Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country. Tom Fox interviews Texas educator and longtime coach Heath Hamrick about his books, including Worse Than You Think and Play Like He Would.

Hamrick describes growing up in a multigenerational Texas coaching family and moving across the state and explains how Play Like He Would was shaped by witnessing his father coach and by a small-town tragedy in which a player, Jason Yancey, died on the field from an undetected enlarged heart. He contrasts his emotions then and now as a father, discusses coaches as surrogate fathers or big brothers who lead through care rather than yelling, and reflects on educators who change lives by sparking interest and truly seeing students. He argues real-life “how we move forward” stories matter more than Hollywood endings, defines legacy as lasting impact on students, and praises Stoney Creek Publishing’s support while describing revisiting decades-old drafts with a new perspective.

Key highlights:

Resources: 

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Tom Fox interviews author Phil Oakley about Austin Sunrise, the third book in his trilogy, set from the end of World War II through major American turning points, including the Kennedy assassination.

Oakley discusses how the story evolved as the characters—brothers Brooks (based on his uncle) and Ray (based on his father)—grew, influenced in part by editor Loren Steffy. He explains how WWII-era social, political, and technological shifts (GI Bill, government expansion, early desegregation) shaped Texas, highlighting Brooks’ vantage point through his Austin restaurant near the Capitol and UT’s Balcones Research Center. The conversation contrasts small-town, politically intimate Austin with fast-changing, money-driven Houston, including Houston’s distinctive 1960s race relations and global energy-worker influence. Oakley also details the release of the book in hardback, ebook, and audiobook (narrated by James Huff) and praises Stoney Creek Publishing’s role in refining the series.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Phil Oakley on Stoney Creek Publishing

Austin Sunrise

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country. Host Tom Fox welcomes Arthur “Tim” Garson, Jr., on the Hill Country Authors podcast about his book, Five Thousand Years of Controversies: A Family’s Journey Through World History.

Garson’s book is a 50-chapter, fact-heavy world history told through fictionalized dinner conversations in which a mother teaches two children, and each chapter ends with an argument between the father and uncle over a historical controversy. Garson, a pediatric cardiologist and former University of Virginia provost, was inspired by a university discussion about AI and what educated people should know, realized he lacked knowledge of world history, and spent about five years researching, including reading roughly 500 books. He wrote the book for high school students, parents, and non-history readers, with independent chapters and hopes for classroom debates and curriculum use.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Tim Garson on Stoney Creek Publishing

Five Thousand Years of Controversies

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country.  Host Tom Fox welcomes journalist and author Carol Williams to discuss her career as a foreign correspondent and her historical fiction trilogy beginning with Dispatches from Moscow.

Carol recounts reporting for the Associated Press in the 1980s as Gorbachev pursued reforms and arms control, describing a “missed opportunity” for deeper U.S.-Soviet collaboration amid debates over Reagan’s Star Wars and the INF agreement, and noting Margaret Thatcher’s early support for engaging Gorbachev. She covers subsequent assignments in West Germany before the Berlin Wall fell, the Eastern European revolutions, and the Yugoslav wars, later returning to Moscow for the LA Times. Carol explains why she chose fiction over memoir, her “pantser” writing style, and how real reporting experiences inform plot. She outlines the trilogy’s phases: Moscow reforms, Berlin’s fall (Dispatches from Berlin: Walls and Secrets), and the Balkan wars (Dispatches from Sarajevo).

Key highlights:

Resources:

Carol Williams on Stoney Creek Publishing

Dispatches from Moscow

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Welcome to a new season of award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write up the Texas Hill Country.  Host Tom Fox welcomes Texas lawyer and author JoDee Neil about her practice representing survivors, including in employment conflicts and cases involving children, and her book Outcry Witness.  

Neil explains the legal meaning of “outcry witness” is the first adult a child tells about abuse. Neil distinguishes it from workplace bystanders who may be called to testify. She describes writing the book after documenting her own sexual assault experiences, where she was supported by Stony Creek Publishing, and connects survivor “freeze” to trauma research showing healing often begins when survivors disclose to a safe witness. Neil cites CDC data from late 2025, on the prevalence of sexual violence and discusses how Me Too, the Epstein files, and other high-profile cases can increase awareness and help survivors identify safe outcry witnesses. She outlines guidance for parents and notes persistent bias against “disposable children,” trafficking risks, and court-system capacity failures that undermine timely justice. 

Key Highlights 

·      Why She Wrote Outcry Witness

·      Survivor Freeze and Silence

·      Bystanders and Outcry Witness

·      Choosing a Safe Outcry Witness

·      Talking to Kids and Parents

·      Where to Find Jody and Closing

 Resources

JoDee Neil on Stoney Creek Publishing

Outcry Witness

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country.  Host Tom Fox welcomes author Margie Seaman to discuss reinvention, resilience, and her writing career that began at age 84 after a 40-year marketing and training career at Foley’s Department Stores, starting in 1968.

