Tex Miller Is Dead

**Indie Author Project 2024 WINNER**

**Distinguished Favorite Romantic Comedy for the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards**

She wants her life back. He wants to live. When a writer and her imaginary muse go head-to-head, real life gets complicated.

Callie Austin, the unknown author of the wildly popular Tex Miller book series, decides twenty-plus years of living in anonymity is enough. Her plan? Kill the beloved Tex Miller. But with a fierce agent, a cut-throat editor, and a beyond-zealous fan base, Callie knows not everyone will be happy. And just wait until Tex hears about it.

At twenty-two, Callie, orphaned and grieving, conjured Tex Miller, a dashing adventurer, a now-adored literary character who makes women swoon and men sit up straighter. Her novel skyrocketed, but Callie was lucky. It was the mid-1990s, pre-internet explosion, and much to her publisher’s chagrin, she insisted she remain anonymous by using a pen name. The enigmatic Calliope Jones was born and cloistered away in one fell swoop, leaving an idolizing public scratching its collective head. Visible only to her, Tex Miller became her constant screwball companion.

Two decades and a dozen books later, on a routine trip to NYC, Callie plans to end the Tex Miller saga, but an up-and-coming streaming service’s offer to turn Callie’s books into an original series may waylay Tex’s demise. Things spiral further when her trusted longtime driver falls ill, and a younger replacement chauffeur catches her eye—and maybe her heart, while Tex goes rogue, unsure he’s down with the new plot twists.

Throw in a dogged gossip blog’s rabid pursuit of ‘the truth’ along with Calliope Jones’s fervent fandom, and the world’s favorite unidentified writer has her hands full.

This standalone rom-com takes place in the same universe as the other books in the Found Families series. Reading them in order isn’t necessary, but it might be more fun for those who enjoy connected stories with a variety of subgenres.