New Novel

I have begun to work on a new novel and have decided to follow John Steinbeck's advice. Steinbeck said that it is much easier to write a novel for a specific person than to write a novel for the vast, anonymous public one imagines will read one's book. So I have decided on my audience. I am writing this book for Mikhail Bulgakov's Texan cousin, an odd, almost feral scholar of medieval rhetoric who spends his nights at a corner table in the local honky-tonk and privately plays the dobro on his back porch. He finds Proust a bore, Kafka riotously funny, and Bukowski a better reader than writer. He likes to read Rumi late at night while dipping snuff and drinking beer, and his music collection includes albums by Ray Wylie Hubbard and Hildegard von Bingen. Granted, this reader is a figment of my imagination, but since I am writing a book of fiction, why can't I write for a fictional reader? So here come's a novel for my ol' pal Bubbakov.

Blood Meridian and The Road

I have been reading Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and find the awful chaos of his 19th century Texas to be strangely similar to that found in his post-apocalyptic novel, The Road. It's hard not be impressed by thematic similarities in radically different works. I doff my hat for Mr. McCarthy.

Music on the Jax

Ol' Delbert McClinton used to play on Jacksboro Highway, and he went on to teach John Lennon a harmonica lick or two. So the musicians on our stretch of bootleggers' highway even influenced the Fab Four.

Roemer's Texas

I have almost finished reading Roemer's Texas. Roemer, a German geologist who traveled in Texas from 1845 to 1847, had incredible insight. His book is considered one of the most reliable sources on Texas from that period, and Roemer not only gives a wonderful description of the land and its inhabitants, but discusses everything from using rattlesnake fat for a lubricant in gun locks to the letters of introduction Native American chiefs carried with them to get the whites to trade with them. Roemer also discusses Texas politics and religion, and he finds it strange that the Americans would send missionaries to Asia and Africa but not minister to the native population on their own continent. This primary source on 19th century Texas should not be overlooked. 

Gamblers and Gangsters

I recently purchased Gamblers and Gangsters: Fort Worth's Jacksboro Highway in the 1940s and 1950s. What I find most interesting is how some of the stories match the tales I heard from my grandfathers, who knew some of the gangsters back in the old days. When I was a boy, I was told about where these gangsters were found dead, and I heard a tale or two about their exploits, and at least one of these stories I assume has never been published. The Jax was a rough place back then... While I like the gangland tales, I want to know more about the music down there. Willie Nelson (who my grandfather said was a redheaded peckerwood playing for drinks and tips) used to play down there (behind chicken wire) before he was famous.