UPCOMING EVENTS
21 May 2024 – En Amie Book Club: The Last Gunfight at the Rice Hotel, and Other Odd Tales
NEWS
Counterclockwise and Sheer Will Honored as Finalists in 2024 American Legacy Book Awards
April 26, 2024 – The American Book Fest announced the results of the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards. Of the thousands of titles entered, 500 were selected for honors. Entries included mainstream, independent, and self-published books in 100 categories. Two works by David H. Falloure were finalists in their respective categories: Counterclockwise, a Novel, for Cross-Genre Fiction, and Sheer Will, the Story of the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel, for General History.
2023 Telly Awards Announced
May 26, 2023 – The Telly Awards announced winners from its 44th annual competition. Among them were six videos written by David H. Falloure. The awards included one Gold, three Silver, and two Bronze statues for varying categories of business-to-business videos. This builds on his previous haul in the 43rd Annual Telly Awards of 3 Gold, 5 Silver, and 1 Bronze across multiple categories, as well as the 42nd Annual Telly Awards Bronze for Online Commercials General-Business Equipment and Services.
The Telly Awards annually showcases the select work created across video formats for all screens. Receiving over more than 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents, the Telly Awards are very competitive with winners representing work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world.
The Junior League of Houston Selects Local Author to Write Book for 2025 100th Anniversary
March 6, 2023 – Junior League of Houston has selected David Falloure to write its centennial book celebrating 100 years of service to the Houston community. The organization of women promotes voluntarism, develops the potential of women, and improves communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.
Falloure was selected based on his experience writing centennial books for both the Port of Houston’s celebration of the Houston Ship Channel 2014 centennial and the Port of Beaumont’s 2016 centennial, along with other history-centric works.
Winners’ Circle: Strategy and Tactics Behind Award-Winning Creative
February 16, 2023 – The Houston Business Marketing Alliance (HBMA) invited David Falloure to join a panel of professional communicators for a behind-the-scenes look at their award-winning results for the 33rd Annual Lantern Awards. For his part, Falloure will discuss the strategies, the inspirations, and the execution for SLB’s Aqueous Fluid Solutions campaign, which earned Best of Show.
Bold Creative Earns Bright Lights at 33rd Lantern Awards
November 17, 2022 – The 33rd Annual Lantern Awards recognized outstanding marketing communications submitted to the Houston chapter of the Houston Business Marketing Alliance (HBMA). Earning an Award of Excellence, two Lanterns, and this year’s Best of Show were campaigns written by David H. Falloure for SLB (formerly Schlumberger). Conducted by the Houston Business Marketing Alliance, the competition judges marketing work (SEO, marketing research, and creative that includes video, web, ads, animation, and more) primarily on the basis of project objectives, target audience, creative approach, and relevance to the target, and results. Judges are selected from across the marketing communications sector and from all around the United States. It was noted at the ceremony that one of Falloure’s campaigns, Aqueous Fluid Solutions, hit the sweet spot with a very rare, if not first-ever, perfect score among the diverse judges.
Historical Society Hosts Falloure
October 12, 2022 – The Harris County Historical Society played host to David H Falloure on Houston’s “Land Sea Dependency,” or how the city became the love child from Buffalo Bayou and railroads. Over 50 people turned out for the event at the Houston Racquet Club. The purpose of the Harris County Historical Society is to encourage, advocate, and administer the discovery, collection, preservation and publication of historical information, records, oral histories, visuals, and other materials relating to the history of Harris County. It’s various activities also educate the public about the important history of Harris County, Texas.
RebelCanvas Paints a Picture of a Writer
September 12, 2022 – CanvasRebel is an online magazine that focuses on Houston-area creatives and their stories, struggles, and successes. The mag went live this week with an interview with David Falloure about what he does and why, along with some quirky things about his career. You can catch the Q&A here
2022 Telly Awards Announced
May 24, 2022 – The Telly Awards announced today the winners of the 43rd annual competition. Included were multiple awards for online videos written by Schlumberger’s David H Falloure and produced in collaboration with Houston’s Ell Creative. Leading off the list of winning entries were two Gold Telly’s for Smart Drilling and TruLink, the Missing Link, followed by two Silver Telly’s for Drilling Fluids Advisor and Intelligent Power Management – Let’s Clear the Air, and a Bronze Telly for Autonomous Downhole Control Systems.
