Writer in residence

Mark Louis Rybczyk

You might know him as “Hawkeye” from the popular radio show “Hawkeye and Dorsey in the Morning” on country station 96.3 KSCS, which was the longest-running morning show in Dallas before Hawkeye’s co-host Terry Dorsey retired in January after 34 years.

Or you might know him as Mark Louis Rybczyk, Casa Linda neighbor and threetime author.

Rybczyk’s first book, a historical nonfiction work called “San Antonio Uncovered,” was a big hit in San Antonio, which encouraged him to pen another story, “The Travis Club” — this one a mystery novel, also based in San Antonio.

When he first wrote “The Travis Club” in the mid-’90s, Rybczyk couldn’t get it published. So he shelved it for almost 10 years, until he ran across the draft one day and began reading it.

The story was good, he realized, but the writing needed some serious fine-tuning.

He started editing it and cutting out unnecessary chunks. Then he did what he didn’t do the first time: sent it to an editor.

“Everyone thinks they’re going to be the next Great American Novelist,” he muses. “You have to get over that and just try to write a good story.”

He decided to self-publish it on Amazon, where it quickly hit no. 20 on the best-seller list for historical mysteries. It has already racked up 88 reviews and received 4.5 stars. And Rybczyk hasn’t even had a chance to market it in San Antonio, he points out.

The story revolves around Taylor Nichols, a young writer who writes historical guidebooks (sound familiar?). Through his research, he uncovers the well-kept secrets of the city’s power brokers.

The fictional story of Nichols is nestled within the true-life tales Rybczyk unearthed while researching “San Antonio Uncovered,” and Rybczyk had the chance to rediscover those facts the second time around.

“I had fun writing the book, and I had even more fun rewriting it,” he says.

—Brittany Nunn

LEARN MORE go to www.thetravisclub.com

April 8

Hugh

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HUGH HERR is responsible for advances in bionic limbs that offer new hope to people with physical disabilities. Time magazine called him the “Leader of the Bionic Age” because of his work in the emerging field of biomechatronics, a technology that marries human physiology with electromechanics.

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Tony & Jonna Mendez

Author of Argo and both former CIA Chief of Disguise

TONY and JONNA MENDEZ are former CIA officers whose lives have been featured in books, TV documentaries and the Oscar-winning film Argo Tony Mendez engineered the 1980 rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Iran in an operation that inspired the movie. Jonna Mendez worked as a technical operations officer with a specialty in clandestine photography.