My novel, Fourth Down in Texas, is now available

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I'm excited to announce that my novel, Fourth Down In Texas, is now available. It will go into wide release this summer, but for now, it's available exclusively through the FourthDowninTexas.com. Early copies will also, in all likelihood, be signed. (I signed a lot of them before the official release date, but since I don't do the shipping, I can't guarantee every one is signed.)

Details about the book are below, and there's more at -- echo, echo -- FourthDowninTexas.com.

From the news release:
Football, with both a rich history and a history of making people rich, might seem to big too die. But in FOURTH DOWN IN TEXAS, a novel set amid the simmering debate of football safety, the dominoes are falling on a cultural cornerstone of America.
Evidence is mounting regarding the lasting effects of concussions, the NFL and NCAA are targets of negligence lawsuits, and the rare-but-wrenching stories of high school player deaths have put football on the firing line. In FOURTH DOWN IN TEXAS, written by longtime Dallas Morning News sports writer and columnist Matt Wixon, school districts across the country are shutting down their football programs and even Texas, the 50-yard line of football in America, is feeling the effects.
As his Dallas-area school district considers eliminating the football program, Coach Gordon “Tuffy” Nehls envisions a dark future in which entrepreneurs and street agents control high school football. Nehls fights for the sport he loves and leads his team on a final magical ride, all while coming to grips with a changing world and living with the regret of a decision that altered a player’s life forever.
FOURTH DOWN IN TEXAS is a story of football – its glorious past, its uncertain present and its potential future. More than that, it’s a story about coaches and players, fathers and sons, lifetime bonds and living for the moment.

Advance praise for the novel:
“FOURTH DOWN IN TEXAS is Friday Night Lights meets Concussion. There couldn’t be a more timely sports story. Because it’s not just about football. It’s about what our culture values. … Wixon has written a great, accessible book that gave me chills in its final lines.”
-- Mark Falkin, author of Contract City and The Late Bloomer

About the Author:
Matt Wixon spent nearly two decades at The Dallas Morning News, where he was an award-winning sports writer and columnist. He was selected as the 2013 Sports Writer of the Year by the Texas High School Coaches Association, and in 2017 he was named Media Person of the Year by the Dallas chapter of the National Football Foundation.

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