Welcome to the Hill Country Authors podcast. In addition to being the most beautiful and unique part of Texas, Hill Country has some of the top authors from this state. This podcast will feature the authors from and stories about the Texas Hill Country.
T.D. Motley on Planting and Painting the Landscape: Place, History, and Second Chances
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
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1 Oct 2026
Loren Steffy on Reconstructing Immigration
Welcome to a new season of award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write in and about the Texas Hill Country. Host Tom Fox welcomes author Loren Steffy about his new book, Reconstructing Immigration: How to Rebuild America’s Economic Advantage.
Loren Steffy is an award-winning journalist and longtime business reporter who has spent years examining immigration through an economic lens. He argues that immigration reform should be treated as a practical tool for meeting labor needs and strengthening U.S. growth, rather than only as a social or enforcement issue. Steffey believes immigrants are essential to the American economy because they fill critical jobs in industries like construction, housing, agriculture, and healthcare, while also contributing disproportionately to innovation and new business creation. In his view, the United States has “left money on the table” by failing to build a flexible, data-driven immigration system that attracts and integrates immigrants to support long-term prosperity.
Key Highlights
· Leaving Money on the Table Through Immigration
· Immigrants Filling Essential Jobs Across Labor Market
· Immigration Myths, Labor Shortages, and Economic Self-Interest
· Houston Crew Detention Worsens Housing Backlog
· Calibrating immigration to labor-market needs
Resources
Loren Steffy on LinkedIn
Stoney Creek Publishing website
Reconstructing Immigration click here
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Nancy Huffman Fine Art
Tom Fox
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24 Sept 2026
Jeff Kerr on Building a Texas Hill Country Crime Fiction Series
Welcome to a new season of award-winning Hill Country Authors Podcast, sponsored by Stoney Creek Publishing. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox visits with authors who live in and write in and about the Texas Hill Country. Host Tom Fox welcomes author Jeff Kerr about his Texas Hill Country crime fiction series and the release of his new book, Deadly Relic.
Kerr recounts starting as a nonfiction writer after researching Austin history, publishing Austin, Texas Then and Now (2004) and Seat of Empire: The Embattled Birth of Austin, Texas, then shifting to fiction to avoid constant library work and writing full-time after retiring as a pediatric neurologist in 2022. He explains choosing a small-town, rural Hill Country setting he knows well and placing his fictional town of Pinon farther west for a harsher landscape. Deadly Relic centers on the theft of a museum rifle tied to the Alamo, requiring research into relic provenance, custody, and black-market sales, with a Phil Collins reference. Kerr describes protagonist Deputy Adam Cash, his writing routine and outlining style, series challenges, and teases the next book, Buried Reckoning.
Key Highlights
· Retirement and Writing Full Time
· Meet Adam Cash
· Building a Long Running Series
· Writing Routine and Process
· Advice for Aspiring Writers
Resources
Website: jeffreykerrauthor.com
Instagram: @jkerr50
Facebook: Jeff Kerr Author
Bluesky: @jkerr50.bsky.social
X: @jkerr50
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Nancy Huffman Fine Art
Tom Fox
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Who has been a guest on Hill Country Authors Podcast
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Phil Oakley
Skip Rhudy
Charles Swenson
Paul McGrath
Paul Remmers
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
306,258
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
47
Social presence
91
YouTube
86
Engagement
32
Contact Hill Country Authors Podcast
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Questions about Hill Country Authors Podcast
Who hosts Hill Country Authors Podcast?
Tom Fox host the show. Published by Tom Fox.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes daily, based on its RSS feed.
Does Hill Country Authors Podcast take guests?
The show does not typically feature guests, based on episode analyses.
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