Lone Star Legend

by Gwendolyn Zepeda

Overview

An aspiring young journalist stuck blogging for a gossip site stumbles across a story that gives new meaning to the word legendary from "master wordsmith" award-winning author, Gwendolyn Zepeda (Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, New York Times bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club).
If she can find the time, Sandy Saavedra will stop to breathe. New management has turned work upside down and her father's upcoming marriage-something he forgot to mention to Sandy-means there's no peace at home, either. But it's okay. No matter what's thrown her way, Sandy can deal. Because Sandy has a secret, and his name is Tío Jaime.

A short drive out of Austin delivers Sandy into the wide-open spaces of the Hill Country, to the front porch of grandfatherly hermit Tío Jaime. There, in the company of pepper plants, a shaggy dog, and fresh squeezed lemonade, the old man imparts down-to-earth advice. Overbearing boss? Work smarter; she'll leave you alone. Disrespectful boyfriend? Pack your bags; a real woman tolerates only a real man. His simple perspective reminds Sandy she can make her own choices-something she's been forgetting lately.

Feeling inspired, Sandy posts their chats online. But as she introduces the world to her personal Eden, her own life heads straight to hell . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446539609
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	01/25/2010
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Gwendolyn Zepeda lives in Houston, Texas. Her blog GwenWorld.com and her first book To The Last Man I Slept With and All the Jerks Like Him have been mentioned in the NY Post and Seattle Post. Zepeda is a member of Nuestra Palabra, which hosts Houston's Latino Book and Family Fesitval, the largest book festival in Texas.

For more information, please visit Gwendolyn's website at www.gwendolynzepeda.com.

Read an Excerpt

Lone Star Legend

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By Zepeda, Gwendolyn

Grand Central Publishing

Copyright © 2010 Zepeda, Gwendolyn
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780446539609

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1

Blog entry from My Modern TragiComedy, Wednesday, March 8

Here’s a little story that’s also a metaphor, or maybe a pattern in my life?

It was a sunny September afternoon, the first day of school at Lorenzo de Zavala Senior High School, East Austin, 1997, and I was on top of the world. It was my sophomore year, and yet I’d already been made Assistant Editor of The Monthly Bugle, our school paper. I was sitting at my new desk—which was actually just a table, but closer to the teacher’s desk than the table where I’d sat the day before—licking my teeth. Not only was I Assistant Editor, but I’d had my braces removed the week before, so I was literally sitting pretty. Prettier, I guess. Well—at least less nerdy-looking than before.

Aaron Lieberstat, our best boy reporter, walked up and asked me how my summer had been. I’d always thought Aaron was kind of cute, but had never spoken to him outside of academic discussions on student council elections or the merits of various brands of glue sticks.

“You got rid of your braces,” he told me, a nervous smile lighting his freckle-rimmed lips. “It’s nice. Your face is very symmetrical now.”

How romantic, I remember thinking, to be complimented by a boy who knew such big words.

From there we segued into a conversation about our plans for the paper. I was looking forward to trying some new features and formatting that would finally bring our publication into the (very late) twentieth century. Aaron was excited about a photo essay he wanted to do on the Chess Club’s annual tournament. We were in Nerd Heaven.

Ten minutes after the tardy bell rang, Mr. Jenkins, our beloved editor-slash-teacher, still hadn’t put in an appearance. My classmates and I set to work without him. Whereas other students, given that opportunity, would’ve cut class or set about destroying school property, we newspaper staff students were single-minded in our scholastic dedication.

I’d fired up my trusty IBM Selectric Word Processor and was already typing up the first draft of a story when the Assistant Principal showed up with Coach Taylor, a woman for whom a broken tibia had long ago ended the dream of a professional cheerleading career.

“Kids, I’m sorry to have to tell you that Mr. Jenkins won’t be back this year. He had some family issues and went to teach at a school in North Carolina. Coach Taylor here will be your new editor. Coach Taylor, here you go.”

His words rang in my ears, for those few moments and for the entire school year that followed. For they signaled the end of my budding success as an editrix. Coach Taylor ushered in a new era at our paper, an era filled with sports scores, jock profiles, and cheer, cheer, cheerleaders.

We entered Nerd Hell, and in junior year I switched my Newspaper elective for its distant, genetically inferior cousin, Yearbook.

It wasn’t until college that I’d attain journalistic nirvana again. As you all know, I’ve been working at a very respectable online publication since my second senior year at the University. (And no, I’m still not going to tell you which one.) But that, I fear, is about to end. We’ve just had a visit from our own Coach Taylor, and it looks like the writing’s on the wall.

Love,

Miss TragiComic Texas

Continues...

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Excerpted from Lone Star Legend by Zepeda, Gwendolyn Copyright © 2010 by Zepeda, Gwendolyn. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

"Fresh and smart"--Booklist

"Jessica's evolution from self-uncertainty to self-empowerment is amusingly charted, and Zepeda's take on the popular fascination with good luck charms, horoscopes, psychics and unreliable predictions is laced with rueful zeal."--Publishers Weekly on Houston We Have A Problema

"Reading Gwen's book was like going to a family BBQ-full of drama, juicy gossip, and lots of laughs."--Mary Castillo, 2006 on Houston We Have A Problema

"Zepeda (Houston, We Have a Problema) gives readers a funny and smart heroine that readers will easily pull for."--Publishers Weekly

"Zepeda is a master wordsmith."--Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, New York Times bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club

"Zepeda... presents a debut about the everyday struggle to find one's way but adds unusual and alluring touches, namely the vibrant Houston setting and the novel's emphasis on Tex-Mex culture, art, and folklore."--Booklist

From the Publisher

"Reading Gwen's book was like going to a family BBQ-full of drama, juicy gossip, and lots of laughs."

Mary Castillo

"Zepeda... presents a debut about the everyday struggle to find one's way but adds unusual and alluring touches, namely the vibrant Houston setting and the novel's emphasis on Tex-Mex culture, art, and folklore."

Booklist

"Zepeda is a master wordsmith."

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Private lives become fodder for public consumption in Zepeda's sendup of the blog/traditional media divide. Austin, Tex., investigative journalist Sandy Saavedra blogs for LatinoNow when Levy Media turns the hard news Web site into a cheezy entertainment Web site, Nacho Papi. Becoming a pun-writing gossipmonger is not one of her goals, but Sandy dives into her job with total OMG results: a post about the Chupacabra leads to a recurring advice column (“Ask the Chupacabra”) and a booming sideline in related merchandise. Problem is, the source of the Chupacabra craze is a little bit off, didn't sign a release form, and has a personal connection to Sandy's beloved late great aunt Linda. Then Sandy's outed as the author of her anonymous and very personal blog, My Modern TragiComedy, leading to outraged responses from those she's skewered. Internet celebrity follows, as do the inevitable office politics and romantic troubles, and though they get more stage time than warranted, Zepeda (Houston, We Have a Problema) gives readers a funny and smart heroine that readers will easily pull for, even in the dull bits. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly