It's a mystery to me how my only child turned out to be such a wonderful writer - ten years ago my son, Rick Riordan, won both the Shamus and Anthony Awards for his first novel, Big Red Tequila, featuring Tres Navarre and starring San Antonio as the book's unique setting. Following that good news, Rick won the Edgar Award in New York for his second mystery novel, The Widower's Two-Step. There are now seven books in this popular series.

After that, Rick's writing career really took off. He's now a full-time writer with an exciting new children's series featuring Percy Jackson and the Greek gods! It's been on the New York Times best Seller List for more than 35 weeks at this point, and still going strong. Visit his website to learn more about his books and his thoughts on writing, publishing, and educating. Don't miss the links to the new project from Scholastic on Rick's blog. It's called The 39 Clues.

 Rick Riordan

"In Rick Riordan's case, believe the hype. He really is that good, one of a tiny number of authors who can consistently make me laugh out loud. With stylistic talent to burn, characters who jump, fully realized, from the page in a matter of seconds, and an enviable sense of both place and pacing, Rick Riordan's novels rock. THE LAST KING OF TEXAS proves he only gets better."

- Dennis Lehane, author of MYSTIC RIVER

 


 

 
Our family supports independent book stores, and two of the best in San Antonio are The Twig Bookstore in Alamo Heights for wonderful selection and a helpful insightful staff, and Remember The Alibi, San Antonio's unique mystery bookstore.

MUSIC AND THE MEDINA MUD BAND

Join Us for Quihi 2008!!

We hope you got to Quihi on February 4th for the Latest Inner City Benefit and the Celebration of Our 25th Anniversary!
 Quihi '05 is history - and we helped out Inner City once again!
Quihi '04 is history! What a great time!
Quihi '03 is history! Check it out!
The Medina Mud Band returned to Quihi for the 2002 Inner City Benefit and Dance on Feb. 2, 2002 - click here for the invitation for your collection! It was a great success. (requires Adobe Acrobat)


L to R: Rod Enloe, steel and lead guitar, Don Stephens, keyboard and lead guitar, Brother Dave Williams, harmonica and vocals, John Burke, drums, Lyn Belisle, vocals and occasional guitar, Bill Kurtin, lead guitar, lead vocals, Larry Adamson, bass, and Gene Dowdy, blazing fiddle.
Music has always been important to us, perhaps because our family has always loved music as much as we love books. I have played in a Country Western band myself for the last 25+ years. We are the Medina Mud Band, and we play at fund-raisers, bar mitzvahs, funerals, fiestas - we are as eclectic in our music as we are in our gigs. Most of us are teachers, professors, or plain old corporate day-job folks who thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie that the band gives us. One of our favorite gigs is our annual fund-raiser for Inner City Development. We play this gig at the Quihi Dance Hall, the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas, every year in late January or early February.

Band Album: History and Highlights

A MMB Trip to Foxfire, Fall 2001

The QUIHI 2000 Tour
The Pictures
The Invitation & T-Shirt

See pictures from the annual Medina Mud Band Farkleberry Festival at Bastrop State Park

Family Music Notes, Friends, Cats

Obviously, music is a family tradition. Rick helped pay his way through college playing in a band called Cheyenne. You can't live in South Texas and not be a fan of the music scene. Austin, just up the highway, has many good bands and places to hear the best in country, folk, blues, alternative - you name it. One of our favorite places was Threadgill's, where Champ Hood and the Threadgill Troubadours played on frequent Thursdays. Champ, and our friend, the late Walter Hyatt (along with David Ball) made up Uncle Walt's Band. They were awesome, brilliant in their rhythm and harmony. Hear their music on the  Amazon website.

Our cats, Walter and Champ (who died several years ago), were named after these guys. Lyle Lovett pays some good tribute to Walter Hyatt as well as other Texas musicians on his CD, Step Inside This House. We learned recently that Champ Hood had passed on also - he will be missed, as is his namesake. But we now have Max, who is one of the funniest cats on the face of the earth.

By the way, here's a great website if you get stuck for country lyrics - we use it a lot. Check it out - it's called COWPIE. And here's a fairly new site for Texas music info and ordering - I saw it just recently for the first time and was impressed - Lonestar Music.

The Texas Monthly website has a lot of information for everybody, natives or visitors, about Texas music and - yep, culture!

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