Tales with a Texas Twist: Original Stories and Enduring Folklore from the Lone Star State Table of Contents Lone Star Storytelling [Introduction] 1. The Myth of Cora Persephone 2. Cupid Was a Mama's Boy 3. The Coming of the Bluebonnet 4. The Ghost at Hornsby's Bend 5. The Legend of El Muerto 6. Lobo Girl of Devil's River 7. The Ghost Light on Bailey's Prairie 8. The Babe of the Alamo 9. Yellow Rose of Texas 10. The White Comanche of the Plains 11. Sam Bass, the Texas Robin Hood 12. The Story Behind the Story 13. Mollie Bailey Was a Spy 14. Arizona Bill 15. Diamond Bill 16. Bigfoot Wallace and the Hickory Nuts 17. The Life and Times of Pecos Bill 18. The Meandering Melon 19. One Turkey-Power 20. The Texan and the Blue Lambs 21. The Texan and the Grass Hut 22. The Story of the Three Bubbas 23. Teeny Tangerine Twirling Rope 24. Pedro y El Diablo 25. The Old Woman and the Robbers 26. Pretty Polly and Mr. Fox 27. Br'er Rabbit's Share Cropping 28. Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Coon, and the Frogs Bibliography

Everything is bigger in Texas . . . including the myths and legends. In this engaging folklore collection, award-winning storyteller Donna Ingham introduces you to the larger-than-life characters who help define the Lone Star State. Meet Pecos Bill, who used a rattlesnake as a rope; Mollie Bailey, a circus pioneer and Civil War spy; Bigfoot Wallace, a retired lawman who called his rifle Sweet Lips; and others whose lives are a fascinating mix of fact and fiction. Ingham also recasts myths from other cultures, giving them the Texas twist that only a native could (did you know that Cupid was a mama's boy?), and shares some of the original tales that earned her the title of Biggest Liar in Austin three years running. Complemented by Paul G. Hoffman's inspired illustrations, these stories are sure to entertain readers of all ages.

From "Cupid Was a Mama's Boy" Cupid was a mama's boy. He was. If you've read any of the stories about him, you'll remember he was always doing the bidding of his mama, Venus, who just happened to be, of course, the goddess of love. These days we see Cupid as a fat little naked boy-child with a toy bow and arrow who's full of mischief, flying around shooting people and making them fall in love with one another. But he wasn't always that way. No sir. When some Roman fellow--Lucius Apuleius, his name was--wrote about Cupid back in century ought-two A.D., he made him a perfectly handsome young man. But he was still a mama's boy. One day, you see, his mama called him in and said, "Son, I've got a job for you." "Yes ma'am," Cupid said. You would go far to find a boy that was any more agreeable. "There's this girl named Psyche," Venus said, "the king over yonder's youngest daughter. They say she's pretty enough to make a man plow through a stump, and I just can't take the competition. Why, folks have stopped coming to my temples and lighting fires in the altars. They're all over at the king's place fairly worshipping this mere mortal of a girl-destined to get old and ugly and die some day, but I can't wait. So here's what I want you to do . . ." From "The Life and Times of Pecos Bill" Way back, when little Bill was just a baby, his ma and his pa decided it was getting a might too crowded where they were because some new neighbors had moved in just a mere hundred miles away. So they loaded everything they owned into one of those Conestoga wagons--one of those covered wagons--and headed west with little Bill and his sixteen brothers and sisters in the back. Some folks say little Bill was having a fine time bouncing along in the back of that wagon when he just bounced right out as the wagon was crossing the Pecos River. Others say no, that's not right. What happened was that Bill decided as long as they were crossing a river, he'd just throw him a fishing line in and see if he couldn't catch something. Sure enough, one of those big old Texas catfish came along, grabbed Bill's line, and jerked him into the river. Well, whichever way it happened, there he sat on the banks of the Pecos River watching his whole family still moving west. They didn't even miss him for several weeks until they finally took a head count. Meanwhile, Bill was about lower than a gopher hole, and his prospects didn't look too good. . . .