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 speaks with authors who live in, write in, and write about the Texas Hill Country. Host Tom Fox welcomes back returning guest and author-illustrator T.D. Motley about his new book, Planting and Painting the Landscape.
This book continues prior characters while adding new ones and provides backstory on Annie and Sam, whose college relationship was disrupted by the Vietnam War and later rekindled with the perspective of age and experience. Motley discusses Sam’s growing realization that his North Texas farm is part of an ancient continuum, geographically and culturally linked to early civilization latitudes, and his awakening to local Indigenous history through features like shell middens and cairn burial sites. They describe Bartlett Farm as a character and sanctuary where visitors leave external chaos at the gate. Motley closes by urging readers to pay attention to the history and geography beneath where they live, rather than relying unthinkingly on tools like GPS.
Key highlights:
- Love Interrupted
- Aging and Perspective
- Land as Ancient Story
- Writing Nature Vividly
- Childhood Outdoors Roots
- Deep Time and Texas History
Resources:
T.D. Motley on Stoney Creek Publishing
Stoney Creek Publishing Website
Purchase The Art of Farming: click here
Podcast Cover Art
Tom Fox