Did new blurbs for almost all of my books and stories. What do you think?

Something mysterious goes on after hours at the San Antonio Daedalus Memorial Zoo. Myths live here. Mother Earth, for one. When the rhinos vanish, Steve the bum finds a talking dog. Maybe. Oddball whimsy combined with a puzzle: THE TAKING OF RHINOCEROS 456.

WHEN GYMKHANA SMILES, run. This young black girl’s survival depends on her dental health; yours on keeping out of her way. As her Southern Gothic horror of a family prowls the coast waiting on her transformation, no one realizes what the old man plans. And Gymkhana never wanted her boyfriend involved. Not sitting tied to that chair. Whether you like your horror stories nasty or merely scary, this one leaves your teeth on edge.

An angel of God who can’t remember his purpose. Two legendary lovers. Three strangers unite, battling one another and the ancient menace one carries unknowingly on her back into the West Texas arroyo. Their bond and covenant takes them from the flying saucers of Marfa to the vampire temptress of San Antonio, and then clear across mythical 1893 Texas to their fiery end. ARROYO–not your grandfather’s sort of western.

THE RETURN OF TRUEPENNY: a cat eats mouse tale. Insane. Daring. Resourceful. MIA since the first story, Truepenny shocks the household by returning home on the back of a kite. PawPaw envisions her caught up in string when he steps forward to save her. Big mistake. Wrong type of kite.

SAINTS & SINNERS: the voyage of a lifetime. The cruise ship Ascendant plies the waters of a pseudo-Caribbean sea. Passengers party like hell, no thoughts of the future. Great food, good friends, sex. But below decks a strange Ticktacktoe game goes on forever and ever. As heaven and hell hang in the balance, sinners play. And saints? They toss, throw, push or shove people overboard. Does anyone win?

TRUEPENNY: where the courage of a mouse earns the friendship of a cat. In a household where mice scoff at traps (but live in fear of the dog) the young mouse Truepenny emerges on a quest to expiate her family’s sins. What sins? And how can such a tiny mouse make it right? First obstacle: the family cat. This one considers eating mice one of the perks of his job. But one other deadly danger awaits.

You can find all my published stories at Amazon.com for the Kindle and Kindle apps. http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Disturb by J. A. Konrath.  Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. My Gun Has Bullets by Lee Goldberg.

 It’s official. 2012 was the last year of the Scare The Dickens Out of Us ghost story contest/fundraiser. Please don’t submit any entries in 2013 (or later). We will return them unopened.  The official web site http://clarklibraryfriends.com will remain active for the next year. All the winners are listed there.

While we enjoyed judging and running the contest, it’s time to quit. STDOOS had a good four-year run and raised $5,075 for the library, but it never grew enough to make it a totally viable contest. Basically it cost more to run and fund the contest than we ever took in from the entry fees. All that money went to the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library and was used to help fund the annual summer children’s reading program. The contest was privately funded.

We would like to thank each and every one of you who entered. The quality of your stories was very good,  and the ones that went through to the final judging were excellent. Thanks also to Romance Writers of America and Mystery Writers of America. Both organizations were generous about publicizing our contest and we received many entries from their ranks. However, most of our entries came from the writing contest sites and we want to thank every one of them. And not least, thank you regional writing groups across the United States.

Finally, thanks to our final level judges Sue Smith and Erin Pringle and Sabina Murray (first year).

Photos by Roxanne Rix. STDOOS logo by Molly Humphrey.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Taking The Highway by M.H. Mead.  The Walk by Lee Goldberg.

Photos by Roxanne Rix.  The Cowboy’s Baby at

http://amzn.com/B003UYUVZC

I haven’t had a book signing in a bookstore yet, but most weekends I’m out selling my novels at small-town festivals, art fairs, farmer’s markets, you name it. Wherever we can think of to sell a book. Except for in a bookstore. And yes, I’ve had the experience of the eyes averted people. But this is fun, selling this way. Plus I get a lot of fresh air and sunshine.

