Tex Miller Is Dead

<p class=ql-align-justify><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>***NYC Big Book Award 2024 </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Distinguished Favorite</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)> for Romantic Comedy***</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong><em>When a writer and her imaginary muse go head to head real life gets complicated.</em></strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Callie Austin the unknown author of the wildly popular <em>Tex Miller</em> book series decides twenty-plus years of living in anonymity is enough. Her plan? Kill the beloved Tex Miller. But with a fierce agent a cut-throat editor and a beyond-zealous fan base Callie knows not everyone will be happy. And just wait until <em>Tex </em>hears about it.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>At twenty-two Callie orphaned and grieving conjured Tex Miller a dashing adventurer and now-adored literary character who makes women swoon and men sit up straighter. Her novel skyrocketed but Callie was lucky. It was the mid-1990s pre-internet explosion and much to her publisher's chagrin she insisted she remain anonymous by using a pen name. The enigmatic <em>Calliope Jones</em> was born and cloistered away in one fell swoop leaving an idolizing public scratching its collective head. Visible only to her Tex Miller became her constant screwball companion.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Two decades and a dozen books later on a routine trip to NYC Callie plans to end the <em>Tex Miller</em> saga but an up-and-coming streaming service's offer to turn Callie's books into an original series may waylay Tex's demise. Things spiral further when her trusted longtime driver falls ill and a young replacement chauffeur catches her eye-and maybe her heart while Tex goes rogue unsure he's down with all the new plot twists.</p><p class=ql-align-justify>Throw in a dogged gossip blog's rabid pursuit of <em>'the truth'</em> along with Calliope Jones's fervent fandom and poor Callie Austin has her hands full.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p>