TxDOT Still Going After Christie Craig

TxDOT isn't giving up on their campaign against women (because frankly that's what it comes down to). According to the article in the Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle, the TxDOT spokeswoman refused to answer whether the department will sue Rick Perry for using the 'Don't Mess With Texas' slogan in his campaign. No answer in politician speak means they won't. But TxDOT refuses to drop their frivolous lawsuit regarding Christie Craig's book Don't Mess With Texas.

Here's the Chronicle article.

I'm asking all Texas citizens to file a complaint with TxDOT in regards to this lawsuit. Heck, even if you're not, feel free to let our public officials know how ridiculous they make our state look.

Here's the complaint form online.

I already filed a complaint with TxDOT, and as a Texas tax payer, I asked for the specific amount spent on the original request for the original restraining order (which TxDOT lost, by the way). I received a response from the Office of General Counsel stating that no money had been spent, even though TxDOT would have had to pay filing fees for the first lawsuit and they hired outside counsel to represent them in federal court in this matter. If you would like a copy of the repsonse I received, please e-mail me privately.

Because this is ongoing litigation, Christie cannot comment on any of this. Please respect her in that regard.

But as a Texas citizen, I'm very angry about the rampant sexism in our state and the waste of state funds in this economic climate.

Don't Mess With Christie Craig

Normally, when a crit partner has a new book, I post the cover and the blurb on release day.

This situation with Christie Craig has been anything but normal.

So I waited to see how Judge Sparks ruled at the emergency TRO hearing on Monday.  TxDOT's request for a temporary restraining order was denied.  I can't say anymore than that since the official position of Hachette and Christie is 'No comment.'

[Edit to Add: The actual ruling hadn't been posted on the federal court's website, but the Austin Business Journal had the gist in an article posted this afternoon.]

[2nd Edit to Add: Here's a copy of the Request for Restraining Order and Injunction.  What's interesting is that no other major bookseller, such as Amazon or Books-A-Million, was named in the Request.]

However, for more info, here's some sites:

As far as I know, the Houston Press broke the story Tuesday morning.

A few hours later, the Dallas Business News added a few more details.

Then the romance community started commenting:
Something Wicked
Cheeky Reads
Dear Author
Beyond Her Book
Boxing the Octopus
Killer Fiction


[FYI: Houston, TX, is the headquarters of Romance Writers of America, and the home of three RWA chapters.]

By 2PM, the Twitterverse and various author loops had exploded with the news.

Magdalen at Promantica talks about the legal issues.

The news hit KHOU-TV, Channel 11, a little after 5 PM.

***

What I can say is that Don't Mess with Texas is another of Christie's wacky romantic suspense books. Three cops were unjustly sent to prison. Once exonerated, they become P.I.s with two missions: find the crime lord who set them up and help innocents accused of wrong-doing. And since this is Christie, there's the wild pets.  In this case, it's Budweiser, the coffin-lovin' bulldog.

Blurb
Nikki Hunt thought her night couldn't get worse when her no-good, cheating ex ditched her at dinner, sticking her with the bill. Then she found his body stuffed in the trunk of her car and lost her two-hundred-dollar meal all over his three-thousand-dollar suit. Now not only is Nikki nearly broke, she's a murder suspect.

Dallas O'Connor knows what it's like to be unjustly accused. But one look at the sexy-though skittish-suspect tells him she couldn't hurt anyone. The lead detective, Dallas's own brother, has the wrong woman and Dallas hopes a little late-night "undercover" work will help him prove it . . .