What I really like are the excuses. The most polite way to get past us is to say “I’m just looking right now. I’ll be back later.” By now I know that if I do see them later they won’t make eye contact. But that’s okay. It’s a polite way for everyone to save face.

Then you’ve got the “I don’t read fiction” people. Well, I pretty much don’t read nonfiction, so I sympathise. And we’ve even heard a couple of “I don’t know how to read” excuses that shocked us into silence. Actually, I think I said, “I’m sorry.”

Then there’s the variation on the “I’ll be back” excuse that’s “My wife (or husband) has got the money. When we catch up to each other we’ll be back.” Mostly not. My favorite so far has been, “We’re busy studying the Bible. We don’t have time to read anything else.” And I do believe that couple was sincere.

But for every one of the excuses we get people who should have walked right by us but didn’t. The cover of the book attracted them. The tone of our voices attracted them. They ask questions, they thumb through the book, and a really surprising percentage of them buy a copy.

I love it when someone reads the back of  the book copy and laughs in the right spot. One lady read the first page and laughed at the right spot. She bought the book right then. Last week another vendor came by to talk to us and said she’d seen so many people walking around with copies of my book in their hands she just had to see it for herself. Then she bought the book.

I wish we could set up in a bookstore and sell the same way, though it might not work out the way I’d want. Maybe we’d only get the averted eyes people. My sister says most people go into a bookstore these days looking for a specific work. She’s probably right.

You know of any small festival, etc., in the Central Texas area where books would be a welcome product? Let us know. We’d like to try our hand at it.

Talking To The Dead Guys is available at

http://amzn.com/B0094FBA8S   and  at Barnes & Noble for the Nook. And if you visit Lockhart, check out Logo’s and Buffalo Clover, both in downtown Lockhart.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK—The Yellow Claw by Sax Rohmer.

 The Scare The Dickens Out of Us and Junior Scare The Dickens Out of Us ghost story writing contests are done! All that’s left is the partying.

First place prize went to Tyler Miller of Cheney, WA. His submission was  “Not Dead, Not Even Past.”

Second place prize went to Natalie Romero of Corona, CA. Her story was “Lorena.”

Third place prize went to Julia Patt of Chestertown, MD. Her story was “At Glenn Dale.”

Fourth place went to Rowan Cornell-Brown of Monreal, Quebec, Canada. Her entry was “Adelaine, Esther.”

Fifth place went to Scott Richburg of Wetumpka, AL. His submission was “Seven At Any Age.”

Sixth place went to Geoffrey Brough of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK. His story was “The Archivist.”

Seventh place went to Emerson Mayes of Fisherwick, Lichfield, UK. His story was “False Awakenings.”

Eighth place went to John J. Tomashek of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His story was “Dead Letters.”

Ninth place went to Tammy Francis of Lockhart, TX. Her entry was “Mrs. Franklin’s Night Out.”

Tenth place winner was Letizia Martin of San Diego, CA. Her submission was “October On Mendonca Dr.”

We added three Honorable Mention prizes to our contest.

Our Honorable Mention winners were Michael Madigan of Arvada, CO. His story was “Colton’s Panics.”

And Martin Miron of Naples, FL. His story was “Brethren.”

And Karen Leiby Belli of Doylestown, PA. Her story was “Play With Me.”

THE JUNIOR SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US WINNERS

First place winner is Ariel Elliott of Meridian, MS. Her story was “The Ants Go Marching.”

Second place winner is Robert Van Aartsen of Farmington Hills, MI. His story was “Giving Thanks.”

Third place winner is Calamity Rose Jung-Allen of Philadelphia, PA. Her story was “Name Omitted.”

Fourth place winners are Clara Francis and Maddie Welvaert of Lockhart, TX. Their story was “Overdue Murder.”

HONORABLE MENTION goes to Samuel Kinchion of Lockhart, TX. His story was “The Green House.”

Best wishes to all our winners. Their stories were some of the best ever submitted to our contest.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK– Blood and Betrayal by Lindsay Buroker.  The Pakistani Bride by Bapsi Sidhwa.

