Date: 2010-10-11

Location: Timarron Country Club, Southlake

URL: Click here
Description: Annual golf tournament benefiting the Bernard C. Alger Cancer Fund. Contact Tammy Sims at 817-317-5244.

Date: 2010-08-07

Location: Omni Fort Worth Hotel

URL: Click here
Description: Black-and-white attire requested at this evening of dinner and dancing for Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne.

Date: 2010-10-03

Location: Hyatt Regency DFW

Start Time: 6:00 pm
End Time: 10:00 pm

URL: Click here
Description: Annual fundraiser featuring gourmet fare from area restaurants. Benefits Carroll Education Foundation. Call 817-949-5982.

Date: 2010-10-16

Location: Grapevine

Start Time: 5:30 pm
URL: Click here
Description: Annual black-tie gala for Grapevine Relief and Community Exchange. Tickets $225. Call 817-305-4654.

Start Date: 2010-10-01

Location: Southlake Town Square

End Date: 2010-10-03
URL: Click here
Description: Outdoor festival with entertainment, arts, crafts and weiner dog races. Call 817-481-8200.

Date: 2010-09-24

Location: Marriott Solana, Westlake

Start Time: 9:00 am
URL: Click here
Description: Fall fashion show with shopping before the show. Benefits Metroport Meals on Wheels. Call 817-491-1141.

Start Date: 2011-04-08

Location: Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth

End Date: 2011-04-10
URL: Click here
Description: The Turtle Creek Chorale sings Broadway tunes with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Start Date: 2010-11-05

Location: Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth

End Date: 2010-11-07
URL: Click here
Description: Acrobats, dancers and jugglers join the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Ron Whittington

One-time Dallas resident and former Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)spokesman Ron (R.P.) Whittington will  sign copies of his novel Second Strike, a fictional account of a terrorist attack planned in the months after 9/11, from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4 at Hector’s on Henderson at 2929 N. Henderson Ave.

The author will donate a portion of the proceeds from book sales to the Wounded Warriors Project, a national, nonpartisan organization that supports severely injured service members.

 “I still have a lot of friends in Dallas, and I still love and miss Texas, so I’m looking forward to doing a book signing there,” said Whittington, who lived in Dallas, Plano and Allen, TX for 10 years. 

In Second Strike, the life of businessman Parker Glynn is dramatically affected by the attack on the Twin Towers. But unlike most Americans, Glynn is offered an opportunity to avenge the death of his family as he uncovers a terror plot in the months after 9/11.

 “The main character has Texas roots as well,” Whittington said. “Glynn grew up in Duncanville and attended Southern Methodist University, so Dallas certainly made an impact on my writing.”

Whittington started his career as a journalist with CNN Radio and the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Journal before going into the public relations profession in 1984. He worked as media coordinator with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce before joining DART, where he served as media spokesman from 1984 until 1992.  He served as Olympic Information Officer with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transportation Authority (MARTA) from 1994 to 1996.  He now resides in Florida.

For information about The Wounded Warrior Project, visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org.

Second Strike is currently available for sale on-line at www.secondstrikethenovel.com and www.amazon.com, or by phone at 904-563-0402.

My fantasies often involve pen and paper.

It goes like this: I’m sitting at a table, and I look up at the approaching stranger. The stranger smiles, greets me and then asks me the question.

“Will you sign my book?”

Today it happened, though. I looked up at the female stranger and could barely contain myself. I couldn’t catch my breath. I thought I might cry. Deeply flattered, I could only mutter “really?”

Then I got a grip and handed another stranger my camera to document the moment.

“Grace & Gumption Cookbook,” published by TCU Press, is an offshoot of 2007’s ”Grace & Gumption.” Both books profile Fort Worth women who created, pioneered and led the formation of the city. The newer one, of which I was one of 14 female contributors, is much more than a cookbook. It’s a social history of many of Fort Worth’s founding mothers, with the cooking just one aspect of it all.

Most of the women who worked on the first “G&G” returned to write for the second, but two of us, Brenda Sanders-Wise and myself, were recruited to fill spots. The recipes found range from roasted wild pig to pound cake, but some of the stories are wilder than the pig. There’s a tale about what Ginger Rogers’ mother smuggled into hotels and another about who really came up with the Baird’s Bread recipe.

I was assigned to write about artists, so Chapter 9 is my favorite chapter. Many of the artists were too busy creating in studios to create in the kitchen, but others were adventurous with spices once considered exotic.

The new book is on sale now at TCU’s bookstore at the corner of Berry and University in Fort Worth. If you buy one, I promise I’ll sign it for you.