NOW STREAMING
“A Texas Feud”
The latest installment of the Family Lore podcast series.
Family Lore host Lloyd Lochridge and Clara Sneed dive into the history behind Before We Turn to Dust, and talk George Strait, the Mann Act of 1910, and the power of “it’s never too late”.
Clara Sneed named as 2026 Grand Prize Winner by Texas Author Institute for Before We Turn to Dust
Sneed also took home the Best Criminal/Crime Biography Award for Because This is Texas
Love and Revenge in the Texas Panhandle
In Clara Sneed's debut historical novel—based on an infamous Texas feud—passion, pride and vengeance brew up a storm in 1911 Amarillo that spreads to consume three prominent families and leaves tragedy in its wake.
Before We Turn to Dust is gorgeously, masterfully written and impeccably researched...a total page-turner—compellingly readable. It is historical fiction, yes, but it also plays with our notions of genre, seamlessly folding police procedural and courtroom drama into a family story of love and death....to reveal how the “Big Story”—the one told via gossip, the media, and those in power, the one considered “real”—submerges the actual real story the protagonists lived through...”
— CHANSONETTE BUCK, Winner of the Stronach Poetry Prize and author of Orobouros: Memoir of a Dreamwalker
“A fresh new voice in literary fiction steps onto the stage.”
— JODI THOMAS, New York Times Bestselling Author
“One of the most notorious feuds in Amarillo history is reexamined in Clara Sneed’s historical fiction Before We Turn to Dust. But possibly the most fascinating aspect is that this book wouldn’t have happened had descendants from both sides of the feud not worked together to reveal the true story.”
— CHIP CHANDLER, Brick & Elm Magazine
* Bookshop / Indiebound is a site where you can order the book from the independent bookstore of your choice. You can choose to have them ship your book directly to you, or pick it up in-person at your preferred store once it arrives. It’s a fantastic way to support local.
Host Skylar Gallop talks with Clara Sneed on uncovering the true story of one of the darkest chapters in her family’s past, that ultimately became an infamous feud in Texas history.
Clara Sneed on Hey Amarillo Podcast
