MCM Books News

In his foreword to Abel Rubio’s book Stolen Heritage, A Mexican-American’s Rediscovery of His Family’s Lost Land Grant , Thomas H. Kreneck who now serves as  Associate Library Director for Special Collections and Archives at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi writes: “In my work as a public historian…I have encountered at least 200 laymen who claimed they were ‘writing books’ about the history of their families. None of the people, I should add, ever completed their projects; the difficulty of such a task always outstripped their ability and enthusiasm.” That is unfortunate. If anyone out there is having trouble completing their family history take hope from Rubio’s formidable achievement. Rubio recognizes in his introduction that: “This narrative is not a standard history of Texas because it was never intended as such. But how can we write about an old-time Texas frontier family without involving the entire region and its society?” He is right on point with this observat...

Believe it or not, some people have written a novel or nonfiction book and have been unable to find a publisher. They dejectedly put away their manuscript in a file drawer or a box in their closet or garage and forgot about the dreams they once had of being published. Such was the case for Alfredo E. Cardenas and Ricardo D. Palacios, both now published authors with MCM Books. In 2015, Cardenas decided to do something about his novel Balo’s War , which he had written ten years earlier. He founded his own publishing house. He dusted off his manuscript, and with the help of his family, prepared it for publishing. He could do that because he had experience in publishing newspapers and magazines. He realized, however, that other authors did not have that experience, so he set up MCM Books to help them. One such author is Ricardo D. Palacios, a practicing attorney in Laredo, who had in his files a couple of manuscripts written as long as thirty years before. With MCM Books’ help, earlier thi...