Meeting with Levelland author Eric C. Taylor and his fan club

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – There’s a little flower shop in Levelland called Sugarbees. It’s also a gift shop and could be a bookstore if it didn’t only have books by one author: Eric C. Taylor.

At Sugarbees Gift Shop, you’ll find his name on a shelf behind the sensation plant on five different books he’s written. We learned that the author has a growing fan club at the Hockley County Senior Center.

“I’ve read one of them and am working on the second one,” said Linda Key. “Bill Roe, Legend of Castle Rock. I have that in the truck.”

“Oh, they’re good,” said Joyce Sikes. “Every single one of them. My favorite is The Mist.”

“The Mist” was Eric Taylor’s first book. It took him ten years to write it, but even before that he wrote many short stories from his personal perspective on life.

“And one of the stories will make you cry. That’s what I’ve been told,” Eric Taylor said.

Eric Taylor was born in Levelland and also lived in Wyoming, where he wrote his novel about legendary bandits.

“I don’t know if it’s the whole truth or not, but there’s a lot of truth in it,” Taylor said.

Taylor has published five books and is grateful to the people who influenced his writing career, his late wife Nancy, who edited all of his books, and his high school English teacher, Miss Eunice Holt, who taught him the key to good writing.

“There is no sex in this book, no swear words in any of the books,” Taylor said, “and we have Eunice Holt to thank for that. She said in the class that an author who has to use swear words or sexual situations to enhance his book has no business being a writer.”

And apparently a large number of his fans share Miss Eunice’s opinion.

“I read Castle Rock Legend,” Linda Key said. “There are no ugly scenes. There are no ugly words in it. It’s just a good story.”

Judging by the library down the hall, there are probably a lot of literary critics in that lunch group. You’ll find all of Eric Taylor’s books on those shelves, if they’re not checked out.

“This makes me really proud,” Taylor said.

At the age of 88, Eric Taylor has already written a hundred pages of his next book, entitled Fall River Ranch, a new adventure following the same rules of writing.

“No sex, no swearing. Is that your motto?”

“Yes, that’s my motto.”

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