I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE PINK DRESS by Jane Little Botkin Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Author: Jane Little Botkin

Pub. Date: September 10, 2024

Publisher: She Writes Press

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 304

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-PINK-DRESS

For fans of Little Miss Sunshine and Secrets of Miss America, this memoir from a national award-winning author reveals the reality of being the first Guyrex Girl in the 1970s. Beauty pageant stories have never been this raw, this real.

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso’s Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the “Kings of Beauty”—just as the 1970’s counterculture movement began to take off.

A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane’s time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author’s failed relationship with her mother, and her parents’ failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs.

The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era’s conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get “MRS” degrees—to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother—often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest “If You Want Meat, Go to a Butcher!” at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women’s traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.

Reviews:

“It’s about time the story of GuyRex (Guyrex) was told, and to have someone like Jane, who was the genesis to the legend of these two incredibly talented men, share it so beautifully is a treat for all. Reading the events of their pageantry has brought back many wonderful memories that truly shaped my adult life as well. If you had the opportunity to be a part of the GuyRex system—that is, if you were a GuyRex Girl—then your life was forever changed for the good.”—Gretchen Polhemus Jensen, Miss USA 1989, former Miss Texas, and former GuyRex Girl


“The great meaning of this story and what makes it a page-turner is how Jane came to peace with difficult parents and extraordinary expectations to eventually become a highly successful writer, but perhaps more importantly, a wife, mother, grandmother, and role model. Her story is one that will linger in my mind and make me want to know her. Bravo, Jane, well done.”—David Crow, best-selling author of The Pale-Faced Lie


“I remember watching televised beauty pageants with my family when I was a kid in the 1970s and Mama saying, ‘They’re all pretty.’ But Jane Little Botkin unveils another view, one that shows how wild, western, chaotic, and sometimes downright ugly things were behind the scenes. The Pink Dress isn’t a beautiful walk down memory lane. It’s a wild ride through the turbulent 1970s, West Texas style. Here she is, Janie Botkin, taking the town by storm.”—Johnny D. Boggs, nine-time Spur Award winner and author of upcoming books Longhorns East and Bloody Newton

About Jane Little Botkin:

National award–winning author Jane Little Botkin melds personal narratives of American families often with compelling stories of western women. A member of Western Writers of America since 2017, Jane judges entries for the WWA’s prestigious Spur Award, reviews new releases, and writes articles for various magazines. Her books have won numerous awards, including two Spur Awards, two Caroline Bancroft History Prizes, and the Barbara Sudler Award; she has also been a finalist for the Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Award and Sarton Book Award. She is currently working on a biography of Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight for the University of Oklahoma Press. Jane blissfully escapes into her literary world in the remote White Mountain Wilderness near Nogal, New Mexico. 

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Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of THE PINK DRESS, US Only.

Ends September 24th, midnight EST.

What Events Have Shaped Your Life?

Obviously, being a Guyrex Girl shaped my life, though I would never have believed this at the time. Every job I ever had was due to this title. In the old days (yes, I’m old!), employment applications sometimes asked, “How did you pay for your education?” I was able to answer with “Miss America Pageant Scholarships.”  That always caused interest. The pageant years sum up the first half of my life.

My dad’s love of western books and movies also greatly affected my love of the western genre then and now. We moved to El Paso likely because of Marty Robbins’s 1957 song “El Paso.”  

I taught 30 years before I began my first book, primarily British lit, yet had a natural slide into writing western-oriented literature, historical American biography. This last part of my life has been consumed with writing, speaking at various events, and researching. When I’m with other writers, despite the diverse genres, I feel like I have found my flock.

My husband says I should have begun writing in my twenties and never taught. I disagree. As in the case of writing The Pink Dress, it takes a mature insight to look back, put yourself within a historical context (in this case the counterculture era of the 1970s), and write. In addition, my students taught me so much about writing and taking chances. Writing involves risk-taking. A writer always has the worry, “will they like me?” We write hoping that others will read.