The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work created across video formats for all screens. Receiving over 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents, the Telly Awards are very competitive with winners representing work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world.
AVA Digital Awards Recognizes Schlumberger
February 17, 2022 – The AVA Digital Awards recognized Schlumberger with 10 awards for outstanding digital videos, with seven of those written by David Falloure, lead writer for the Schlumberger well construction team. The videos were part of go-to-market campaigns for a mix of technologies and stories from several business lines. Winning submissions earned Platinum and Gold Awards along with one Honorable Mention.
The AVA Digital Awards is an international competition that recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, direction, design, and production of media that is part of the evolution of digital communication. Work ranges from audio and video productions, social media sites, animation, blogs, podcasts, and other forms of user-generated digital communication.
Village News Interviews Falloure
January 25, 2022 – The Village News/Southwest News featured an interview with David Falloure by Ben Wheatley. The half-page double-spread article ran the gamut of Falloure’s writing, from his work with Schlumberger as Lead Writer for Well Construction to his novel, Counterclockwise, to his upcoming serial fiction release of VINDICTUS. The piece starts by revealing that Falloure sometimes hears voices. To learn more about those voices and other writing processes, log onto the digital version here and check out the tops of pages 4 and 5.
Coming Soon: Serial Fiction – VINDICTUS
December 17, 2021 – VINDICTUS is a serial fiction featuring Hannibal Barca, an immensely old warrior-poet continuing a millennia-long hide and seek with the bloodline of sworn enemies whose ancestors destroyed his home and chased him across continents. Concealing his true identity, Hannibal watches two thousand years of history unfold, meeting artists and musicians, advising Caesars and kings, seducing queens and chambermaids, fighting with generals and rebels, even meeting a messiah. Some know his secret—the ancient houses, either allies or foes, and a privileged few in a government struggling to cure a disease decimating populations.
The planned release for VINDICTUS is set for 2022, exclusively on this site in text and audio forms.
ANA Awards Announced
November 18, 2021 – The Houston Chapter of ANA Business marketing held its annual gala recognizing superior B2B marketing communications. For his work with Schlumberger, David Falloure earned a Lantern Award for the Eats Rock Campaign, along with several Awards for Excellence earned for campaigns and videos. These follow earlier recognition from the Telly Awards for the video Autonomous Directional Drilling, which also earned two Awards for Excellence in the campaign and video categories.
Eats Rock is a social media campaign comprising five tongue-in-cheek videos targeting the North American oil driller audience. Many in the target audience are old enough to remember cereal commercials from the 1970s and 1980s—even ones as far back as Euell Gibbons Grape Nuts commercials. Each of the five videos is crafted like a cereal commercial and targeted to a specific oil-producing region in North America. And the respective cereals are named for the targeted regions, featuring ingredients named for the type of rock drillers encounter in them. The commercial format is familiar but the language is very target-audience specific.
HCHS and Book Club Hosts Falloure
October 7, 2021 – David Falloure wrapped up two great virtual discussions with the Harris County Historical Society (HCHS) and the Junior Current Book Club these past few weeks. Both groups were great hosts and the participants we so welcoming and asked excellent questions about Counterclockwise and Sheer Will, the Story of the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel. The discussion with HCHS centered on the idea of “nautical Texas” while the visit with the book club focused mostly on Counterclockwise.
Telly Awards Announced
May 25, 2021 – The Telly Awards announced today the winners of the 2021 42nd annual competition. Included was a Bronze Telly recognizing the online commercial for Schlumberger’s Autonomous Directional Drilling, a collaboration between the company and Ell Creative. Key Schlumberger contributors included WC External Communication Manager David O’Neill, Well Construction Digital Product Champion Ziad Akkaoui, and Lead Writer David H. Falloure.