Margie discusses her romance novel series, including Someday Belongs to Us and Someday Is Our Horizon, a “book within a book” featuring a 72-year-old writer protagonist and an 18th-century pirate storyline, set against a Panama Canal cruise narrative, emphasizing researched historical facts and humor while keeping the content family-appropriate. She describes overcoming fear through age-based confidence, her nocturnal, movie-like writing process, and her commitment to continuous learning and technology, including AI as a tool without emotion or “soul.” She reflects on Foley’s cultural and civic impact in Houston, retail changes after mergers, and her collaboration with publisher Loren Steffy at Stoney Creek Publishing. Margie also previews a forthcoming AI-themed novel and shares where to find her work online.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Margie Seaman on Stoney Creek Publishing

Someday is Our Horizon

Someday Belongs To Us

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country.  Host Tom Fox welcomes back Teddy Jones to talk about her new book,  Far from Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds.

Teddy’s book is inspired by a woman found near death in a ditch in Jones’s prior book, A Family of Good Women. She explains Borger’s 1926 oil boom, which led to lawlessness (gambling, illegal liquor, prostitution), entrenched corruption, and the governor’s declaration of martial law after the district attorney was killed, with Texas Rangers and the military restoring order; Borger then faced the Dust Bowl and the Depression. Teddy describes using a dual timeline to connect historical events to contemporary relevance without being heavy-handed, developing complex characters through observation informed by her nursing background, and weaving research (including local theses and books) into the narrative. She previews her next novel, Rise to the Occasion, set in the fictional town of Jackson Pond, Texas, and shares her website and social media accounts.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Teddy Jones on Stoney Creek Publishing

Far from Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country. In this episode, host Tom Fox interviews fellow UT grad Charles J. Petrie about his novel Dark Texas, inspired by his frustration with articles claiming the Texas power grid failure during the ‘Snowpocolips’ “could have been worse.”

Petrie, a PhD in computer science with research experience, explains he dug into grid resilience and found deeper risks, including reliance on gas-fired generation even though gas pipeline pressure depends on electricity via compressors, and the vulnerability of black start capability: he says 82% of Texas black start generators were inoperable during the event, with some unable to run without electricity or stored fuel oil, and others not maintained in a competitive market. Petrie chose fiction because a technical treatment became too complex and a novel could make people care; he describes characters taking over the writing, cites influences and craft lessons from various authors, shares he’s drafted a sequel prompted by a dark epilogue, and recounts publishing with Stoney Creek Publishing after 50 agent rejections.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Dark Texas on Stoney Creek Publishing

Connect with Charles on Facebook

Learn more about ⁠Stoney Creek Publishing

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write about the Texas Hill Country.  Host Tom Fox opens a new season of the Texas Hill Country Authors Podcast with returning guest Paul McGrath to discuss McGrath’s novel Left is Right, a sequel to the PEN Craft award-winning Left.

McGrath recounts a 37-year career at Texas newspapers, primarily the Houston Chronicle, plus teaching at Texas A&M and Clear Lake, and his A&M roots with The Battalion. He explains expanding Anton’s story into a multi-book series (with five planned), driven by character attachment and news-inspired plots. McGrath describes layered “Left” titles, using Ellie to express progressive viewpoints, and empathy as a motivating force for Anton and Ellie, including Ezra’s lingering influence. He notes a darker tone influenced by right-wing militias, human trafficking, and a Texas motorcycle gang, balanced by humor, wordplay, and pop-culture references like a Jon Hamm dream sequence. He outlines the FBI’s and alien authorities’ ongoing pursuit, then a return to alien supervision, credits Stoney Creek Publishing’s support, shares on social platforms, and previews future themes involving Russians and cryptocurrency.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Paul McGrath on Stoney Creek Publishing

Left is Right on Texas A&M University Press

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Welcome to a new season of the award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write in and about the Texas Hill Country. In this episode, Tom visits with author Max Knight about his latest book, ‘Llano Estacado'.

Max shares his unique upbringing in the Canal Zone, his extensive military career, and his writing journey. He delves into the themes and characters of his book, set in the Staked Plains of Texas, which explores vengeance, redemption, and human resilience. Max also offers insights into his writing process, research methods, and experiences with Stoney Creek Publishing. Finally, he discusses the potential for a sequel and provides information on how listeners can learn more about his work.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Max Knight on Stoney Creek Publishing

Llano Estacado on Amazon.com

Stoney Creek Publishing Website

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