Lindsay Emory | The Truth About Dallas Stereotypes

When I decided to set KNOW WHEN TO HOLD HIM in my hometown of Dallas, I wanted to write about the real city and the down-to-earth, diverse people who live here. Those old-fashioned stereotypes about my city would be banished and I would show the world what Dallas is really like. After conducting an exhaustive survey (on Twitter), I compiled the Top 5 Dallas Stereotypes and how they do not relate to my book. At all. Nope.

1. Big Hair

As far as I know, everyone has normal height hair in my book. Okay, there’s one scene that takes place in a hair salon and someone is threatened with a curling iron. But it’s not even plugged in! See? Stereotype smashed.

2. Country Music

Only one country song is mentioned in the book, The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. You got to know when to hold ‘em… Everyone knows that song, not just people in Dallas… Know when to fold ‘em… In fact, I bet you’re singing it right now. Know when to walk away, know when to run… Country music is not something specific to Dallas.

3. Oil

The only oil tycoon in KNOW WHEN TO HOLD HIM is actually from San Antonio, not Dallas. So that certainly doesn’t count.

4. Republicans

Well… fine. You got me. My heroine is the daughter of a Republican Senator from Texas. Who once ran for President. But every state has Republicans, not just Texas, and some of them surely run for President sometimes. Texas doesn’t have a monopoly on Republicans running for President. It just seems like it.

5. Football

Alright, alright! The hero is a former NFL player and there’s the NFL draft and they talk about football a lot. This is Texas, after all. We like football and there’s nothing wrong with that!

What I’ve learned is that sometimes stereotypes are based in fact, and some of these certainly are. There are all types of hair in my city, all types of music plays on the radio and lots of people don’t watch the Cowboys on Sundays. Love it or leave it, Dallas is, at its core, a city of heart and style, both of which I tried to convey in this book.

In two months, I hope to meet some of you at the Romantic Times Convention right here in Dallas and you can tell me what you think about this crazy place I call home.

About KNOW WHEN TO HOLD HIM

Spencer Hightower's job is cleaning up other people's messes.

And she is damn good at it. Unfortunately, being a supremely organized workaholic, she doesn’t always easily meet guys—until Liam Connelly shows up, all high-powered and really, really sexy.

Sure, he makes Spencer's pulse thump...but he's also the biggest pain in her professional life. Liam can't believe his lousy luck when he learns that Spencer is his opposition in a high-profile scandal.

She’s the best at what she does and the worst possible opponent. Of course, a little professional animosity can't hurt a guy's chances for a date, can it? Even as Spencer tries to keep her distance, their attraction grows stronger...and hotter.

But once they cross all kinds of professional—and personal—boundaries, the situation snowballs into a disaster that even the great Spencer Hightower can't fix...

About Lindsay Emory

As a Texan and recovering sorority girl, Lindsay Emory has strong opinions on college football, nachos, and wearing white after Labor Day. Lindsay started writing when her first grade teacher put her in a closet and told her to write stories, instead of teaching her math. When she's not writing, she's raising two daughters, watching movies with her husband, and reading as many books as possible. She is an active member of the Dallas Area Romance Authors chapter of RWA and a semi-active member of the PTA, which is a whole lot less fun.