This is the last remaining of my original covers. All the others were updated by Streetlight Graphics. A friend who was a graphic designer did this for us from a photo my sister took. This was from our behind- the- scenes encounter with rhinos at the San Antonio Zoo, which was appropriate, since The Taking of Rhinoceros 456 was inspired by one of our other visits to this zoo, and is set at this zoo (under a fictitious name, to protect the …).

This story was about half this length originally. It also didn’t have quite the theme I ended up with here, and has a lot more characters. The change came from comments from a friend who read the original.

While I am proud of the story as it stands now, as a writer I’m going to put out a bit of advice. Only change your story if your editor insists, and even then, do so carefully.

I’m not saying my original was better, but it was certainly not what you see here.

That said, you can find this story for Kindle reading in the collection Twisted Rixter http://amzn.com/B00HQ0PH1O and as a single story at http://amzn.com/B006P10KGM. And it’s narrated by Theo Holland in the Audible version of Twisted Rixter.

And guess what? Every time I type the title The Taking Rhinoceros 456 I have to look up the spelling of rhinoceros (or trust spellcheck).

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK; His At Night by Sherry Thomas. and The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold.

This is a book written by one of my friends.

This is my weird western (a sub-genre of the horror field) ARROYO. The cover is miles different from what I envisioned, but it fits. See the flying saucer? I no longer remember why I wanted to write a weird western. For most of my reading life I’ve disliked pulp fiction (except for the Tarzan books), but sometime in the past twenty years I learned to love them.

This is my take on pulp fiction writing in the weird western genre. Action, adventure, a couple of love stories, Texas history (mostly made up), late 1800’s setting, and all the relevant monsters I could think of thrown into the mix.

One really interesting thing about this book. It is one young man’s favorite book..

A couple of years back we sold books at a pecan festival along the banks of the San Marcos River. A woman approached to talk to us. She said her son had bought ARROYO from me the previous year. I remembered him. I wondered which way this was going. She certainly hadn’t brought the book into the park with her. She smiled and told us ARROYO was her son’s favorite book and he had read it again and again and again and again. He carried it around with him.

You see, he was autistic. I didn’t say this, but I wished he’d picked a better book to love than mine. There are so many to chose from. But what a compliment. Something in ARROYO really spoke to him. I have favorite movies like that. Where there’s a perfectly spoken line, or gorgeous backgrounds, or the loveliness of an actor or actress that takes your breath away. Probably every piece of art has something that speaks to somebody, even when it doesn’t affect everyone.

So. I’ve written someone’s favorite book.

I’m honored.

You can see it here http://amzn.com/B0067NCEJ4

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK; The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas. His at Night by Sherry Thomas. Oh, Fudge by Nancy Coco.

Below is a book by one of my friends.

Those are my books up there, serving as eye candy and accompaniment to a lovely-looking tea. A very delicious-looking tea and an absolutely beautiful tea setting. And not one I planned or attended. One of my readers sent me her photos of one of her personal tea parties. And she didn’t even know how much I also love teas, as in tea with delicious little treats, but Talking to the Dead Guys and Tea With a Dead Gal are cozy mysteries I wrote about Lockhart, Texas and our dog Boo Radley. She made a good choice of books for her tea. There will be a third book in the series someday. I’ve even got the title for it.

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My favorite part of a tea party is the little sandwiches. Then the tea. The pastries are scrumptious of course, but give me the little sandwiches!

Before everyone turned housebound (covid virus strategy), my sister and I had the habit of going to almost all the tea services that were available. Big hotels in big towns sometimes have them, Las Vegas has them, New Orleans has them. Austin has two Steeping Room restaurants that are designed around the tea ceremony. Alamo Drafthouse has a monthly movie and tea. But the best by far have been the teas they have at the DeGolyer Tea Room at the Dallas Arboretum. They’re taking reservations for late Fall this year, but I’d not chance it just yet. We’ve never tried the Adolphus Hotel tea in Dallas. They will likely have a holiday tea, but aren’t open just now.

Thank you Becky Matthews Haynie for sending me your tea photos, and for using my books as props and reading material. I hope you enjoyed them.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas. Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas. Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas.

You can find all my books at https://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix. Almost all of them are also on Audible.

WHEN GYMKHANA SMILES, the short story. This is a standalone available on Kindle for 99 cents http://amzn.com/B005CWGIQ6 and in the short story collection TWISTED RIXTER http://amzn.com/B00HQ0PH1O. It’s a horror story, as you might guess from the cover.

