Brownsville author Michael Putegnat, who wrote a novel about drilling for natural gas in the Laguna Madre, struck gold in a national convention this month.
His book, "Laguna," won a gold medal for Best Regional Fiction- South at the annual BookExpo America convention in New York on June 1.
The story involves a classic confrontation between ordinary individuals and a wealthy man with powerful connections, descended from a South Texas ranching dynasty.
"I was taken by surprise," Putegnat said. "I didn't know the publisher had submitted the book for consideration."
But this wasn’t the first surprise for the local writer.
"The book sold about 5,000 copies in the first month,"he said. "I've been told that 1,000-2,000 copies is the norm for a first fiction work by a new author."
Since the book was released about 10 months ago, Putegnat has been busy with promotional work that includes book signings and radio talk show interviews.
"I love the people I meet," he said, "but I'd much rather spend my time writing. Still, the promo work is necessary. It has to be done."
Putegnat is already working on his next novel, a mystery tentatively titled "Escape."
"It's a story of bad government policy," he said,"and how ordinary people can make a difference."
A member of the Writers League of Texas, he plans to travel to Austin in the coming weeks to try to find an agent to represent him in the literary world.
"Once a year, the League invites agents from all over the country to meet Texas authors," he said."An agent can open publishing house doors that are closed to writers." Two requests have come in for copies of his book from the movie industry, he said. "I don't know how sincere the interest was," he said, "but I did write the story from the point of view of someone watching a movie."
