When the Guadalupe River rose in the dark hours of July 4, 2025, it swept away cabins, cars, and a sense of safety across Kerr County. In Deluge Before Dawn, Kerrville resident Thomas R. Fox reconstructs, through intimate interviews and firsthand reporting, the events of that fateful night, from the first rainfall through the overnight evacuation of Camp Mystic, the search that followed, the memorial services, and the long work of rebuilding.

The book follows the people most deeply affected: campers and counselors, first responders, local journalists, grieving families, and neighbors who refused to leave one another behind. The book is honest about grief, clear-eyed about “alert gaps” and  institutional failures, and asks the hard questions in the wake of the disaster.

More than a disaster narrative, Deluge Before Dawn is a record of communal remembrance and resilience. It is a tribute to those lost and a lasting account of how a Hill Country community endured unthinkable tragedy and began to rebuild.

Passion, Power, and the Price of Change

Discover the sweeping saga of ambition, family, and the American spirit in this richly layered novel set against the dramatic backdrop of wartime and postwar Texas. Follow the unforgettable journeys of Brooks and Ray Oakley, two brothers whose divergent paths take them across military frozen landscapes, bustling Austin cafes, cutthroat oil fields, and the booming postwar restaurant scene. The final book in the Oakleys saga wraps up the story that began with Little Hatchet and continued with Runners. With dynamic historical detail, razor-sharp dialogue, and a cast of complex characters, Austin Sunrise explores themes of loyalty, resilience, and reinvention. In Austin Sunrise, dreams rise over the horizon and lives are forged in fire, snow, and smoke.

Everyone knows who killed Maggie Schneider. But why?

On the morning of March 14, 1958, breeder Maggie Schneider, the Poultry Queen of Lipan County, is shot and killed while feeding her prize-winning, White Holland turkeys on her farm in south central Texas. Everyone knows who did it, but finding the killer isn’t so easy. The search uncovers a troubled family history of insanity, accidental deaths, and suicides. Was Maggie Schneider’s murder the result of a tainted bloodline, a family feud gone too far, or something more sinister?

Inspired by true events, novelist Cynthia Leal Massey weaves an intricate tale that spans the decades from the Great Depression to the crippling drought of the fifties. This is not a whodunnit. The mystery here is more profound: Why did he do it?

From the author of Little Hatchet, this gripping historical saga continues—a powerful story of resilience, family, and the price of ambition. Perfect for fans of epic generational tales and action-packed historical fiction.

Walter Oakley and his wife, Ada, used the westward expansion of America to establish themselves as model citizens in the town of Telegraph, Texas. Now, they watch in despair as their children lurch from one crisis to another — rum running, train-hopping outlaws, shattered dreams. With one child dead and another on the wrong side of the law, Walter and Ada struggle to keep their younger children on the straight and narrow. But trouble and temptation beckon as Prohibition and the Great Depression give way to the horrors of World War II. Will hope survive the chaos?

In the years after the Civil War, James Oakley moves his family to the banks of Little Hatchet Creek in New Mexico. When his little brother is kidnapped from the front porch of their cabin, 12-year-old Walter Oakley sets off in pursuit. In time, the Oakleys make their piece with the existing residents of their new neighborhood: the Mescalero Apaches, the Comanches, and the Tejanos. But new challenges await in Texas as the new century dawns. The hardships posed by the frontier pale compared with Walter’s efforts to keep his family together amid the decadence, drunkenness, and violence of Prohibition.

As the first installment in The Oakleys, Little Hatchet is a historical family saga that portrays the multigenerational struggle for survival, loosely based on the author’s kin. A tale of courage, determination, and endurance set against the unimaginable tragedies that beset the lives of Ada and Walter Oakley and their eight children.

Take flight on an inspiring journey of personal growth, resilience, and adventure—perfect for aspiring pilots, military history buffs, and anyone seeking a story of perseverance and triumph!

Aviation Therapy is a deeply personal aviation memoir—an intersection of extraordinary world events and one man’s transformation through flight. From navigating B-52 nuclear alert missions during the Cold War to wartime air refueling in Desert Storm and the Bosnian War, to flying General Tommy Franks after 9/11, Dale’s journey took him from a quiet navigator to commanding an elite squadron responsible for flying the nation’s top military leaders.

Packed with gripping firsthand accounts and invaluable life lessons, Aviation Therapy is “Chicken Soup for the Skies”—a testament to how aviation can shape character, build resilience, and inspire personal growth.

Fasten your seatbelt—your journey into the skies begins here!

In 1971, famed astronaut Alan Shepard returned from the moon and went to get a haircut. While sitting the barber’s chair in Webster, Texas, near NASA’s Mission Control, Shepard gave his longtime barber and friend, Carlos Villagomez, an autographed golf ball.During his Apollo 14 moonwalk, Shepard had conducted a world-famous demonstration of gravity by hitting a golf ball in an out-of-this-world sand trap.

Had Shepard taken a third ball to the moon? And did he give it to his barber as a token of their long friendship?The debate provides a backdrop for The Barber, The Astronaut, and the Golf Ball, a story of two extraordinary men and their lasting friendship. The book offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of America’s space program at its pinnacle and shows the ordinary people who supported one of the nation’s most monumental scientific endeavors.

Second Lives: The Journey of Brain Injury Survivors and Their Healers is written by Dr. Lilly and Diane F. Kramer. After his death in 2021, Kramer completed the book with the assistance of Lilly’s wife Joyce Stamp Lilly. This memoir weaves together Ralph Lilly’s experience with a collage of stories about his patients and their healers. After his recovery, Lilly retrained in the emerging field of behavioral neurology, which focuses on behavior, memory, cognition, and emotion after brain injury.

Mitchell will forever be known as “the father of fracking,” but he didn’t invent the drilling process; he perfected it and made it profitable, one of many varied ventures he pursued for years.

Long before his company ever fracked a well, he pioneered sustainable development by creating The Woodlands, near Houston, one of the first and most successful master-planned communities. Its focus on environmental protection and livability redefined the American suburb. This apparent contradiction between his energy interests and environmental pursuits, which his son Todd dubbed “the Mitchell Paradox”, was just one of many that defined Mitchell’s life.

Mike Capps and Chuck Hartenstein tell the stories of players who took the hard knocks road, spending their careers bouncing between the show and obscurity, never quite achieving their dreams, all for a chance to play the game they love.

“Drowning in Oil, by award-winning business writer Loren Steffy – considered by many to be the writer with the best access to the story – is an unprecedented and gripping narrative of this catastrophe and how BP’s winner-take-all business culture made it all but inevitable. Through never-before-published interviews with BP executives and employees, environmental experts, and oil industry insiders, Steffy takes us behind the scenes of 100 years of BP corporate history.”

Illegal immigration is among the most challenging and divisive issues facing America. With few changes in immigration laws since 1986, the undocumented population has swelled to an estimated 11 million.

Deconstructed unravels these economic issues and their human toll through the eyes of Houston businessman Stan Marek, who’s watched the immigration crisis unfold over 40 years. A descendant of Czech immigrants himself, Marek runs one of the largest specialty subcontracting firms in the U.S. He has seen construction work devolve from offering middle-class careers to trapping illegal immigrants in the shadows of the economy— paid in cash, without overtime or access to health care. Marek sees a burgeoning crisis for his industry, the national economy and the undocumented immigrants themselves – a crisis he has vowed to prevent.

In Deconstructed, award-winning business journalist Loren Steffy traces Marek’s own family history, intertwined with changes in immigration law for more than a century. Steffy examines the economic forces driving illegal immigration and outlines solutions that could enhance our economy, the construction business, and the lives of immigrants.