Bunkhouse Books
"Books from the Heart of an ol' Texas Gal..."
Bettye Martin-McRae
NO BOOKS ARE CURRENTLY IN PRINT – PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR FOR UPDATED INFORMATION…
Bettye Martin-McRae - Author
Bettye Martin-McRae spins history-filled tales that go hand in hand with Ace Reid’s hilarious “Cowpokes” cartoons. They have entertained thousands of school children as well as adults. Her reflective narratives resonate with a mindset that declares “With God in charge, I can do this,” and encourages others to overcome the many deep ruts encountered on the rugged trail of life.
The author has been a popular columnist and freelance writer since 1972. Hundreds of her stories, commentaries, columns, and articles have appeared in publications such as The Airport Advertiser, Garland Daily News, Sweetwater Reporter, Texas Folklore Society, Guideposts, Focus on the Family, Charisma and Christian Life, The Christian Reader, Rural Heritage, and Mules and More Magazine.
Bettye’s “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get” authenticity leaps off each happy, nostalgic and thought-provoking page and into your heart!
Books by Bettye Martin-McRae
"Wellness, Walk ye in it!"
How to Outsmart Foods that can Kill--
...or make you wish you were dead!
When the author at age forty, faced life blind — and in a wheel chair — she took responsibility for her well being, away from the “conventional” medical establishment.
Bettye has plowed hard ground for those willing to change, take charge — and be well. A true-life God-led thirty-year journey into wellness, virtually without money or medical intervention!
She shares with down-to-earth candor, how she gained clear vision and a spring in her step at age fifty, sixty, and on through age seventy… by outsmarting foods, chemicals, and “cures” which can devastate the human body, and so very often kill.
Includes numerous Anecdotes, web sites, recipe books and resources for that reachable goal — wellness.
Using clean country wisdom, farm humor and inspiring true stories, Bettye Martin-McRae shows how healthy foods and healthy thinking can make for a healthy body, mind and spirit.
In her new alternative health book Wellness, Walk Ye In It, Texas author, Bettye Martin-McRae, teaches how she , and many friends and family members overcame numerous illnesses with precious little money and no traditional medical intervention.
Join her now on her own “Wellness Walk” which has taken her from sickness and near blindness at age 40, with little more hope than the promise of dangerous steroids and life in a wheelchair — to wellness, happiness and a healthy and robust lifestyle at age seventy!
She did it so why couldn’t you?
In this, her sixth book, Wellness, Walk Ye In It, Bettye Martin-McRae combines 30 years of self-directed wellness learning, lifestyle changes and personal healing experiences into an invaluable resource not only what she did, but what she avoided, in order to become the picture of health– and she backs it all up with documented medical references! (Heck – the Bibliography alone is worth the price of the book!)
Blending all this with Biblical inspiration and a healthy dose of country wit and wisdom, Bettye transforms her first-hand experiences into a well-written, easy to read tool for anyone searching for optimum health and wellbeing at any age.
NO LONGER IN PRINT… eMail author if you wish to order small topical booklets as requested — FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME.
“This wellness book should go on the MUST READ list of people with health problems. Well researched and documented.”
Dr. John D. Starkey, Ed. D.
Educational Psychology and Guidance, Professor Emeritus
Northern Illinois University
"Bronc in the Parlor"
by Bettye Martin-McRae
illustrated by Ace Reid
Floyd Martin was a master of the art of bronc busting with a strong minor in braggadocio showoff. The author suspected Ace Reid hid behind the outhouse, gleaning ideas for Cowpokes from her daddy’s tomfoolery. Thus the mischief in Floyd’s roguish personality could be accurately captured by none but the expert pen of the self-proclaimed Greatest Cowboy Cartoonist in the World, Ace Reid. (Ask any collector of Cowpokes if the claim is valid!)
Yes, young Floyd really captured the elusive wild stallion with that little burro, and really did bring his broncs into the living room to prove they were “..as polished as Mary’s new hardwood floors!” — (Includes Ace Reid cartoons and old photos for proof!)
Paperback = $15.00 + p/h
“Bronc in the Parlor is clear evidence that Bettye Martin-McRae is the best lady storyteller in the U.S. of A.”
Bob Lewis
(“Tumbleweed Smith”)
Radio Broadcaster / Interviewer
"Cow in the Kitchen"
by Bettye Martin-McRae
illustrated by Ace Reid
…the second book in the Bronc in the Parlor Series is filled with more true tales, dedicated to the women in the oft-times raucous comedy life of the Cowpokes Cartoons men. It’s mostly about long-suffering Mary, the reluctant “straight man” to Floyd’s playfulness.
Says the author, “I thought Ace had gotten his ideas from watching my daddy, but when I visited the Draggin’ S Ranch, and found myself victim to his pranks, I learned first-hand ol’ Ace could think up tomfoolery all on his own! Thus I joined the ranks of Maw, and Madge — Ace’s wife — and all others who knew Ace Reid, including at least one U.S. President. Without doubt it was in self-defense, that the Cowpokes women brought cows into the kitchen.”
