Gifted Story Teller
Dorothy Garlock, known as “The Voice of the American Heartland,” is a national best-selling, award-winning author. Her books often feature the exciting backdrop of the Old West, but have even spotlighted Clear Lake itself.
With more than 37 books currently in print, Dorothy is consistently on the bestseller lists of THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY and THE WASHINGTON POST. She has received 21 awards from various magazines and writers’ groups and receives fan mail from all over the world. THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES calls her “a gifted storyteller” and Hurst Cablevision has declared her “a national treasure” for her “unflinchingly honest portrayal” of our history and the people who lived it.
Dorothy is a native Texan, but has considered Clear Lake her home since moving here with her husband Herb Garlock Sr. in 1955. The mother of two, grandmother of two, and great-grandmother of three, she started her book-writing career in 1976 after working for 14 years as bookkeeper/columnist for the Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter. She has long been an avid reader and history buff, but her success as a novelist came as a complete surprise to her.
Dorothy has been written about in almost every major newspaper, interviewed on numerous radio and television shows, baked biscuits “the old-fashioned way” on national television, and was selected Outstanding Western writer for 1986. Her short stories “Interlude in Big Bend” and “Beneath the Midnight Sun” were selected by Universal Press Syndicate to launch the series DAY DREAMS. A chapter each day ran in 57 major newspapers for one month. She was one of six authors selected to launch the popular LOVESWEPT LINE for Bantam books.
Dorothy’s book MORE THAN MEMORY, set in Clear Lake at the time of the Buddy Holly plane crash, has drawn worldwide attention. The plunge opening and use of dialogue in her book A LOVE FOR ALL TIME was used as an example in the textbook WRITING ROMANTIC FICTION by Helen Barnhardt for Writer’s Digest Press.