The verdict on Ten Gallion War: A 'delightful book'

My latest book TEN-GALLON WAR is published exactly two months from today, on Oct. 2, 2012. The run-up to publication includes reviews from industry outlets such as Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal, and the first one has landed.

Here's what Library Jourmal has to say about the book in its August edition:

"Former Baltimore Sun sports columnist Eisenberg’s best book, Cotton Bowl Days (1997), was a memoir of his growing up a Cowboys fan in 1960s Dallas. This volume returns to the first three years of that decade when the Cowboys of the NFL and the Texans of the AFL vied for the city’s then-limited interest in pro football. When it was proposed that the two teams play a game to determine who leaves town, some wags joked that the loser should be forced to stay. Ultimately, Lamar Hunt’s AFL champion Texans moved to Kansas City to become the Chiefs in 1963, ceding Dallas to the ’Boys. Through extensive interviews, a Texas-sized territorial war over players, fans, and facilities is vividly relived. ­VERDICT Concisely and affectionately told, this delightful book should appeal to all football fans."

In an earlier pre-publication preview, Library Journal, which recommends to librararies whether they should buy various books, had this to say about TEN-GALLON WAR: "Eisenberg is a natural to tell the story since he grew up in 1960s Texas. An obvious purchase unless everyone in your town hates sports."

Let's just say the author appreciates the praise.

The book can be pre-ordered right here.

"A book that pro football fans will love..."

My new book TEN-GALLON WAR doesn't hit the stores for another few months, but to my surprise and delight, the subject came up last week when I appeared on Pro Football Talk Live with Mike Florio.

Florio, who is part of NBC's Sunday Night Football studio crew, hosts the hugely popular weekday Internet pro football show, where I regularly appear to discuss the Baltimore Ravens as part of my job covering the team for csnbaltimore.com.

I had sent him an advance copy of TEN-GALLON WAR, and he suddenly held it up and started talking about it and asking me questions.

"I think this is a book that pro football fans will love," he said. "I'm learning something new on every page."

Mike is a sharp and influential guy who knows as much about today's NFL as anyone, so I take the compliment as high praise.

Here's a link to our segment, which lasts about 16 minutes, but unless you want to know all about Ed Reed skipping the Ravens' mandatory minicamp last week, you can fast forward through the early portions. The book comes up at the 11-minute mark.

My thanks to Mike for the nice words and the early chance to promote the book, which, by the way, can be pre-ordered even though it doesn't come out until the fall.

A "Ten-Gallon War" excerpt goes up online

The Amazon.com page for my latest book "Ten-Gallon War" is up and running, with the cover art now included. My publisher also recently added an excerpt containing the prologue and the first few paragraphs of Chapter 1. Here's a link to the page for anyone who wants to check out how the book begins:

http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Gallon-War-Cowboys-Dallass-Football/dp/0547435509/ref=la_B001IGQL4Y_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1336425044&sr=1-4

Cover image for "Ten-Gallon War" is released

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s 2012 fall catalog is out, containing the cover image for my new book as well as a page of advertising and marketing details. It’s nice to see “Ten-Gallon War” situated near the front of the catalog.

For the record, I love the cover.

Full disclosure: I didn't know the catalog was out until Fred Goodwin of the Dallas Cowboys Book Blog found it and put the news on Facebook. Thanks for the detective work, Fred!

Here is a link to the entire catalog, and here is the page in the catalog:

My book on the Cowboys and Texans is...finished!

The Texans' Abner Haynes (photo by Sports Illustrated)I'm very excited to announce I've (finally) completed the manuscript for my book about the three-year pro football battle that took place in Dallas from 1960 through 1962. The title is "Ten-Gallon War: The NFL's Cowboys, the AFL's Texans, and the Feud for Dallas's Pro Football Future."

The book will be out in September 2012, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the same people who published "That First Season," my book about Vince Lombardi's first year in Green Bay, and also "The Great Match Race," my book about the epic North-South horse race that captivated America in 1823.

"Ten-Gallon War" is the story of the birth of the Dallas Cowboys as well as the birth of the American Football League -- two momentous occasions in pro football history that were very much intertwined. Fledgling teams owned by Lamar Hunt and Clint Murchison, Jr., young men from Texas oil dynasties, fought it out in a rollicking battle for survival, although they never faced each other on the field.

I relied on interviews with more than 60 sources, including Texas football legends such as Abner Haynes, Len Dawson and Gil Brandt.

Like my book about Lombardi, it is set in the years when pro football was coming of age, skyrocketing out of baseball's shadows to become America's true national pastime. It was a simpler time when football was far less corporate than it is today. Quite honestly, I can't believe some of the stuff I dug up abut these teams and that time, and I can't wait for people to read it.

I will be updating this blog regularly with information about the book in the months leading up to its publication -- there might even be a few chunks of text to give you a feel.

Please feel free to post comments and check back regularly to see what's here.