creek Press published his first novel, CHUTE #3, in October 2002. FIVE STAR WESTERNS, an imprint of Thomson/Gale Group, published his second novel, BLOOD FOR BROTHER, in hardback on January 20, 2005. Leisure Books bought rights to, and published, BLOOD FOR BROTHER in mass-market paperback in March of 2006. FIVE STAR PUBLISHING has WAR RELIC, another western novel written by Mackey, scheduled for release in July, 2007. HIGH PLAINS FURIES, the sequel to BLOOD FOR BROTHER, is currently nearing completion on his computer's hard drive. A third book to finish the trilogy of these characters has been requested.

Contact Mackey Murdock at e-mail: brazos03@sbcglobal.net

PUBLISHED BOOKS: By Mackey Murdock

FICTION

Title: BLOOD FOR BROTHER, A Bonnet for Bess

Publisher: FIVE STAR WESTERN of the Thomson/Gale Group Date: January 20, 2005 (Hardback, $25.95) Represented by: Golden West Literary Agency. Available through major distributors.
Date: March-2006, Mass-Market Paperback- Dorchester Publishing (Leisure Westerns) $5.99.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Civil War veteran, Rawls Slaton, struggles with his love for a misused, and ultimately widowed sister-in-law, Bess, while finding his self imposed sentence of celibacy severe, even for a man who gunned down his own brother.
COVER STATEMENT: Upon returning from the Civil War to a barren Texas and a pregnant sister-in-law, Rawls delivers the baby, sobers up his brother and begins a thousand-mile odyssey to find a market for Texas cattle. A present for Bess is a bonus. With his brother's blood on his hands and guilt in his heart, he still must fight the widow's drift toward the outstretched arms of a circuit-riding parson.

Title: CHUTE NUMBER THREE - Mainstream Novel

Published by: Longhorn Creek Press
Date: September - 2002.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Guthrie Sawyer, Vietnam veteran and 1970's rodeo cowboy, receives inspiration from the physically challenged son of an old high school flame while clearing prior generation's stubble to sow his own wild oats.
COVER STATEMENT: The guns of Vet Nam echo in the distance. Drought sears West Texas while pesky mesquites sprout in horse apples and spiral their roots into hardpan in rhythm with thirty-year-old gossip -- gossip that drifts in the dust of small-town Main Street behind whirlwinds of backyard whispers. Guthrie Sawyer is home.

NONFICTION

Title: TEXAS VETERANS REMEMBER KOREA -- THE FORGOTTEN WAR.

Published by: The Republic of Texas Press (Nonfiction)
Date: March - 2002.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A tribute to, and oral history by, Korean War Veterans.
COVER STATEMENT: Experiences of war and its aftermath, seasoned by time and shared by veterans of the Korean War in informal bull-secession settings. Received a favorable review by The Professional Association of the Library of Congress.

Title: THE LAST OF THE OLD-TIME TEXANS. (Nonfiction)

Published by: The Republic of Texas Press an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
Date: June-2000
Performance: Into second printing in record time - selected for Western Writers of America 2000 Spur Awards Contest and the CARR P. COLLINS AWARD, of The Texas Institute of Letters Center of Studies of the Southwest.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Life experiences of, a tribute to, and an oral history of later Texans, called by others the Greatest Generation.

JULY MEETING

Rie Sheridan was the July speaker.  She gave us some very good information and web links on submitting, marketing, and networking.  I am recreating her list below, adding a few links she forgot to put on her sheets (some of the links are at the bottom of our monthly newsletter).

Markets        Ralan http://www.ralan.com
Promo Items    Overnight Prints http://www.overnightprints.com
               CafePress http://www.cafepress.com
               Vista Print http://www.vistaprint.com  Free business if you keep their logo on the back of you card.
               Ribbons Galore http://www.ribbonsgalore.com/index.asp
               National Pen http://nationalpen.com/
               Oriental Trading http://www.orientaltrading.com/
               123 Stickers http://www.123stickers.com/
Web Hosting    Go Daddy http://www.godaddy.com/
               AngelFire http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/
               Bravenet http://bravenet.com/
               Tripod http://www.tripod.lycos.com/
               GeoCities http://geocities.yahoo.com/join/
               FreeServers http://www.freeservers.com/
Networking     Authors Den http://www.authorsden.com
               The Eternal Night http://www.eternalnight.co.uk/
Writers Info   Preditors and Editors http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/
Newsgroups     Reviewer's Choice http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReviewersChoice/  

CONFERENCES, CONVENTIONS, WORKSHOPS, and CONTESTS

First Annual North Texas Book Festival Book Awards

The 2007 Awards will be presented in the following categories:
• Children’s Book of the Year – The book can be either a fully illustrated picture book or a chapter book, illustrated or not.
• General Trade Book of the Year – The book can be fiction or non-fiction, illustrated or not, of any genre, intended for young adult through adult readers.

Who May Enter
Authors who have subsidized the cost of publishing their own books, whether produced by traditional printing methods or digitally by print-on-demand, may submit their books for the competition. Independent publishers (publishers who produce 5 or fewer titles per year, with an initial press run of 5000 1000 copies or less) may submit books on behalf of their authors. For the inaugural 2007 Award, we are inviting books that have been published in any year. For subsequent Awards, books submitted must have been published, or carry a copyright date, no earlier than three two years prior to the year of the award; i.e., for the 2008 Awards, books must have been produced no earlier than 2005.
Participation in the North Texas Book Festival and/or Book Trails Dinner is not required to enter the competition; however, if chosen as a finalist, authors will be asked to provide books to display and sell at the Festival if they cannot attend in person.
Members of the board of directors of the North Texas Book Festival, Inc. and their family members are ineligible to enter until the year after the member’s term on the board ends.

How to Enter
Authors or publishers may submit for consideration a total of two (2) titles in one or both categories. Submit two (2) copies of each title entered. Affix a copy of the completed entry label to the inside cover of each book. Enclose with the books the completed top of the entry form and a check for the total entry fee(s) made payable to North Texas Book Festival (or credit card billing information) to:
North Texas Book Festival Book Awards
P.O. Box 455
Argyle, TX 76226
All copies of books submitted for consideration become the property of the North Texas Book Festival, Inc., and will not be returned.

Deadline for Entry
Because of the time required for thorough reading and thoughtful judging, submissions may be made beginning June 1, 2006; all entries must be received by December 31, 2006. Please mail your books in time to arrive by this date (and the sooner, the better). Submissions received after the deadline will be returned unopened. Finalists will be notified by March 15, 2007.

Click here for entry form.

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CONVENTIONS

Convention                   Month    Place                    URL             

AggieCon                 March   Bryan, TX        http://aggiecon.tamu.edu/
Dreamin' in Dallas April Dallas, TX               http://www.dallasromanceauthors.com/conferences/
ApolloCon                June    Houston, TX      http://www.apollocon.org/
ConDFW                   June    Dallas, TX       http://www.condfw.org/
ConMisterio              July    Austin, TX       http://www.conmisterio.org/
Conestoga                July    Tulsa, OK        http://www.sftulsa.org/conestoga/
Armadillo Con            August  Austin, TX       http://www.fact.org/dillo/
Mythcon                  August  Norman, OK       http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html
Bubonicon                August  Albuquerque, NM  http://bubonicon.home.att.net/
Fencon                   Sept    Dallas, TX       http://www.fencon.org/
     A comprehensive list of other conventions    http://www.fencon.org/links.html#calendar
World Fantasy Con        Nov     Austin, TX       http://www.fact.org/wfc2006/  

On-Line Writers resources