Renewable Stories: “Learning to Roughneck”
There’s been a recent uptick in activity in the Permian Basin. This week we look back at the last time West Texas was booming.
Andrea Valdez, a Houstonian, received a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005 and received her MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 2006. Two days after graduating from Medill, she began working at Texas Monthly as a fact-checker. In addition to dutifully guarding the magazine's integrity, she wrote more than forty columns in a series titled "The Manual," a short lesson on activities every Texan should know how to do. The column has since been turned into a book, How to Be a Texan: The Manual.
Valdez moved to the digital side of editorial in 2011, and in 2014 she became the editor of texasmonthly.com. During her tenure, the site's traffic has increased more than 250 percent and Texas Monthly's social media audiences have more than quintupled. She also helped launch two verticals—TM Daily Post and TMBBQ.com—and had a hand in a major redesign of texasmonthly.com in 2013.
She lives in Austin.
Introducing Texas Monthly Trove
Revisiting the archives, including our greatest hits, the obscure b-sides, and everything in between.
The Watt Age
A peek at our September cover, featuring Houston's favorite new hometown hero.
Refreshing Texasmonthly.com
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But feel free to give it a new coat of paint.
Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett on the Front Porch
The two musicians, featured on our July cover, talk about Texas’s rich songwriting history and their place in it.
Looking For Love in Magazine Pages
Our June issue, featuring a look back at Urban Cowboy 35 years after its premiere, is on newsstands and texasmonthly.com.
An interview with the Baylor Law student who spent a year doing 63 things that every Texan should do before they die.
Big Bend in High Def
A taste of the majestic vistas Big Bend National Park has to offer.