Photos by Roxanne Rix. Scare The Dickens Out of Us logo by Molly Humphrey.

We have another website that is really called Rix Cafe Texican, and from it we promote Central Texas writers. Some are friends and neighbors, some are simply Central Texas writers we’ve heard of. They all have written good books.

Here is our neighbor Jeff Robenalt, a Lockhart schoolteacher who’s written three rip-roaring Texas historical novels and is working on several more. He really is our neighbor. I see him usually when I’m walking our dog Boo Radley and he’s riding his bike through the streets of Lockhart. Or, when we’re both at the same book signing, which is what will happen next Saturday December 1 at the Dr. Eugene Clark Library from 10-3. Come on over and say hello.

Jeff’s books are Saga of a Texas Ranger and Star Over Texas and The Bloody Frontier. You can find out more about him and his writing at http://sagaofatexasranger.com. You can buy the Kindle version his books at http://amzn.com/B0049B2DSS  http://amzn.com/B008OMVPVE  http://amzn.com/B0099VVM6M.

The link to Rix Cafe Texican is http://rixcafetexican.com. There you can see the covers of my books and stories and the books we’re promoting, plus some photos and information about the soon to be defunct Scare The Dickens Out of Us ghost story contest.

All photos by Roxanne Rix.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK–Prisoner’s Hope by David Feintuch.  The Chalk Girl by Carol O’Connell.  Afraid by Jack Kilborn.

This is The Cowboy’s Baby blog site. And also Talking To The Dead Guys. And even Arroyo. All photographs by Roxanne Rix.  The llama hasn’t figured into any of the novels yet, but the Boo dog pictured here is one of the major characters in Talking to The Dead Guys. The angel statue was used for the cover (even though it came from the Tyler, Texas cemetery and not the Lockhart, Texas one.) The wildflowers and trees properly belong in The Cowboy’s Baby scenes.

I am busy at work at sequels to Talking To The Dead Guys and The Cowboy’s Baby. Yes, two at once. Monday through Friday is Dead Guys, Saturday and Sunday belong to Baby. Both are progressing in very interesting ways.

You can find my books at Amazon.com   http://amzn.com/B0094FBA8S  http://amzn.com/B003UYUVZC    http://amzn.com/B0067NCEJ4, Barnes & Noble’s web site (especially for Nook books) http://barnesandnoble.com/c/gretchen-rix, and at Smashwords. Talking To The Dead Guys is available at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, and at Buffalo Clover in Lockhart, Texas.

I’m temporarily going back to the one hundred words a day challenge introduced by the Austin Chapter of Romance Writers of America. After all, it is what got me The Cowboy’s Baby and Arroyo written, edited, and published.  It’s nothing to snicker at. One hundred words a day translates to a full novel in a year or less.

I had more ambitious plans for myself this year than just writing one novel, but you know what they say about plans. I’ve just finished day two. It’s very hard because I’m typing with only my left hand fingers (except when I get carried away and use the right hand by mistake.) And I have to force myself to stop with just the hundred words (or thereabouts). Now I’m finished with day three. The plot progresses. Now I’ve done day four.

I fell last week and got hurt. Strangely enough, though, I’m making painful and clumsy efforts to keep writing. Seems I’ve got some stories I want to tell. It’s really hard using the mouse from the left side of the keyboard, not to mention hunt and peck typing. My injuries are minor. But I could easily let them stop me. Have a look at this instead (and read the comments). Kristine Rusch has got a lot more to say than I do. http://kriswrites.com/2012/04/25 .

You can find my novels at http://barnesandnoble.com/c/gretchen-rix for the Nook reader.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK–Dodger by Terry Pratchett. The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker.  Fidelity by Thomas Perry.  Winter Study by Dakota Barr.

Is this the end of Scare The Dickens Out of Us?

In a word, yes. The 2012 contest will be the last of it. We will make a formal announcement at the end of the year at http://clarklibraryfriends.com , but this is our first informal announcement.

