Comments (0) Best New Effort to Inject Culture into Houston - 2001

Winedale Publishing

So Gabrielle Hale's Winedale Publishing isn't exactly new (she founded the press in 1996). But at the beginning, it looked like Winedale might be little more than an excuse to bring back into print the scattered remains of husband and Houston Chronicle columnist Leon Hale's oeuvre (some of which surely was penned at Hale's "old place" in Winedale, Texas). But as the years pass and Windedale's list grows, it becomes increasingly clear that Hale has larger ambitions for her small house. Yes, Leon's older work is happily back in print, alongside a new remembrance of foods past by the inventor, for better or worse, of the shopworn "Soupwich." But Winedale's list also now includes the novel Gabriel's Eye by SMU eminence C.W. Smith, and four fiction titles, including the new Drinking with the Cook, by the well-reviewed Laura Furman. Look for forthcoming titles by first-time Texas novelists Lynn Miller and former Press staff David Theis.