Leon Hale is the award-winning longtime columnist for the Houston Chronicle, and before that,The Houston Post, author of eleven books including regional bestsellers, Home Spun and Supper Time. He has received the prestigious Lon Tinkle lifetime achievement award from the Texas Institute of Letters as well as awards for fiction and non-fiction from TIL, the Headliners Foundation, United Press International, and the Associated Press, among others. Last year the Texas Newspaper Association Foundation elected him to their Hall of Fame. Retired in 2014 from column writing after a 65-year career, Hale blogs at blog.chron.com/leonhale, tweets @leonhale1921 and may be visited at leonhale.com and facebook.com/leonhale.