Eight Miles From Nowhere

If you are familiar with “The Last Picture Show,” either the book or the movie, you know it was written by Larry McMurtry. The same author of “Lonesome Dove.”

It was set in Anarene, Texas, although actually filmed in Archer City, Texas, where Larry had his bookstores. It is in northwest Texas, south of Wichita Falls.

Now, Anarene is long gone, remembered only by a marker and those who might have lived there. But in the days of the depression, it was where my mother-in-law lived as a child, before they were uprooted and moved to northeast Texas. She grew up without indoor plumbing, or electricity, and they had to improvise ways to keep the unrelenting dust of the “Dust Bowl” out of everything.

A few years ago, she told my wife that she had been writing her story, and a relative suggested she submit it to a publisher She didn’t think that anyone would be interested in it, but lo and behold, one that she contacted was indeed interested, and after having the contract examined by an attorney family member, she signed a deal. After a couple of false starts on the name, she settled on “Eight Miles From Nowhere,” as that accurately described her location outside what was then Anarene, Texas. But she needed a photo for the cover. And that’s where I came in.

The morning that I was at 44 Farms for the sale, and managed to get the photo of “Tripod,” my Black Angus bull buddy, I was on the lookout for something that might work. And lo and behold, there in the fog, a line of barbed wire that I had never noticed before, as most of the fencing there is metal. But I got out of the car, and got down on my knees again, and grabbed a shot of that fence line, running off to infinity. Or, at least until it disappeared in the fog.

And I am so proud to let you know that “Eight Miles From Nowhere” by Frances Thomas is available on amazon.com!

Woo-hoo, congrats, Frances!