Lynda Rutledge

Happy to announce that Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale has won the

2013 WRITERS LEAGUE OF TEXAS Book Award for Fiction.

Honored beyond words.

For a complete list of finalists and winners in other genres, click here:

2013 Writers League of Texas Book Awards Read More 

My inner professor is very proud that my novel Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale was reviewed in a fine academic journal, American Southwestern Literature. Frequent book reviewer Dr. Herb Thompson of Virginia's Emory & Henry College reviewed it for the Spring 2013 issue. Thanks, Prof. Thompson, especially for calling it "one of the best books you've read in awhile."
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VERY happy to announce that Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale has been named to the Texas Library Association's LARIAT LIST as one of the 25 Best Novels published in 2012!!!

Here's the entire winning list for others you might enjoy (because if you can't trust a librarian who can you trust, right? Bless them all.)

Texas Library Association's 2013 Lariat List Award Winners  Read More 

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale was the subject of a "Book Report" in the April edition of Southern Living Magazine that even got a plug in for what is probably the biggest antiques fair in the country. An excerpt:

This Texas author's debut novel has us gearing up for the 45th annual Round Top Spring Antiques Fair this month. Set in Bass, Texas, the book centers around the wealthiest woman in town who after 20 years of hiding, comes out with a yard sale where Tiffany lamps and Louis XV clocks are sold for pocket change. There's high society drama and debaucherous family secrets that make for an enthralling Sunday read...."

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Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale and I have been having lots of book club fun, be it Skyping, Call-ins, or In-Person events. (See info about it on "For Book Club" page) Crazy fun!

Sometimes one of the members brings a camera, and sometimes even writes about it on their book club blog. That's what happened with the Round Rock New Neighbors Book Club that has been meeting at their local Barnes & Noble bookstore for 20 years. Here's one of the photos. link to an album of the fun as well as Claudia Harbert's wonderful review of the event. Thanks, Claudia and Frank Campbell!

And thanks to the dozens of book clubs I've had the honor of attending virtually and in-person this year! More to come! Read More 

Thanks to Phoenix's "Arcadia News" Book Club for choosing "Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale" for their November Club Pick. Looking forward to some Skyping Fun with the gang on Thursday, Nov. 29!

Great FUN at the Texas Book Club Festival: PANEL-10 a.m. Oct. 27

Taken By Surprise: Two Novels about Second Chances--Contrary People by Carolyn Osborne and Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge

Full house in Capitol Room 2010e. I'm looking all offiicial and serious...and approved by the Seal of Texas.

For your Listening Pleasure: Here's an NPR.org/KUT-FM radio interview run the week of the Fest:

MORNING EDITION at KUT-FM Radio Interview: Texas Book Festival-Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale
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Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale and I were invited to be a part of the famous Southern Book Festival in Nashville this October and we were on TWO PANELS. Here's the first one--to a packed house:

Southern Book Festival Panel #1:
Oct. 12, NOON, Nashville Public Library

"Of Saints, Garage Sales, and Astronauts: 3 Debut Southern Indie-Next Southern Novelists
-Amy Franklin-Wills "The Lost Saints of Tennessee"
-Lynda Rutledge "Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale"
-Lydia Netzer "Shine Shine Shine"
--with moderator Gail Kerr Nashville news columnist Read More 

Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale and I were invited to be a part of the famous Southern Book Festival in Nashville this October and we were on TWO PANELS.

Southern Book Festival Panel #2:
"Pulpwood Queen Present Royal Southern READS
Oct. 13, 11 a.m. Nashville Legislative Branch

-with Pulpwoodqueen Kathy Patrick
-Lynda Rutledge "Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale"
-Jenny Wingfield "Homecoming of Samuel Lake"
-Robert Hicks "Widow of the South"
-Amy Hill Hearth "Miss Dreamsville"
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The FRENCH translation (the French rights were sold to Actes Sud of Paris) of Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale is out and it seems, wonderfully, that the French like Texas-born Faith Bass Darling.

May I present: "Le dernier vide-grenier de Faith Bass Darling"

In fact, as you can see from this cover, they even have made 70 year old Faith QUITE sophisticated and attractive in what seems to be their vision of what she might have looked like in your rich young days. For those who have not read it (YET?), Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale has a rather essential French connection, if you will, opening and closing with a French relic from Louis XIV's court that happens to have found its way to the Darling mansion over the centuries--and as the story opens, out on the front lawn being sold at her "Last Garage Sale." So I truly love that the French have embraced it. In fact, here's a link to a nice Review in the French Marie-Claire magazine. If your French is as rusty as mine, here's a rough translation of their nice words (Google mangles it beyond redemption):

Hours before the last day of 1999, a divine revelation convinces Faith Bass Darling, she will not see the 21st century. So she decides to sell her rich inheritance: antiques, furniture, and precious jewels on her lawn for a few dollars. Is Faith losing her mind? This stunning first novel by Lynda Rutledge, Texas journalist, talks about the role of objects in our lives, separation in our family ties, and time slipping away.

Merci, ya'll.

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