The Texana Review - Podcasts

A chat with Don Griffis about his "Eagle Days"

(Originally produced for the San Angelo Review which merged with The Texana Review in March 2008)

Don Griffis is a lawyer in San Angelo. As a matter of fact, he grew up in San Angelo, went to public schools in the city and married the girl down the street.

He went off to college and learned to be a lawyer – a good one. He’s a partner with the Jackson Walker law firm.

He’s also been active in the San Angelo community, offering his time and effort with organizations ranging from the YMCA to the Boy Scouts.  He contributed his leadership talent on the San Angelo City Council and the Concho Valley Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council.

Mr. Griffis is a Vietnam veteran. He was a Marine who wore two hats – one as a Legal Officer, the other as an Infantry Officer.

While many served in Vietnam, only a few have written about their experiences.  Don Griffis is one of those.

His book is titled “Eagle Days,” and he agreed to talk with me about it and a little about himself.

Listen...

18:30 minutes

Music by Brian Drotar under Creative Commons license

More about Don Griffis HERE

buy "Eagle Days" at your local book store or at Amazon.com HERE

 

Technorati Tags: Texana Review,Ed Blackburn,San Angelo,Texas,San Angelo Review

Elmer and Anni Kelton - A Love Story: Part One

Elmer Kelton was a young man when he was in Austria at the end of World War Two. He was barely 20 years old. He was in the infantry and was helping to clean up the mess Hitler and his henchmen had made across Europe in that sad part of the 20^th century.

Anni Lipp was a slight Austrian girl wandering down to the boat dock in her town of Ebensee to check the boat schedule for her parents, who wanted to cross the lake the next morning.

Attracted to this girl and overcoming his natural west Texas shyness, young Elmer Kelton made his quantum leap and engaged the young woman in conversation. He spoke English and broken German. Anni spoke German and learned her American English in west Texas.

She testifies that when Elmer started talking, she had no idea what he was talking about.

I shoved a microphone in their direction and turned on my recorder in the dining room of their home and asked a few questions.

What you hear next is a series of Elmer’s and Anni’s comments on how they met, courted, married and raised a family in San Angelo, Texas.

 

Listen...

17:34 minutes

Music by Barry McCabe under Creative Commons License

Find Elmer Kelton's Books at your local bookstore or Amazon.com HERE

 

Technorati Tags: Literature,western literature,Texana Review,Ed Blackburn,Elmer Kelton,Spur Award Winner,Western Heritage Award,Texas

Texas Macabre - a bizarre history of a Texas hero. An interview with author Stephen L. Hardin

I’d been invited to visit the Buffalo Gap Historic Village by David Gibson, the podcast historian in Abilene, and new-found friend in New Media.

I met David outside the building where we agreed to meet, and he immediately took me inside to meet Dr. Stephen L. Hardin, professor of history at Victoria College in Victoria, Texas and board member of the McWhinney Foundation.

Several years ago, Dr. Hardin wrote a book titled Texian Illiad, which has sold modestly but which has helped establish his reputation as a new Texas historian.

He has a new book out now, titled Texian Macabre, which we visited about while we were together and which presents an incredible picture of an individual by the name of David James Jones, who is cast against a background of not only early Texas but also a budding burg called Houston.

No, not a novel.  It's Texas history by Stephen L. Hardin.

Sounds like a good story to me.

You should listen to our chat…

Listen...

20:00 minutes

Music by Markovich under Creative Commons License Podshow Podsafe Music Network

Buy Texian Macabre HERE

Technorati Tags: Texana Review, Ed Blackburn, Books, history, Texas, Stephen Hardin

An interview with best-selling author, Karleen Koen

It was a serendipitous meeting. I was in the process of moving myself out of Houston to San Angelo when my friend, Larry Thomas, the 2008 Texas State Poet Laureate, insisted that I join him for coffee at Starbucks before I left.

I arrived a few minutes later than the agreed-upon meeting time (I was born two weeks late and seem to run that way most of the time) and found Larry in animated conversation with this woman who looked familiar for some reason or another.

“Ed, I’d like to introduce you to Karleen Koen, my friend and neighbor,” Larry said, emerging out of his little Starbucks chair, only as Larry can do.

Karleen and I shook hands and visited as I tried to add enough sugar to my over-priced coffee to satisfy my taste.

Why Karleen looked familiar is because she is a best-selling author, most famous for her first novel, “Through a Glass Darkly.” While it’s not a book I have read, I was aware of it because I’m always curious about books and spend as much time as I will allow myself in bookstores. Of course, her picture had been everywhere for “Through a Glass Darkly.” 

Ms. Koen has written two other novels since her first and is about to publish her fourth and from the sound of it, promises to be another good one.

This is a wonderful interview with best-selling author Karleen Koen.

Listen...

22:00 minutes

Music by Brian Turner under Creative Commons License Podshow Podsafe Music Network

Find out more about Karleen Koen HERE

Technorati Tags: Texana Review, Ed Blackburn, Literature, Texas, Karleen Koen

Interview with Elmer Kelton, Part 5

To support his love of writing, Elmer Kelton worked as a newspaperman in San Angelo for years starting at the San Angelo Standard-Times, then Sheep & Goat Raiser Magazine for a while, and finally at The Livestock Weekly for 22 years.

