Category: general

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Ovo – Cirque du Soleil

Opening set of the Cirque du Soleil show, Ovo. The audience sees a giant egg that fills the backstage area. Two tall flowers with bees sway under lights that look like hibiscus flowers.

by Kim Davis

Stand In the Traffic: A Himalayan Adoption Story by Kate Saunders shows a Kathmandu street from a high vantage point. And it displays the Sarton Prize as a finalist in the memoir category

I was invited to attend Ovo, a Cirque du Soleil show that is currently traveling around Texas. It is another instance of the cool stuff that can happen when you get to know and work with interesting people. The most important part of the publishing journey, for me, is the relationships I’ve formed. It is truly delightful to be able to meet up at conferences and events, but perhaps even more fun is spending time with you all outside of our books and our “work.” This past weekend, I had the pleasure of joining one of our 2020 authors, Katie Harris and her family. You will know her as Kate Saunders (her pseudonym), author of Stand in the Traffic: A Himalayan Adoption Story.

If you’ve read Katie’s book, you’ll know that she has a son. Her real son is called Jesse, and he’s the same guy from the book, except now he’s grown. When he was a little boy, he took a journey with his mom to Kathmandu to adopt his sister. They stayed there for a year due to unforeseen circumstances… Katie was too young, as an unmarried woman, to adopt a child, but nobody explained this to her before she arrived in Nepal. She and her amazing 6-7 year-old boy stayed in that foreign country for a year. They survived a little revolution and had some incredible experiences while they were there.

https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ovo

So, back to Cirque du Soleil!

It was a magical evening. Katie invited me (Kim) to attend one of Jesse’s shows while it’s in Texas. He is one of the Chinese pole performers. My school friend, Shelley, joined us at the last minute along with Katie’s mom, Rhonda, and Dr. Douglas Constance from the SHSU Sociology department. It was fantastic to reconnect with all those people. I didn’t know Dr. Constance before, but we laughed like old friends anyway.

And Jesse was wonderful. It’s great to finally meet this guy along with his fearless girlfriend who is a trapeze artist! Jesse is also fearless in his act as he hangs onto that pole by just his ankles, then drops to inches above the floor. Here are a few photos from the evening.

Me, Katie, Rhonda, Shelley, Jesse, and Nancy (I think!)
The whole cast taking a bow. They need 20 18-wheelers to travel with that massive set.
This is Jesse’s Crew, but I didn’t get a good still photo of the Chinese Poles. I got good video…
Nancy (?) is a trapeze artist!
This “spider” is a contortionist.
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TACW 2025

Madville showed up in force for the Texas Association of Creative Writers. It is a small conference that’s always a “feel-good” experience–even for first-timers. I laughed the whole time, because there is so much storytelling going on. It happens in the panels, of course, where attendees hear prepared work, whether poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, but the stories flow into the oral tradition when we eat and drink together. And I am really touched that so many Madville authors chose to attend the conference and read their work. Six of them showed up! And all but Steven Moore traveled a very long way to be there. The authors were Steven Moore (The Horizon Never Forgets), Dan Mendoza (Drum the Double Sun–Algoems), Earl Braggs (Obama’s Children), Goutham Rao (Electric Dreams), Bruce Overby (The Cyclone Release), and Amit Verma (A Quiver in the Purlieu, and The Ballads of Niam).

Steven is the current President of TACW, and Dan Mendoza is Vice President. They did a great job. (Previous president, Jill Patterson, is a hard act to follow, and our guys made us proud.)

Look for video of the readings on our YouTube Channel

And this is the URL for our YouTube channel where you will find the videos. We are spacing the publication of the videos out just a little bit on social media so that our audience doesn’t become overwhelmed! That means that we will continue adding videos for a little while, so bookmark the playlist and check back!

One large, messy caption…

I will try to do a mass caption here… Starting from the top left (Correct me if I’ve missed a name, please!): The new guy, whose name I forgot!, Cassy Burleson, Terry Dalrymple, Jill Patterson, Jim Sanderson, Laurie Champion, Kim Davis, and Chris Ellery. Moving clockwise, Daniel Mendoza, then Jim Sanderson, then a panel composed of authors with work in The Sowell Collection (I think!) I’m confused about who is who in this group. Below them, we see Amit Verma, Steven Moore, and Joe Haske having tacos for lunch. Then come Terry Dalrymple and Bruce Overby. Below them is the lovely view from our hotel room window of the lake at Grandbury at sunrise. Continuing clockwise, we come to Goutham Rao, then Cassy Burleson and Scott Yarbrough. The three women to the right of Cassy and Scott are Debbie Williams, Tui Snider, and Robin Carstensen. Above them in the parking lot are Earl Braggs, Steven Moore, Kim Davis, Amit Verma, and Daniel Mendoza. Above that is Earl S. Braggs, and last but not least, we have Steven Moore, his lovely and very efficient TA who’s name I have misplaced, and Amit Verma.

