Progress plugging "Fantastic Texas"

The semi-weekly paper in Gilmer, Texas, ran my news release about "Fantastic Texas" both in its web and print edition this week. Search indications are the newpaper in Cherokee also ran it, at least on the web.

The editor of the paper in Malakoff - where I worked when I wrote "A Rocket for the Republic" - used the news release this way in his weekly column:

Truth time … a lot of journalists are frustrated fiction authors.
Lou Antonelli may not be quite as frustrated.
Lou, the former editor of The Malakoff News, has released a collection of short stories called "Fantastic Texas." He is currently the managing editor of the Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune.
Apparently, he is pretty good. He said his stories have been cited 10 times in the honorable mentions list published annually in "The Year's Best Science Fiction" from St. Martins' Press in New York City.
In the tradition of a journalist, Lou put out a press release from which I've gathered the following information:
"Fantastic Texas" is published by Fantastic Books, an imprint of Wilder Publications owned by Tir Na Nog Press, which puts out "Realms of Fantasy," the largest fantasy magazine in the United States.
All the stories in "Fantastic Texas" are set in a Texas of some kind - although in some cases it is a secret, magical or "alternate" Texas.
A large number are set in East Texas - Lou's home for many years - in places such as Malakoff and Texarkana with stays along the way in Tyler and Nacogdoches as well as mythical cities such as Pineville and Chalybeate Springs.
A web site with summaries of the stories in the collection can be found at www.fantastictexas.blogspot.com.

My efforts to entice Hastings to buy the book are probably stymied by the fact it is not a returnable book. On the positive side, Zane Melder at Edge Books says he wants to buy it; he is a regular in the dealer room at all regional conventions.