Autonomous Directional Drilling introduces the energy industry’s newest drilling category—drilling using equipment that relies little on human interaction to achieve trajectories. Schlumberger has been a pioneer of this capability for 18 years and continues leading the industry in autonomous systems.
Watch the winning video here.
Counterclockwise Gets Return Engagement
April 27, 2021 – En Amie Review Book Club hosted David Falloure at BraeBurn Country Cub for a chat about his novel, Counterclockwise, and the real-world inspirations behind scenes and characters. The discussion with about 30 audience members sparked comments on Houston and regional history. En Amie began in the late 1970s and has evolved beyond books to include other history-related subjects and organizations. This event marked the first in-person event of 2021.
VoyageHouston Goes Live with David Falloure
April 20, 2021 – VoyageHouston is an online magazine that focuses on Houston locals and their stories, struggles, and successes. This week it went live with an interview revealing David Falloure’s journey to novelist. You can catch the Q&A here
Fresh Campaign Changes Company Tone in Advertising
March 4, 2021 – #eatsrock4breakfast is a new campaign written by David Falloure and the brainchild of Mike Muhlherr, former Schlumberger Marketing Strategist. This is an all-new brand campaign for Smith Bits, a Schlumberger company. The idea behind it was to do something totally different and out of character for the century-old energy service company, with the intent of raising brand awareness for its line of drill bits and drilling tools.
And different it is.
The campaign kicks of with its first of five online commercials spoofing 70s and 80s breakfast cereal commercials. The core message is “our bits eat rock for breakfast.” Of course, that’s what bits are designed to do. However, few may realize that Smith Bits holds more world records for drilling than any other bit manufacturer. Further demonstrating rock knowledge, the commercials use the cereal format to drop in relevant rock types and basin names. One added Easter egg for the attentive is that the voice-over is the same talent as Duluth Trading Company. So you’ll get some familiarity and good humor association.
Ten Years of Celebrating the Past Through a Marketing Lens
January 9, 2021 – Brands in History marked a decade of looking at historical figures and events from a branding perspective. Launched in January of 2011, the blog started with a look at Carthaginian general, Hannibal Barca, assessing his attributes and the brand promise that made him both revered and feared in his day, and why he remains relevant. More than 114 entries have spawned a book with the same title and enabled blogger David H Falloure to write three books on regional history, as well as a novel launched last October.
Who is the most popular historical figure? “That’s easy,” Falloure says. “The Spartans have held the top spot for Brands in History since the day I wrote it.” He adds it’s not even close between number 1 and 2, but second place goes to Florence Nightingale. But content isn’t just people. The Ancient Marcom page dives into 10,000 years of human marketing communication, dating back to drum beating and then the first annual report, even suite sponsorships at the Colosseum. Strategies included gossips, orators, and various tablets or scrolls—even graffiti. And if you want to learn what Baseball and the Rosetta Stone have in common, well, you’ll have to read on.
Brands in History hasn’t only featured Falloure’s work. Members of his “round table” include five marketing notables, a human performance and organizational change expert, a trained anthropologist who is a communications strategist by trade, and a trained historian. When asked what’s next, Falloure says, “The blog will evolve, but I’m not entirely sure how—I may incorporate video or interviews. And I’d like to welcome more contributors.” He concludes by saying that in the meantime, he’ll keep looking at history with a marketing lens.
Counterclockwise Gets Its First In-Person Event
October 27, 2020 – En Amie Review Book Club hosted David Falloure at BraeBurn Country Cub for a discussion about Houston history. Falloure, author of several nonfiction books on Houston and regional history, spoke to over 30 audience members about the role of Buffalo Bayou in the city’s history, along with ties to Beaumont and Galveston histories, while weaving in relevant plot elements from Counterclockwise, a novel. This marked the first in-person event since the recent release of Falloure’s debut novel. The event, slated to run for two hours, ran for more than three due to questions from audience members.