(More Ace Reid cartoons and old photos fill this 133 page collection.)
Paperback = $15.00 + p/h
“These are good stories. The smell of the cow lot, the kitchen table, and the front porch still linger…Bettye has rendered the details of another period with astonishing clarity…”
John R. Erickson
author of Hank the Cowdog
and Ace Reid, Cowpoke
"Bath in a #3 Washtub"
by Bettye Martin-McRae
illustrated by Ace Reid
Third in the Bronc in the Parlor Series is mostly about the next generation, whose life centered around the broncs, bringin’ in the crops, and trips to the outhouse. The Saturday night bath in the middle of the kitchen floor in a two foot square wash tub with three inches of mighty scarce water, was the highlight of the week! When the precious liquid was well-used, it was poured as a love-gift to their mama, over that lone, straggly rosebush.
This 137 page collection — along with the other 3 in the Bronc in the Parlor Series — is sought after by elementary school teachers and their wards, for a generous taste of history woven into these true nostalgic tales!
(Still more Cowpokes only-in-this-collection cartoons, and still more old photos.)
Paperback = $15.00 + p/h
“…a wonderful view of a time gone by but not forgotten. Bettye Martin-McRae’s wise little tales are funny, sad and full of those little details that set apart a real teller of tales. Pick up this book, make some iced-tea, sit down on the porch, and let Bettye tell you a story…”
Pat LoBrutto
Senor Editor
Zebra Publishing,
Kensington Publishers
(Formerly with Doubleday, Bantam, Dell)
"Texas Tawlk"
by Bettye Martin-McRae
illustrated by Ace Reid
Wit and Wisdom Syllogisms — Glossary-Dictionary… Fourth in the Bronc in the Parlor Series, the author thanks all Country Folk — and not a few City Dudes — who contribute daily to this repertoire of Texasisms, and Silly-Syllogisms, making it a perpetual Work in Progress.
Thanks to the designers of Grammar and SpellCheck programs that insisted — without success — that she couldn’t “Tawlk thataway” during the writing of the other three books, this one was birthed to mirror country life as seen in the other three Bronc in the Parlor books. To help the city-slicker understand how mules happen, and how to get a hinny! A country-trivia collector’s gold-mine!
An Ace Reid cartoon collector’s dream come true! (Cartoons and photos spill through every page or two.)
Paperback = $15.00 + p/h
“A female version of Ben K. Green, with a ‘John Boy Walton’ flavor. Floyd and I did a little tradin’ — Bettye’s tales on him are as gripping as the barbed wire on Marguarita Hill.”
Sam “Slinging Sammy” Baugh
Texas Rancher and Pro Football Hall of Famer
"The Ladder of Success is Strung With Barbed Wire"
…Celebrates 40 years of newspaper and magazine columns!
This collection is full of thought-provoking narratives, both sober and whimsical. A life-long committed Christian, “Ladder…” is the first in what author, Bettye Martin-McRae plans as a series of such collections. These anecdotes are selected from weekly columns which first appeared in similar form in her home town newspaper, the Sweetwater Reporter, in 2002..
Observing farm critter behavior for life-lessons, to the hilarious and the serious in the role-reversal dance of caring for her aging daddy, — cowpoke-cum farmer — in his declining years, these anecdotes will cheer, thrill, and bring you to your knees.
(A Leon Autry “Certified Original” “Barbed Wire” cartoon glossy comes with this tome… gratis the artist! — a $20 value!
Paperback = $25 + p/h
“If you are a history buff, read Bettye’s books…
If you think you are having a hard time, read Bettye’s books…
If you are looking for a good laugh, read Bettye’s books…
If you enjoy vivid descriptions, read Bettye’s books…
If you just like to read, read this.”
Roberta Starkey
Retired Professor
University of Wyoming
"MULES and other Long-Ears in my Family Tree"
Bettye Martin-McRae, a third generation mule teamster, confesses “greenhorn” status while moving into the New Millenium – her 10th year with Ada Belle and Miss Kitty – mules who enjoy both their labor, and their People. At the turn of the century, Bettye’s grandfather, Enoch Alonzo Martin was one of the Southwest’s major Mammoth Mule breeders. Her father, Floyd Martin, raised cotton, and prepared railroad beds with Pot-Belly Mike and Rhoda for the last of the rails laid across Texas in the late 1920’s. For riding, he preferred Lulu, a small mule.
This, Bettye’s eighth book – fifth in the Bronc in the Parlor western humor series – contains art by Tennessee Mule artist, Bonnie Shields and cartoons drawn exclusively for Bronc in the Parlor by Cowpokes cartoonist, Ace Reid.
Paperback = $30 + p/h
“Bettye contributed a number of her true and exciting mule adventures for readers of Mules and More magazine, and is a wealth of information regarding mules and her travels and experiences with the animals, and the people she met along the way.”
Sue Cole
Editor
Mules and More Magazine
(c) 2017 BUNKHOUSE BOOKS
Bettye Martin-McRae