Those of you who live in Ballinger have probably seen this in this week's edition of the Ballinger Ledger. Those of you who haven't may be surprised to read that that shy Glenn Smith, lurking in the back row of the recent reunion class photo is a prolific author! Here is the article:
"Local man
announces third novel to be released soon through Amazon.com. The title is Ultimate
Thirst. Authored by Glenn Smith, a
Runnels County native who graduated from Ballinger High School in 1957, the
book features a retired American Airlines pilot who travels the world if he
must to help a friend in trouble.
The first
novel in this series, titled Erotic
Resolution, appeared in 2010. The second, called Texas Tango, came out in 2012. A third book featuring Flint Rock
will be issued through the Kindle book store and also will be available in
print format from Amazon’s Create Space division. They are easy to find on Amazon.com
and are inexpensive. The Carnegie public library in Ballinger has the books as
well.
Smith spent 40
years teaching at five universities, including Iowa State in Ames, the
University of Oklahoma in Norman, and the University of Houston in Clear Lake
City. He retired in 2003 from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb after
having chaired for 10 years the largest of 46 departments in the university.
Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World listed him in 2004.
What led Dr.
Smith to start writing novels? When the Ledger asked, he said, “I had written
nonfiction for St. Martin’s in New York and Allyn and Bacon in Boston. Living in
Georgia after retiring, I had time to try something challenging. I wanted to
draw on my west Texas roots. I had skipped lunch in high school to (secretly)
take flying lessons and ended up owning four airplanes. And I’d travelled in 33
countries and lived in Latin America. I invented a character named Flint
Rock—in honor of the Comanche arrow points I found on Elm Creek where I grew up
north of Ballinger.”
“Flint was a
rifle expert in the U. S. Marines, owns his own plane, and wears cowboy boots
made by Mike Jass at a boot shop on Hutchins Avenue in Ballinger,” Smith said.
“Flint Rock has attitudes with which I identify,” he added, “because Flint grew
up in West Texas.”
The Ledger
asked Smith what brought him back to Ballinger after an absence of 50 years. His
reply: “I was living on Mansa Beach in Punta del Este, a resort town in
Uruguay. Got an email reminder from Marilyn Moragne that the Class of ‘57 was
having its 50th reunion. I flew back for that and decided to stay.
I’d seen a lot
of nice places in Latin America and the south Pacific, but there’s no place
like home. I bought a 63 year-old house on the bluff overlooking the park. In
winter, with leaves gone from trees, I can see from my back deck Hugh
Campbell’s beautiful statue celebrating Native Americans. In summer I hear kids
splashing in the pool as Waylon Jennings sings from someone’s portable radio.
Turns out I traveled a lot of miles and saw a bunch of great spots but none
better to live in than Ballinger.”
The Ledger’s
reporter asked Dr. Smith about another of his interests, namely hypnotism. He
said he initially learned (in 1957) how to hypnotize people from Dr. J. Dexter
Eoff, a Ballinger dentist who used it in lieu of anesthesia for patients who
feared needles. We pushed for more information and learned that Smith graduated
in 2003 from the National Guild of Hypnotists certification training and that
he sees clients for individual or group appointments on a limited basis. He
uses hypnosis only therapeutically, not for entertainment, and does not charge
because insurance rarely covers it.
“I used
hypnosis in the story told in Texas Tango, the second Flint Rock story,” he
told us. “In that plot, a character, a psychiatrist, hypnotizes a woman to foil
a diabolical plan and thereby saves a lot of lives.”
The Ledger
reporter asked if a fourth novel is in the works to follow Ultimate Thirst.
“Yes,” he
replied. “The fourth story is called Stolen Gold. A shipment of valuable
bullion disappears in Ballinger, and Flint gets involved in sorting out rumors
of a cave (or a network of caves) said to lie underneath the town with an
entrance on the bluff above the park. After twists and surprises, including
lies, ambushes, gunfire, and a Satanic plot, Flint and friends solve the
mystery. In the end, Flint sells his house in San Marcos and moves to
Ballinger. Because of the people there and because he likes to listen to the
bells of St. Mary’s church as he walks down Crosson Avenue for a morning stroll
in the park.”
When will
Stolen Gold be available from Amazon?
'Some time
before 2013,' Smith replied, then added, 'unless Flint Rock can’t find his way
out of the cave under Ballinger.'"
Everyone can now go online to Amazon and purchase his books! This is really good stuff happening, just like the recent 55th Class Reunion!
Peace,
Marilyn