Scare The Dickens Out of Us has always been primarily a fundraiser for the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library; only secondarily was it a ghost story writing contest. So, as we have never been able to raise more money than we spent running the contest (prize money, trophy money, advertising, postage, reading party), we will be calling it quits and turn to donating the money we’d have used on the contest directly to the Friends (and ultimately to the library). The Friends and the library will get more from this than they every got from the contest, only the writers will lose (and we are very sorry about that, but there are a lot more contests out there to choose from).

Rather than dwell on the negative, we’d like to address the positive. In the four years of the contest we raised $5,000.00 for the Friends. We received helpful cooperation in promoting the contest from many organizations across the country, and abroad, mostly from literary contest sites (thank you each and every one of you), regional branches of the Romance Writers of America (from which we got a couple of our winning stories), and also the regional branches of Mystery Writers of America (from which we got some really interesting stories). We also got a lot of support from many of the individual writing clubs throughout the country. We appreciate you. A very big thank you goes out to the several writers who submitted to our story contest for consecutive years. And thank you Logos of Lockhart for helping us find some of the most beautiful and unusual glass trophies available for our top winners. Of course we’d be nothing without our two great final judges Sue Smith and Erin Pringle. Thank you, ladies.

We’d like to thank each and every one of  you who entered Scare The Dickens Out of Us and Junior Scare The Dickens Out of Us. Contrary to popular legend, ninety-nine percent of the stories submitted to our contest were not crap. Only about ten percent were. The remaining eighty percent of the stories were good, and then we got about ten percent that were outstanding. It was a pleasure and honor to read your submissions. However, we did notice a marked lack of paperclips on the entries (use paperclips, guys) and far too many stories that were folded three or four times and then stuffed into an envelope meant for letters (no, don’t do that), and way too many writers thought it was just peachy keen to submit their entries the very last day of the contest.

Enough bad news. Here’s the good news. We are hard at work right now selecting the stories that will go forward to the final judges for the 2012 contest. We should have the winners at about Thanksgiving time. Emails will go out this week letting everyone know where they stand. Check http://clarklibraryfriends.com after Thanksgiving to see if the winners have been posted yet.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK—Rising Sun by Michael Crichton. Charming Blue by Kristine Grayson. Tales of a Traveller by Washington Irving. The Assassin’s Curse by Lindsay Buroker. (Actually, this is what I read between this post and the last one.)

Photo by Roxanne Rix.  Scare The Dickens Out of Us logo by Molly Humphrey.

 Good Fences

Meet Morris Payne, misanthrope, loner, agoraphobiac, and out and out the most engaging computer hacker you could ever invent.  He’s pretty much a prisoner in his own house, and he likes it that way. And he’s very much a believer in the old saw that good fences make good neighbors. He stays in his house, he wants everyone else to  stay in theirs.

Along comes a horrendous snow and ice storm. He’s only got the electricity and time to finish one vital hacking  job when he gets the rug pulled out from under him in the form of his neighbor’s cute kid who’s just done his own hacking job right up to Morris’s back door where his security system shot him full of darts. The rest of the family is out in the snow banging on his front door to let them in.

What’s a good and twisted neighbor to do? Leave them out there to freeze, to die from the poisoned darts? What a treat to read an exciting short from beginning to end in fifteen minutes. Good Fences is a prequel short story to the exciting full-length novel Fate’s Mirror.

Riding Fourth 

Too short by half!  Riding Fourth is the short story intro to M.H. Mead’s upcoming novel Taking The Highway which is excerpted after The End of the short story in question.  I wanted more (obviously), and that’s a good thing.  This story is about the sub-species of job that opens up for hitchhikers when it becomes illegal to drive the highways with less than four people in the vehicle. You can drive the side streets, take public transportation, or hire a fourth, which is a lot like picking up the day laborers you see in the convenience store parking lots as you drive early into work. Lots and lots of trust is involved, so you can pretty much guess what happened to the fourth.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK—The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  Good Fences by M.H. Mead.  Riding Fourth by M.H. Mead.