TACW 2025 President, Steven T. Moore,
Daniel Manuel Mendoza reading his poems from DRUM THE DOUBLE SUN: ALGOEMS. Dan is of average height, slim build, has dark shoulder-length hair and glasses with a close-trimmed beard and moustache.
Jim Sanderson reading stories at TACW 2025. He is a large man, seated. He has a bald head and glasses. His shirt is bright turquoise.
Madville authors at TACW 2025: Amit Verma and Steven T. Moore laughing with Joe Haske (a Texas Review Press author)
Sunrise in Granbury, Texas
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Spotlight on Steven T. Moore

Author Steven T. Moore sits in front of a bookshelf. He wears an open-collared shirt and tan sport coat. His smile is radiant. His skin is the color of milk chocolate. His head is clean-shaven.

It’s that time of year when authors are stirring around doing things, and Madville’s authors are no exception. We heard, this week, from Steven T. Moore about his book signing events, and he sent photos.

Steven reports that, “I sold out at the Martha’s Vineyard event and again at The Grace Museum in Abilene. (see attached photos). Arlene from Seven and One Books has been incredible, showing up to these events and selling books.”

Meet Steven T. Moore and several other Madville authors at the TACW conference.

This bit of info belongs on this Steven T. Moore post because Steven is the president of the organization this year, and we’re so happy to have him! TACW is the Texas Association of Creative Writers, and this year the gathering will be held on the campus of Tarleton State University. You can read all about it here: https://www.tacwtgroup.com/conference. Also in attendance and presenting at this conference will be several other Madville authors including: Daniel Mendoza, author of Drum the Double Sun–Algoems, he’s VP of TACW this year; Kimberly Davis, director of Madville Publishing, she’ll be reading from her own book, Trust Issues, not a Madville title; Earl S. Braggs, who will be conducting a masterclass and reading from his 2021 poetry collection, Obama’s Children, as well as his upcoming short story collection, Morning Edge of Midnight (which includes the novella, After Allyson); Goutham Rao, author of the 2025 novel, Electric Dreams; and Bruce Overby, reading from his novel The Cyclone Release.

The Horizon Never Forgets: Poems by Steven T. Moore. Bright yellow painging with a lot of texture shows a desolate road tith leaning power poles the only things in sight apart from the road which looks like it may be swallowed by sand.

Madville published Steven T. Moore’s poetry collection, The Horizon Never Forgets this spring, 2025.

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AWP25 Recap

Michael Gills with students from the University of Utah Honors college at Madville Publishing's booth for AWP25

Once again, we have Luanne Smith to thank for sponsoring our trip to the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference. As always we saw so very many friends–authors and editors with whom we have worked. Authors with whom we hope someday to work. Experts in the field with good advice, and talented new poets and writers. It didn’t seem as crowded as in years past, and there was clearly concern behind the cheery smiles and pats on the back. It’s a tough time to be trying to sell spots in creative programs. And it’s a tough time to try and make a living in publishing. We especially enjoyed connecting with fellow Texas publishers. Here are a bunch of photos. I’ll put them here and try to add the names!!!

And we missed pictures somewhere… Those who took photos with us, please share!

The Los Angeles skyline seen from the 27th floor of the Moxy downtown. Lots of tall buildings and glass. Abstract image taken during AWP25.
Michael Gills, Gabe, Jonah, Lee Zacharias, Bill Davis at the Madville booth at AWP25
Bill and Kim Davis in the lobby of the Moxy Hotel
Kim Davis, Michael Gills, Gabriel and Jonah, two students from Gills' honors class where students write a novel in a year.
Fiew of LA traffic taken from 27th floor of the Moxy downtown LA during AWP25
Kim Davis and Michael Gaspeny at AWP25
Los Angeles traffic at night.
Madville Publishing's booth for AWP25. A colorful backdrop displays the Madville Logo in white over a reproduction of a Bob Boze Bell image used for the cover of Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big West.
Sign announcing 2025 AWP Conference and Bookfair. It was in the upstairs lobby of the AC Hotel--which shared some features with The Moxy.
Kim Davis and Cat Smith complete setup at the booth for AWP25. Honkeytonk Sue, art by Bob Boze Bell stands between them.
This is an incomplete photo gallery from Madville Publishing’s AWP25 experience. There were several other authors we know we photographed… We need to connect with a couple of others who took photos. Bruce Overby? Patricia Clark? Lee Zacharias already sent hers…

We had many favorable comments about our new backdrop, and we have to admit that we got it from VistaPrint. They do amazing things quickly and inexpensively. I mention it here because some of our friends asked.