The Texas Secessionists Standoff

Texas Wine and True Crime

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Donna Marie Miller is the author of Texas Secessionists Standoff; the 1997 Republic of Texas "War,” (2023.) A real-life drama that unfolds involving the Republic of Texas antigovernment militia, otherwise known as ROT.

Richard Lance McLaren, (self-proclaimed) “ambassador” for the ROT claimed that Texas was illegally annexed in 1845 by the United States. McLaren, since the early 1990s operated what he called the ROT “embassy” within the Davis Mountains in West Texas. Jo Ann Canady Turner, 54, meets McLaren, and a ripple effect of arrests, jail time, and hostages lie ahead.

Donna’s freelance articles have appeared in Alternate Root, Americana Rhythm, Austin Food, Austin Monthly, Cowgirl, Creative Screenwriting, Elmore, Fiddler, No Depression (Music,) Texas Highways, and former Third Coast magazines. Early in her professional writing career she worked nine years as anewspaper reporter covering general assignment, entertainment and crime beats at three Texas daily newspapers including The El Paso Herald-Post, The El Paso Times, and The Amarillo Globe-News. Miller also taught secondary level journalism courses for 24 years in the Amarillo, Austin, El Paso, Eanes, and Manor school districts before retiring from teaching in 2013. Currently she is collaborating with film producer Cynthia Uhrich to write a television series adaptation of her 2023 nonfiction true crime book.

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