Welcome to Grand Prairie, Louisiana—land of confounding accents, hard-drinking senior citizens, and charming sinners—brought to hilarious life in a bracing, heartfelt debut novel simmering with Cajun spice. . . Father Steve Sibille has come home to the bayou to take charge of St. Pete's church. Among his challenges are teenybopper altar girls, insomnia-curing confessions, and alarmingly alluring congregant Vicky Carrier. Then there's Miss Rita, an irrepressible centenarian with a taste for whiskey, cracklins, and sticking her nose in other people's business. When an outsider threatens to poach Father Steve's flock, Miss Rita suggests he fight back by staging an event that will keep St. Pete's parishioners loyal forever. As The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival draws near, help comes from the strangest places. And while the road to the festival may be paved with good intentions—not to mention bake sales, an elephant, and the most bizarre cook-out ever—where it will lead is anyone's guess. . . "A sparkling debut." --Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America "Delightful. . ..Wheaton writes with an infectious energy, and his affection for the characters and culture is authentic." --Publishers Weekly

Voices from Louisiana provides thoughtful, timely profiles of some of the state’s most highly regarded and popular contemporary authors. Readers interested in Louisiana’s rich literary tradition will appreciate these evocative essays on writers whose works emanate from the cultures and landscapes of the Gulf South. Ann Brewster Dobie explores the works of eleven well-known authors and concludes with a look at several emerging talents. These writers work in a broad range of genres, from coming-of-age stories and historical narratives that recover the voices of silenced and oppressed peoples, to crime thrillers set in New Iberia and New Orleans, to poetic invocations of the natural world and narratives capturing the realities of working-class lives. Whether native to the state or transplants, these writers produce works that reflect the vibrant culture that defines the intricate literary landscape of the Pelican State. Dobie highlights the careers of Darrell Bourque, James Lee Burke, Ernest Gaines, Tim Gautreaux, Shirley Ann Grau, Greg Guirard, William Joyce, Julie Kane, Tom Piazza, Martha Serpas, and James Wilcox. Newcomers also profiled include Wiley Cash, Ashley Mace Havird, Anne L. Simon, Katy Simpson Smith, Ashley Weaver, Steve Weddle, and Ken Wheaton.

Reality is stranger than reality TV. When Tony Battaglia wakes up after his successful heart transplant, he's expecting a new lease on life. Even after a decade of stitching together the most ridiculous footage on the most outrageous reality shows, the reality-TV editor could never have expected that his new heart was formerly owned by "Gator Guys" star Lonnie Lalonde Junior. The development puts Tony on the wrong side of the camera, involved in the plot of the show-and with a murder mystery. The official story was that Lonnie Junior slipped and fell. But after heading south and arriving in Blackwater, Cajun Country, Tony discovers that things aren't as simple as they seem-especially after he finds a bit of cast-off footage showing someone else at the scene of the accident. Convinced that Lonnie Junior has been murdered, area weirdo, AirBnB host and "Gator Guys" cast member Fudgeround Arcenaux convinces Tony to help him investigate the case. As Tony gets more and more involved with Lonnie's family and Lonnie's ex-girlfriend (and former child star) Chelsea Granger, all signs start to point to infamous rage-aholic Travis Richardson, who just happens to be a cast member of the nation's most popular Louisiana-set reality show, "Mallard Men." After Travis is named the prime suspect, he disappears into the swamp, looking guiltier by the minute. And the town of Blackwater becomes home to a media feeding frenzy and a possible family feud between the Richardsons of "Mallard Men" and the cast of "Gator Guys." Behind the scenes, a powerful Southern politician, Senator Ronald Birch, and scheming reality-show producer Barry Steves are pulling the strings. And reality wanna-be Brit Borders just might be involved somehow. But Fudgeround becomes convinced he and Tony just might be looking in the wrong direction-especially after a mob heads out into the swamp to hunt down Travis Richardson and Brit ends up dead. Knowing only that there are bigger forces at play, they set out to find the real culprit before shooting the next season-and the next victim-starts.

An illustrated history of Ggrand Prarie, Texas, paired with histories of the local companies.

Truth is a powerful marketing tool—and really the only way to promote a message and brand effectively. Truth in advertising has long been something to ignore, or at least downplay. The role of advertising has been to position and manipulate brands to convince consumers that they're imbued with qualities they don't necessarily possess, or presume to tell them which ones matter. It worked when the brand's voice was the only voice, but with the rise of social media that era is over. Marketers have focused their messages on entertainment, creating funny or engaging campaigns that win awards but don't always sell products. Consumers determine what's true, and smart companies have realized that every communications medium can and will be used to contribute to those conclusions. In Tell the Truth, Jonathan Baskin and Sue Unerman look at the content and context of marketing communications. They provide the research of hundreds of companies and in-depth case studies on more than 50 global brands to show us that truthful brands deliver sales, profits, and sustainable relationships. Truth truly yields true competitive advantage.

A freak accident forces a New Yorker to return to Louisiana and confront her Cajun past There is nothing more dangerous than a spooked rhinoceros. It is just before lunchtime when Huey, the prized black rhino of Broussard, Louisiana, erupts from his enclosure, trampling a zoo employee on his way to a rampage in the Cajun countryside. The incident makes the rounds online as News of the Weird, and Katherine Fontenot is laughing along with the rest of her New York office when she notices the name of the hurt zookeeper: Karen-Anne Castille—her sister. Fifty years old, lonely, and in danger of being laid off, Katherine has spent decades trying to ignore her Louisiana roots. Forced home by Karen-Anne’s accident, she remembers everything about the bayou that she wanted to escape: the heat, the mosquitoes, and the constant, crushing embrace of family. But when forced to confront the ghosts of her past, she discovers that escape might never have been necessary.

Fifty-year old Katherine Lafleur is woken from sleep one wintry morning in Brooklyn, New York, by a phone call telling her that her younger sister Karen-Anne has died after being trampled by a run-away rhinoceros. So after years of avoiding her home state of Louisiana, Katherine finds herself journeying back to a place where she's only known as Katie-Lee and she's constantly at odds with her older sister Kendra-Sue. The physical distance may only be 1,500 miles, but the emotional and psychic distances is light years away from her life in New York, where she communicates more with text and social media than through actual conversation. In Louisiana, however, she finds a hurricane of family members. Sisters and brother, their kids and kids' kids. Not to mention the distant relations that threaten to turn the funeral services into a circus of epic hilarity rather than a somber affair. Tensions slowly build throughout the comedy, but only when Katie-Lee spots her high school sweetheart lurking around the outskirts of the graveyard do we finally learn what drove her away from home all those years ago--and just how tight the Lafleur family bond really is.