Mr. Kelton talks about coming to San Angelo as a University of Texas graduate to go to work for the Standard-Times; how, as a young reporter, he learned how to use a flash on his reporter's camera; the Screw-worm eradication program of the Sixties; Billie Sol Estes and more.

Join us as we continue to chat about Mr. Kelton's experiences.

Listen... 15:30 minutes Music by Barry McCabe under Creative Commons License Sponsored by

Buy from Amazon.com Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer For more information on Elmer Kelton Elmer Kelton website

Technorati Tags: Literature, western literature, Texana Review, Ed Blackburn, Elmer Kelton, Spur Award Winner, Western Heritage Award, Sandhills Boy, Texas

Poet Laureate Larry Thomas profiled by KTRK

(Click once to activate, again to play. Double click on screen to enlarge)

Houston ABC's TV station KTRK reporter Katisha Cosley caught up with Larry Thomas in June and brought in this report on the 2008 Texas State Poet Laureate, Larry Thomas.

Technorati Tags: Texana Review, Texas, Literature, Texas State Poet Laureate, Larry Thomas, Ed Blackburn

Interview with Elmer Kelton, Part 4

I've been reading Mr. Kelton's memoirs, Sandhills Boy:The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer, and find that his conversations with me reflect much of what he has already written in Sandhills Boy, I guess because I ask questions that make it easy for him to pull upon the memories, the rich descriptions and the way he wrote them in his book.

Every now and then though, I manage to ask a question where the answer isn't in the book (I think; I haven't finished it yet).  I smile to myself inwardly.

Methinks Mr. Kelton is a wise old fox!

Listen, as we talk some more....

Listen... 21:15 minutes Music by Barry McCabe under Creative Commons License Sponsored by

Buy from Amazon.com Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer For more information on Elmer Kelton: Elmer Kelton website

Technorati Tags: Literature, western literature, Texana Review, Texas, Ed Blackburn, Elmer Kelton, Spur Award Winner, Western Heritage Award, Sandhills Boy

Interview with Elmer Kelton - Part Three

(Podcast)
Elmer Kelton kept his promise and allowed me to visit him again in his San Angelo home for another interview.  So, as his wife Annie sat quietly nearby, I set up a makeshift studio with portable recording equipment on Mr. Kelton's dining table and we dove into more than an hour of conversation.

I had forewarned Mr. Kelton I wanted to record some of his memories from his early years in Andrews County.  So, we talked about that and a bunch of other things; enough for three more podcasts which you'll find posted here over the next two weeks.

Mr. Kelton has recently published another book.  This one is his memoirs.  It's titled "Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer."  You can get it at your bookstore, or order it here (see below).

I'm calling this Part Three because of the two part interview preceding this one (see earlier podcasts from May 14).  In this part, Mr. Kelton remembers: being horseback frequently helping out his father with ranch work; the first home he remembered as a three-year-old child with no electricity or running water; how his mother taught him to read at an early age and that he practiced by reading the labels on cartons and tin cans in the pantry; how important water was to everyone; the only air conditioning was at the movie house; and how things changed when his family moved to the ranch headquarters compound.

Listen... 21:15 minutes Music by Barry McCabe under Creative Commons License Sponsored by

Buy from Amazon.com Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer For more information on Elmer Kelton: Elmer Kelton website

Technorati Tags: Literature, western literature, Texana Review, Texas, Ed Blackburn, Elmer Kelton, Spur Award Winner, Western Heritage Award, Time It Never Rained

Interview with Elmer Kelton - Part Two

(Podcast)
Welcome to the second part of my interview with western author, Elmer Kelton.

In this part, Mr. Kelton continues with his views on writing, Texas history and some of the pressing challenges facing Texas as he sees it.

(in two parts; this is Part Two)

Play and/or download HERE

Or click HERE to use media player

17:58 minutes

For more information on Elmer Kelton:

Elmer Kelton website

Music by Barry McCabe under Creative Commons License

Interview with Elmer Kelton - Part One

(Podcast)
Elmer Kelton is a western author.  More than that, he's a famous western author.  And even better than that, he's a famous WEST TEXAS western author.

Elmer Kelton writes western novels, and most of those novels happen in Texas.  Most have Texas history entwined in their story lines, which is good; because the history of Texas is a rich (if not always proper) history, and needs to be remembered.  And there's so much of it.

As a newspaperman in San Angelo, Elmer Kelton had only his weekends and late nights to write his fiction.  He admits that his newspaper duties aided and abetted his fiction writing, and after the fiction became successful, his fiction writing returned the favor his newspaper efforts.

Now, after 46 novels, who knows how many non-fiction writings, and accolades from peers and educators, Mr. Kelton, who's retired, is writing another book ...or two.

Listen as we chat in his home, which he and Ann, his wife of more than fifty years, invited me into... 

(in two parts; this is Part One)

Play and/or download HERE

Or click HERE to use media player

16:26 minutes

For more information on Elmer Kelton:

Elmer Kelton website

Music by Barry McCabe under Creative Commons License

 

Selected books by Elmer Kelton