Katy Vine's Profile Photo

Katy Vine joined the editorial department of Texas Monthly in 1997 and became a staff writer in 2002. As a general assignment reporter, she has written dozens of features on a range of topics, including rocket scientist Franklin Chang Díaz, hip-hop legend Bun B, barbecue pitmasters, cult leader Warren Jeffs, refugees in Amarillo, the moon landing, a three-person family circus, chess prodigies, a woman who kidnapped the Kilgore Rangerettes director and her daughter, an accountant who embezzled $17 million from a fruitcake company, and a con man who crashed cars, yachts, and planes for insurance money. Her stories have been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing and Best Food Writing. Her feature story about a West Texas sting operation was the inspiration for the 2012 television series The Client List.

342 Articles

Being Texan|
February 1, 2001

Love and War in Cyberspace

Brandon and Denise were not like other people. They were smarter, more introverted. They adored computers, playing games online at three in the morning with people in Finland. When they and other hard-core techies moved to Walden, a Houston apartment complex with the fastest residential Internet connection in the world,

Film|
February 1, 2001

Hot Doug

Critics praise him. Woody Allen loves him. And no one does a better Truman Capote. Meet Midland's Douglas McGrath, a writer-director who's ready to take center stage with his role in a new movie.

Around the State|
February 1, 2001

Around the State

From ballet to boot-scootin', Houston offers up a great weekend. Plus: Austin and Dallas put artists on display; Galveston gets fat; San Antonio hits an operatic high note; and the San Antonio CineFestival focuses in on the films of Efrain Gutierrez.

Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

Caldwell Zoo, Tyler

When I first walked into the Caldwell Zoo, I ran smack into a wall of stench radiating from the flamingo island (summed up by one young nose-pinching passerby as “stinky”). Happily, the inevitable eau de zoo didn’t linger as I wound my way down a path to the East African

Reporter|
July 31, 2000

Blood Brothers

Sixteen years ago, rookie filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen changed Austin with a Simple plan.

Business|
March 1, 2000

Meetmarket.com

At Austin’s High-tech Happy Hour, the schmoozing and boozing is about finding your next job. And, maybe, landing a cute millionaire.

Business|
February 1, 2000

This Is living.com?

He’s worth tens of millions of dollars at age 28, but money, as they say, can’t buy happiness: Two weeks in the life of Andrew Busey, dot-com hotshot.

Face|
December 1, 1999

Maydelle Fason

“The first dance performances I saw were at the Armadillo World Headquarters, where nachos and beer were sold throughout the shows,” says 29-year-old Maydelle Fason. Who could guess that this experience would eventually inspire the former Austinite to pursue a career in cutting-edge dance? As a teenager, Fason received a

Face|
November 1, 1999

Sergio Troncoso

“I am a writer from a particular community in Texas,” says 38-year-old Sergio Troncoso. “It’s not even El Paso. It’s Ysleta, the east side of El Paso. I grew up around cotton fields and combines.” That environment has emerged in Troncoso’s stories years after he left for the East

Reporter|
September 30, 1999

Felonious Monk?

There’s something unorthodox—to say the least—about the Christ of the Hills Monastery in Blanco.

Face|
September 30, 1999

Judy Walgren

Judy Walgren is outrageous, hilarious, and surprisingly laid-back, but when she starts talking about what she’s working on, there’s no questioning her seriousness. “The whole reason I went into photojournalism wasn’t so much because I love taking photos,” says the 36-year-old Dallasite. “It was a calling to go out and

Face|
August 31, 1999

Drew Brees

“Everything I do out in the yard—throwing the baseball with my brother or the football with my dad—always turns into an accuracy contest,” says Drew Brees. And practice, in the case of this twenty-year-old quarterback, has made near-perfect. As the starter at Austin’s Westlake High School during his junior and

Music|
July 31, 1999

Jandek and Me

Why is he a cult hero to deejays and record collectors— and why is he such a recluse? I wanted to know, so I tried to find him. And I did, in an upscale Houston neighborhood. And we drank beer.

Face|
July 31, 1999

John Patrick White

Aspiring actors take note: Getting started in the film industry requires flexibility. “I’ve played a zombie, I’ve played an alien, and I’ve played a lot of nerds,” says John Patrick White. Unlike most performers, however, the 26-year-old Houston native has never had to play the real-life role of working stiff.

Music|
June 30, 1999

Jake Andrews

A seven-year-old guitarist who makes his stage debut alongside blues legend Albert King is a novelty, even after he has jammed with Buddy Guy, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Albert Collins. But what happens when the kid grows up? He becomes a seasoned veteran—more of a contender than less experienced peers

Face|
May 31, 1999

Brent and Brad Hauser

Twenty-two-year-old twins Brent and Brad Hauser have the kind of track record that makes their competitors weak in the knees. Now seniors at Stanford University, the former Kingwood residents have both set school records in the 10,000-meter, 5,000-meter (indoor and outdoor), and 3,000-meter events. At last year’s NCAA championships, Brad

Books|
April 30, 1999

David Hale Smith

David Hale Smith rejects more than three hundred manuscripts each month, but when he accepts one, publishers take note. Since 1994, when he left the tutelage of Dallas superagent Jan Miller and founded his own agency, DHS Literary, the thirty-year-old has established himself as one of the industry’s young lions,

Face|
April 1, 1999

Jacob Sudhoff

What’s the first image that comes to mind when you think of a teenage salesman? A kid peddling khakis at the Gap? Well, consider Corpus Christi high school senior Jacob Sudhoff, who sells something more substantial: luxury homes. “I used to ride around my neighborhood on my bike and look

Biz Feature|
March 1, 1999

Generation Tech

They’re intelligent, business-savvy, techno-friendly, and young—in some cases, very young. Meet thirty Texas multimedia whizzes under thirty and four who just missed the cut.

Style & Design|
March 1, 1999

Elisa Jimenez

Elisa Jimenez didn’t start out as a fashion designer. The 34-year-old El Paso native, who is the daughter of sculptor Luis Jimenez, set out for New York City in the early nineties to pursue her interest in sculpture and performance art. In 1995, she says, “I wore a dress I

Sports|
February 1, 1999

Debbie Rice

Watch out, World Wrestling Federation. The famed Roller Derby is back, and Houston native Debbie Rice may prove to be its “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The 31-year-old holds five national in-line skating records, and clocking in at 61 miles per hour, she’s the fastest downhill female speedskater in the world.

Politics & Policy|
January 1, 1999

Dianne Hardy-Garcia

DIANNE HARDY-GARCIA is so earnest in conversation that you might mistake her for a political novice. Don’t. As the executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas for the past five years, the 33-year-old San Antonio native has had one of the most challenging jobs in a

Face|
November 1, 1998

Luann Williams

Luann Williams, the editor and publisher of Pop Culture Press, isn’t the type who waits for opportunity to knock. “In the mid-eighties I was working at a Memphis record store and loved music magazines,” says the thirtysomething Tennessee native. “I was looking at a couple, and I thought, ‘You know,

Sports|
September 30, 1998

Kristen Link and Lindsay Long

When twenty-year-old Kristen Link, a junior at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, asked eighteen-year-old freshman Lindsay Long to be her synchronized diving partner in the spring of 1997, Long wasn’t sure she wanted to take the plunge. “It’s scary enough to dive by yourself, and in synchronized diving you have

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