Cover and Its Designer Revealed During Facebook Live Event
September 30, 2020 – The full cover for Counterclockwise was revealed during a recent Facebook Live event, featuring both author David Falloure and cover designer Michael Ratcliff.
“While working on different concepts for David, just like the main character in the novel, I went back in time for ideas,” Ratcliff said. “I looked at the work of prolific designers like Saul Bass, Paul Rand, and Alvin Lustig.”
Ratcliff’s concepts were more of an abstract nature, giving a sense of the broader themes of the Counterclockwise. Consequently, he evolved a look that had the book title and author name flow in a counterclockwise motion. The type also gets smaller as it rolls in on itself, adding to the sense of moving backward. And concentric lines add to the feeling of movement. Combined, the type and line art appear as if we are traveling down through a tunnel, transporting us to a different time and place.
The cover design echoes the work of Hollywood legend Saul Bass who designed award-winning title graphics for filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchock. Ratcliff noted that because Counterclockwise is a story crossing time and different themes, a single representational image just could not capture the entirety of the novel.
By trade, Ratcliff is a professional creative with his own firm operating in Houston. He caters to large and small companies, bringing creative solutions to branding problems. “We offer big agency strategies and creativity coupled with individual attention and care,” Ratcliff said.
Counterclockwise is now available on Amazon for e-book preorders. The hard copy version will be available on 17 October, also on Amazon. A live launch event is planned for the same day the hard copy is available. Check back for details.
Port Houston’s Impact on Sustaining American Independence
January 1, 2020 – David Falloure, author of two books on maritime Houston and one on Beaumont, spoke to the Paul Carrington chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution about the evolution of Port Houston and the Houston Ship Channel and their impact on American independence. The event took place at the Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land, Texas.
Author Talk Podcast
December 18, 2017 – David Falloure joined Author Talk hosts Sandy Lawrence (Houston Writers Guild), Russell Little (author, Murder for Me), and Aimee Ravichandron, for a live discussion about the writing process, getting published, and a slew of things connected to being a writer. Catch the session on YouTube.
Oil & Water: Economic Linchpins of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast
October 23, 2017 – The Center for History & Culture at Beaumont’s Lamar University sponsored David Falloure, author of Deep Water: The Story of Beaumont and its Port, to speak during part two of its program: Oil & Water. The program focused on economic drivers for Southeast Texas and the upper Texas Gulf Coast. Falloure spoke to both students and the public in separate sessions.
Deep Water Tells the Story of Beaumont and its Port
November 22, 2016 – Deep Water: The Story of Beaumont and its Port was released by Donning Publishers and the Port of Beaumont last week. A schooner’s chance encounter while escaping a storm helped found one of the most vital ports in the United States. It was fueled by the discovery of oil at Spindletop, Texas, transforming a sleepy little timber town an industrial Mecca. In just a few years, extensive railroad connections, new refineries, and pipelines lined the Neches River. And since its recognition as a deepwater port in 1916, Still, its road to deep water was not an easy one—and not without some worthy tales to tell from the journey.
TSHA Online features two new entries penned by Falloure
October 12, 2016 – The Texas State Historical Association website features two new entries. Penned for the Handbook of Houston (history), one entry profiles City of Bellaire founder William Wright Baldwin. It is based primarily on research conducted by David A. Falloure for his 2012 Eagle Scout project. Collaborating with young Falloure is his father, David H. Falloure, local author and blogger.
A second, related entry focuses on Baldwin’s South End Land Company, the entity responsible for land sales in Bellaire, as well as what is claimed to be the first master-planned community in Houston, Texas—the Westmoreland Addition in the city’s Montrose area.
The Handbook of Houston is an effort by TSHA to highlight Houston area history. The main site can be found at https://tshaonline.org/handbook.
A Quirky Note on Texas Independence
April 21, 2016 – Today marks another anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. In a recent article, David Falloure explores a quiet but vital moment leading to the victory, without which, Texas might never have been. It’s available online, read here.
Houston Ship Channel: Deep Water Centennial