It’s also the only story I’ve ever sold professionally to a magazine. Unfortunately, the magazine folded before it was published. I later asked for my rights back and put it in the TWISTED RIXTER collection.

One other thing. A low-budget horror film producer once considered making a film from WHEN GYMKHANA SMILES. I was so flattered, but didn’t expect it to go anywhere, which it didn’t. The story as it is would only have made the ending of the film. Something the producer realized before I did.

At the time, I thought it was the best thing I’d ever written. I’ve gotten a lot better since then. I still like the plot and the characters.

WHAT I’VE READ THIS WEEK: The Mailman by Bentley Little.

THE CIMARRON BRIDE is one of my most recent novels.I absolutely love the cover. I love the story, too. This novel proved to be the most difficult I’ve ever done, because I had to write it twice. Not edit it after I’d written it, or done a second draft. It was a total rewrite. Very little of the original remains, except for the basic plot.

I hope this is not apparent in the final product.

I’d meant to write a romance novel with a more realistic hero. What happened was that I ended up with an asshole character even I hated. Junyur Wilde had to be completely restructured. Which changed the dynamics of the story.

So, did I succeed? You tell me.

You can find it at https://amzn.com/B07GTSD421 and through Smashwords and the Nook.

WHAT I’VE READ SINCE LAST POST: Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas.

This is one of my favorite covers. It is one of the earliest, too, back before my cover artist and I weren’t as attuned as we are now. We went through many different concepts before this one. And I’ve stayed with the same company ever since–Streetlight Graphics.

Truepenny has a kernel of true story to it, unlike most of my quirky stories. It’s cute seeing a mouse in your house darting from a corner and then disappearing somewhere. It’s not cute catching mouse after mouse after mouse in mousetraps. Especially the break- their- necks type of mouse traps. We finally decided to go for the sticky trap. And that was where the basis of this story originated. The mouse we caught on our first sticky trap was not dead. Just resoundingly stuck in the glue.

What happens in the story about that particular sticky trap is what happened in real life.

Truepenny the story came about because my sister Roxanne asked me to write something about this mouse. It’s not a children’s story, although the animals talk. And it’s a story I’m very proud of.

You can read it here http://amzn.com/B007181Y0Y or here http://amzn.com/B00HQ0PH1O or you can listen to it here http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Twisted-Rixter-Audiobook/B01MDNU438

WHAT I’VE READ SINCE LAST POST: The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas. The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas.

The picture is the cover for one of my early short stories, published in Kindle format, and also available in the collection Twisted Rixter. Streetlight Graphics designed it, with help from me. I wrote the story, “Saints & Sinners,” in the car while my sister drove us down to Galveston for our first big cruise (we’d previously done a Barefoot Cruise on a sailing ship, a completely different experience). I wrote the rest of the story while sitting on the main deck, hanging out in the bar, sitting in the library all by myself, etc. It was a great experience, and since this was pre-laptop, all of it was written by hand. I still have the writing tablet with the original story in it. What else I remember of this experience was that it was fun writing in different locations, but it was also difficult. And truth be told, I always felt like I was broadcasting “Look at me! Writer writing!”

WHAT I READ SINCE LAST POST: Shortcake by Lucy Watson. Along Came A Spider by James Patterson.

I never say anything more here about my reading list. Today’s an exception. Shortcake by Lucy Watson is the funniest romance novel I’ve ever read, and it’s completely romantic as well.

You can read my recent stories on our website http://rixcafetexican.com. Look for it under the news tab.

Random photos.

 It’s early in the month of May. We live in Central Texas. The state has just been released from its Stay-At-Home edict, and you can tell. Lots more people everywhere. Not going to comment on that except to say that we have ordered masks and gloves for ourselves.

WHAT I’VE READ SINCE LAST POST (and I might have left some off):  PERSEPOLIS RISING by James S.A. Corey. STAY by Catherine Ryan Hyde. TWENTY-EIGHT WISHES by Denise Grover Swank. GATE QUEST by Lindsay Buroker. DROWNED UNDER by Wendall Thomas. THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins.

I’ve done a lot of reading. Am watching TRUE BLOOD on HBO, and cringing at most of the sex scenes, but I want to get into the “Eric falls in love with Sookie” episodes. Originally gave up after season two, I think, which is where I am at now.

Enjoying the series ALL RISE and TOMMY. Still watching (and enjoying) SURVIVOR.

Am working on a short story for a pod cast. Have put BROWN, a mystery novel into the queue for an Audible version. Slated to start work on it in June. Saw fireflies in the back yard this week. Haven’t seen fireflies since I was a teenager!