Rockwall’s Barnes & Noble opening to include book signing by author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature In and Around Dallas-Fort Worth

Amy Martin to be joined by Rockwall nature groups and fossil hunters

Rockwall, TX (August 18, 2025) – Get to know the nature of North Texas and meet the nature stewards and explorers of Rockwall at the grand opening of the area’s latest Barnes & Noble. Amy Martin will be on hand to give a short talk and sign copies of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth from Timber Press.

• Wednesday, August 27 – 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
• Barnes & Noble Rockwall
• Plaza at Rockwall – 1009 E Interstate 30, Rockwall, TX 75087

The highly praised, popular book celebrated its two-year anniversary in July and has sold an astounding 6000+ copies in the region. Winner of the 2024 Carroll Abbott Memorial Award from Native Plant Society of Texas. This is the fifth Barnes & Noble for Martin to open in North Texas and she credits the book chain for much of its success.

Joining Martin are Rockwall citizens to help residents learn about nature in and around the city:

• Mick Tune of the Dallas Paleontological Society will bring a full array of the 145- to 66-million-year-old fossils he discovered at the Ladonia Fossil Park, an hour northeast of Rockwall.
• Members of the Rockwall Butterfly Brigade will extoll their pollinator gardens and a butterfly meadow in Rockwall (tentative).
• North Texas Master Naturalist Ted Zobeck is joined by noted avian biologist and raptor researcher Heather Bullock to share their knowledge of birds and birdwatching spots around Rockwall.

Wild DFW’s first section is praised as a natural history and ecology primer of North Texas, giving readers master naturalist level knowledge while also diving into weather, geology, nature at night, creek kids, wildlife sanctuary yards, citizen science, and more. The field guide, with its clever tidbits and easy-to-grasp info, covers over 100 species of native flora and fauna. The final section features over 25 hiking adventures through rare prairies, diverse bottomland forests, limestone escarpments, Eastern Cross Timbers, and wetlands.

More than 350 color nature photos and 40 detailed maps in this gorgeously laid-out book. Cover art by popular muralist Mariell Guzman, who is featured at Meow Wolf Grapevine.

Press release submitted by Amy Martin, edited for publication in Blue Ribbon News. Courtesy photos.

  author Amy Martin, Barnes and Noble, book signing, butterfly brigade, Dallas Paleontological Society, feature, gardening, North Texas Master Naturalist, Rockwall, wildlife