A Storyteller’s Scottish West Texas

The Line from Here to There: A Storyteller’s Scottish West Texas
by Rosanna Taylor Herndon

Cloth * 160 pages
$24.95
Texas Tech University Press
ISBN 978-0-89672-630-7

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This review may be a little more plainspoken than others because the author of the book is, well, my mother. It just wouldn’t do to attempt to dispassionately report on a project that, for both of us, has been a 10-year labor of love.

After two years of begging and cajoling, my mother — a storyteller and scholar of no small renown, despite her insistence to the contrary — finally admitted that for someone who had been a featured teller of family tales at The National Storytelling Festival, an early member of the Tejas Storytelling Association, and a pillar of The Mesquite Storytellers Guild of Abilene, not to collect her Texas stories into a book would be bordering on criminal. So Mom (ahem, Dr. Herndon) agreed to record her West Texas gems of oral tradition, honed by years of telling, into a single volume. And the angels rejoiced.

To explain our long timeline I can only say that life interrupts even the most worthy project with its churlishness, and that with a project of this kind, “some assembly is required.” Luckily I’m a book editor anyway, and I love my mother’s stories. I mean, I liked them before, but I’ve now read, edited, reread, and re-edited accounts of these Scottish West Texans and the stories still hold me riveted. It took this level of intimacy to show me the depth of their value — historical as well as literary. That accomplished, I could hardly wait to see the book in print! 
Around Year Six, I began to feel as though I would forever be circumambulating my ancestry in a sort of endless tribute. I felt this book could soon be of interest to the Guinness people (the record-keepers, not the beer-brewers). As a gourmet dish, it might have won a prize for Slowest Congealing Aspic in History. We began to worry that it might never be tasted by anyone but ourselves (both of whom are known to scarf down half-firmed jello right from the fridge). We began to wonder if this fine offering and all its layered subtleties, would remain forever in its Waterford mold against a backdrop of well-starched linens, unable to be eaten until all of the guests had arrived.

Now that you’re all here, let’s dig in! These stories are, above all else, delicious, the characters so poignantly eccentric that they could only have been plucked from real life. If I thought before that my mother, Rosanna Herndon, was a gifted storyteller, I know her today as a fine writer. The genealogy is thoroughly well-researched (for such is the way in which a lifelong academic constructs her family tales), and the selections offer not only an authentic look at early West Texas but also an intimate stroll through generations of transplanted Scots doing what they could with hard land in hard times.

What strikes me most about these stories, having lived with them now through many tellings and readings, is how they nudge me toward the strength of character of their unlikely heroes and heroines. These are ordinary people made extraordinary by centuries of survival against the odds, and their stories illuminate us as to why certain West Texans are almost painfully frugal with themselves and tight-lipped about their generosities to others. Fair warning: Some of the selections in this book may touch you to the point of tears. Others may make you laugh so hard that your eyes emit a joyful moisture. (Have a hanky on hand, is my point).

What kind of reader is most likely to find in this book a great Texas read and a wealth of inspiration for living? Anyone whose breath shows up on a mirror. You can take that all the way to the bank. And I’m not just saying that because the author is my mother.

Ceci Miller is founder and president of CeciBooks, an editorial and book publishing consultancy that empowers authors to write, publish, and market irresistible books that uplift and inspire. Ceci has written, co-authored, and edited books with bestselling authors and experts since 1988. See book projects here.

A graduate of the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Ceci Miller is also the author of two published children’s picture books, and former contributing editor for Darshan, an international magazine dedicated to fostering sacred awareness in daily life. A student of yoga and meditation since 1976, Ceci leads seminars that explore language and the creative process as a vehicle for personal transformation. Based on her book Sacred Visitations, and the popular book she co-authored with John Lee, Writing from the Body: For Writers, Artists & Dreamers, Ceci’s work blends writing and intuitive guidance with contemplation and meditation practices that connect your right brain creativity with your intention for writing.