I grew up with good parents and challenging sisters in a small house at the end of a dirt road. My best friend was my dog. I was a nerdy, bucktoothed kind of girl, which turned out to be my good luck. While other girls went on dates, I stayed home and read books. I figured out early that I love a great story. Whether it is a well written novel or an old yarn from a backwoods storyteller, I’m always drawn in.

I left home, went to college, saw a bit of the world. I wanted to be a writer, but I had no idea how that happened. Do people move to New York and start wearing berets? I had no clue.

My father was in the Air Force, and his military assignment brought him and our family here while I was still in High School. After graduation, I left San Antonio and traveled the globe for the next 25 years, then returned here to settle my own family.

I could have settled anywhere, but I liked the environment here, the reasonable cost of living, the food, and the people.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Bryce Milligan has lived in San Antonio since 1977. Among other things, he has been a folksinger, a maker of guitars, drums and dulcimers, a carpenter, a rare book bibliographer and appraiser, a college English and creative writing instructor, a poet-in-the-schools, an arts administrator, a book and magazine editor, a book designer, and a publisher. As a writer, he has been a newspaper columnist, a freelance journalist, a scholar, a novelist, a poet, a playwright, and an essayist.

Milligan is the author of five historical novels and short story collections for young adults, including the award-winning With the Wind, Kevin Dolan (Corona Publishing, 1987), which was republished in Germany.

René is an accomplished composer and harpist whose career has spanned 4 decades, 17 countries, and many album releases, including ten from CBS/Sony International. Originally from Colombia, and a household name there for his contribution to llanero music (music of the Colombian plains), he calls San Antonio home.

In His Own Words

In the years 1964 and 1965 I began to shape myself fervently as a musician, with the desire to reach…

I’ve been singing since I was a young child. I’ve performed in musicals, operas, dance halls, churches, fairs, and pretty much everywhere-even small restaurants or family gatherings. My first real role was Martha in “Let George Do It.” Since then, I call the stage my second home. There is just something about doing what you love and seeing the impact you have on others as they listen. I was born in Dallas, Texas in 1970. When I was one, my family moved to Littleton, Colorado. As of January 1, 1994, I call San Antonio my home where I am currently teaching voice lessons, judging pageants, coaching pageant contestants. I am also promoting my self-produced album, “Lone Star Lonely” which I recorded in Nashville. My two single releases, “Ain’t No Heartache” and “Tied to the Wheel of Runaway Heart” were both Top Album Cuts in the Gavin Magazine’s Country Chart.