ETX Uncovered · Kilgore, TX · Published June 27, 2026 If you'd asked me about Geektopia a month ago, I'd have told you it was the comic shop in Kilgore that throws Geekend. That's the part that reaches you. Geekend is a two-day downtown event with costume contests and a Naruto run and a scavenger hunt for comics hidden in storefronts — the kind of thing that fills a feed every spring. I knew it came from Geektopia. I knew Geektopia sold comics. Past that, I had nothing. A na

ETX Uncovered · Kilgore, TX · Published June 20, 2026 "Leave everything you know about photography at the door." Tintype by Shaun Stewart. John Coffer (right) and Shaun Stewart (left), Coffer's homestead, upstate New York. That's what John Coffer told Shaun when he showed up at a hand-built cabin in upstate New York to learn wet plate collodion photography. By then Shaun had already spent decades behind cameras — film, digital, large and medium format — but Coffer wasn't inte

ETX Uncovered · Tyler, TX · Published June 6, 2026 Editor's note: As this article was being finalized, Lance McWhorter received word that Heritage East has been nominated for the Texas Restaurant Association's Rising Star Award, to be presented July 12 in San Antonio. Once again, Lance is bringing East Texas to the table. When I left Heritage East after my first interview with Chef Lance McWhorter, I knew I didn’t have the full story. Now, after a follow-up call and a sneak

ETX Uncovered · Longview, TX · Published May 22, 2026 There came a point when his son started recognizing the duffel bags by the door. When he saw them, he'd go quiet. He wouldn't talk to his dad until he was home from the next job. That's the moment Brandon Harrison will tell you about. He says it plainly, the way oilfield guys talk about most things — without making it the thing. But it is the thing. He'd been in the oilfield since 2017 — frac first, then wireline pump-down

She came out of physical therapy school with a doctorate and one firm conviction about her future. Absolutely not. Never. Not ever. That was her answer every time someone asked if she’d own her own business one day. She was going to be a physical therapist — a good one — and that was enough. She didn’t need the overhead and the risk and the headache of building something from scratch. Then she spent five years inside the work she’d trained for. And something shifted. Rachel C

ETX Uncovered · Gilmer, TX · Published May 1, 2026 For a year, Randy didn't leave the house. He had a bulging disc in his lower back. He'd seen the surgeons. He'd done physical therapy. He'd done all the things. And the pain was so severe — so consuming — that the thought of throwing it out again was enough to keep him horizontal. He missed family events. He stopped working out. He stopped biking. His wife drove him everywhere he had to go. Then a woman in a Longview salon ov

By Jessica Boggio, Sage Media | Gladewater, TX The Credential Nobody Wanted Her to Have She was 27 years old, sitting in a prison cell in Texas, and she had made her decision. I'm forever gonna die an addict. I have no hope, and now I have this huge felony, and I'm for sure never gonna figure it out. Three months in, she got on medication for major depressive disorder. And something shifted — not dramatically, not all at once, but enough. Enough to make a plan. Enough to imag

In 2015, a doctor printed off a stack of research, sat across from Sara Schader, and told her she would never have children. She had been struggling with infertility. She had just been diagnosed with a cervical tumor. And this doctor — who had the same condition, at the same age, years earlier — was handing her data as evidence. A verdict dressed up as compassion. Sara looked at the paperwork. She didn't believe it. Not because she was in denial. Because she already had a con

“I came out of the back room one day and it was chaos,” she said. “And I thought, I’m killing myself. If I’m gonna do that, I want to do it for something I’m passionate about.” That was the moment. Thirty years in retail — working her way from salesperson to store manager — and it came down to one thought in a stockroom in Longview. Not a grand plan. Not a business model. Just a woman who had spent her whole career being very good at something she didn't fully believe in, fin

The first time Daniel saw it, he was lying in bed, deep in one of those late-night rabbit holes that either waste your time or change your life. He nudged Violet. "Look at this," he said. "It's like working out on a spaceship." A few months later, they drove to a factory in Kansas City to see one in person. When the doors swung open and the lights blazed on and music flooded the warehouse, Daniel had a better comparison ready. "If Optimus Prime could pop out some weights — t

In East Texas, high school football is big. But true athletic development — the kind built around speed, movement quality, durability, and long-term progression — has often required athletes to leave town. Zac Newbell decided that needed to change. As the founder of HUSTL CULTR — and the original force behind Zone 10 Performance — Newbell is preparing to open a 9,800-square-foot performance facility designed to elevate athletic performance training in Longview, Texas, giving

Two years ago, she didn’t open a yoga business because it was trendy. She opened it because she needed something different — and no one else was offering it. Her first yoga experience had been confusing and overwhelming. The class moved too fast. The instruction assumed familiarity. Instead of calm, she felt lost. She walked out in fifteen minutes. But what could have been the end of the story became the beginning. She tried again — this time in a slower, more intentional cla

Before sitting down with Beth of B & C Photography, I already knew her work was phenomenal. She has a way of capturing moments that feel both effortless and intentional — images that don’t just show what something looked like, but what it felt like in that second. I’d seen her family photos: warm, natural, and full of connection. I also knew she photographed boudoir. What I didn’t fully understand until our conversation was that boudoir photography isn’t a side offering for

Every town has one — that one person whose presence softens the edges of a hard year. The one who makes people pause, smile, breathe again. Here in East Texas, that person wears red. Santa Phil doesn’t just dress like Santa. He carries the heart of one. You notice it the moment he walks into a room — how the air shifts, how adults straighten up, how kids suddenly remember how to believe in something unseen. But it’s not the suit that does that. It’s him. Because behind the b

Step inside Hillie’s Artwork in downtown Gladewater and you’ll hear the steady buzz of a tattoo gun beneath a gallery of heroes and...

In a town where new restaurants seem to pop up every season—bringing their trendy menus, Instagram-ready interiors, and opening-week buzz—there’s one place that doesn’t have to chase the spotlight. Texas Traditions has already earned it. A Legacy of Local Flavor Before it was Texas Traditions, the building housed Roy’s , a local eatery many Gladewater residents still remember fondly. Later, it became The Silver Spur , run by Michael Sollars for about two decades. When Michae