My Notes

June 13, 2022
The Texans in Belinda

#TXReads: Character Inspiration from Giants in Texas History and Literature

Character development is important to me in my writing. I’ve always been a keen observer of people. When I was a child there was never an element of judgment; rather, I was perplexed, and sometimes completely astounded, by what I saw. But I kept my observations to myself. Perhaps I was just a shy child, or it could be that the implications of what I saw were so bewildering that they made me reticent to speak of them.

For a writer who loves to put multiple layers into a character, I am indeed fortunate to have spent a good deal of my life in Texas. When I moved to Texas as a child my discovery of the men and women who lived in Texas the century before was akin to what had happened near Beaumont at Spindletop in 1901. And the outsized personalities that were spawned in Texas over the century after oil became part of Texas culture were but a drop in the bucket to those of Tejanos, Texians, and Texans who had lived in earlier times. These included not only the names everyone remembers from the Alamo, but the great Comanche warrior Quanah Parker, Sam Houston, Pa Ferguson, William Hobby, and Charles Goodnight. Later came Chester Nimitz, Roy Orbison, and Buddy Holly, to name only a few, as well as a multitude of flamboyant oil barons, like H.L. Hunt. Since my childhood years I have soaked up historical information about many bigger than life Texans like these as well as their cleverness and ethics, or lack thereof. They have in small part seeped into a number of my characters in Belinda.

The protagonist in my novel, Lyn Larkin, was born in Corpus Christi and practiced law in Houston for many years before the story began. There have been many Texas women with the same strength of personality and ambition that Lyn demonstrates in the novel, women who I like to think are a big part of the “Texas Identity.” One such woman was, of course, Barbara Jordan. She was from Houston, practiced law for a time before she was elected to the Texas Senate, and then later went to the U.S. House of Representatives. But she was best known for her keynote address to the 1976 Democratic Convention, which established her rightful place as an extraordinary Texas woman. Many other strong women had preceded her in Texas history, particularly from the frontier days. Lizzie Johnson Williams was one such woman. She was a strong independent businesswoman who was a schoolteacher and a writer before she started her own cattle enterprise with her own registered brand, sometimes accompanying her cattle up the Chisholm Trail. She may also be the first Texas woman to make her husband sign a prenuptial agreement.

A second protagonist in my novel, Jay Jackson, was born on a fictional ranch in San Saba and also practiced law for many years (when he wasn’t being a spy), until he retired to take over the operation of the Jackson Ranch. There are so many colorful men in Texas history that it is impossible to categorize them. But several extraordinary ones deserve mention. The first was Charles Goodnight who with his partner Oliver Loving set the bar for the standard of the determined rancher by leading trail drives through Indian country all the way to Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. One Indian they often had to deal with was Quanah, whose parents were a Texas woman named Cynthia Ann Parker and the Indian chief who’d abducted Cynthia, Peta Nocona. Quanah became a formidable chief and for many years eluded the U.S. Calvary, until he finally exhibited the level headedness to negotiate a truce. For my protagonist Jay Jackson, however, I was inspired by a rancher named Watt Matthews, whose mother insisted that he go to Princeton, as was the case with Jay Jackson and his mother. Walt was in college around the same time as F. Scott Fitzgerald, but he ultimately returned to his Lambshead Ranch, never married, and lived there until he was ninety eight, just before the start of the twenty first century.

One excellent place to find inspirational characters is in well written fiction, and I would be remiss if I didn’t sing the praises here of Larry McMurtry, whom I believe is the master of developing the Texas protagonist. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving inspired the best characters in McMurtry’s novel Lonesome Dove. And McMurtry created several women in his novels who were inspirational to my creation of Lyn Larkin. The two most notable of these are Patsy Carpenter, from Moving On, and Aurora Greenway from Terms of Endearment. Both of those women were strong, independent and determined, but both had their demons to overcome, as is the case with Lyn Larkin. In an essay, McMurtry told the story about his publisher insisting on the title Moving On, even though McMurtry believed the book would be more suitably entitled “Patsy.” I took his essay to heart and for my own novel held firm for a title that denotes my novel’s protagonist.

My fondness for Lyn Larkin caused me when writing the novel to go deep into her background with my imagination. Sadly, and with some regret on my part, my editor prevailed on me to delete those passages. He said it was too much, and almost fifty pages hit the cutting room floor. So the reader doesn’t learn much about Lyn’s childhood, which included her job in a restaurant while a teenager, the day she spent in a storage room with her boyfriend during Hurricane Celia, and her dawning sexuality as she came of age. Nor does the novel reveal her eccentric great grandmother from Raymondville who was convinced she was a descendant of a martyred Sephartic-Crypto-Jew from the former El Nuevo Reino de Leon Spanish lands of northern Mexico. For now I have other cattle to roundup, but I hope a day will come when I can dust off those fragments and tell Lyn’s early story.

This article appeared on June 13, 2022 in Texas Lifestyle & Travel Magazine

June 12, 2022
Prufrock

A very long time ago, when I was a college student, I studied literature. One of my favorite poems I discovered then, and frequently returned to over the years, was The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot. My law professors might have benefited from reading it, but I suspect they never bothered. For those moving to a new phase of life–a new career, or retirement, or just something wildly different–Prufrock is something to take a look at. Put yourself into its interior monologue and ask yourself the scary metaphorical questions presented. You might put your seatbelt on before you do this.

Prufrock makes one look back and forward. It is a candid discussion with yourself; you put yourself in the poem. You can ask yourself in many ways “what could’ve been” and then imagine what might be after you cross into your new life adventure. Moving into my retirement from the law, I discovered a debris field of hope, what I tried not to see as a salvage yard of dreams. So many decisions lurked in the years behind me, the ”butt-ends of my days and ways.” And going forward, would the past mistakes repeat themselves? How many “decisions and revisions” must I face? The older you are, the more difficult the answers. Or, I suppose, you could just go out to your lawn chair with a martini and watch the sunset. (Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons, but martinis might be more fun.)

In my new novel, Belinda, to be published on June 14, the protagonist, Lyn Larkin, engages in a Prufrock interior monologue as she confronts a mandatory retirement from her successful law firm practice. Other events–international intrigue, legal infighting, an unexpected romance– make her life difficult. Soon after every “decision” comes a “revision.” (Of course, she often chooses martinis over coffee spoons as her measurement technique.) Those of you who have read my earlier novels know that I love character development in my writing, and I believe that Lyn is my best character so far. You can learn more about Belinda on my Website, where you can preorder the book and make my publisher happy.

Now, I must continue my own interior monologue. Warm regards to all of you during the advent of summer. If you read Belinda this summer, please let me know what you think and, if it’s not asking too much, rate or review the novel on Goodreads, Amazon or your social media platforms.

May 3, 2021
An April Ride 

“What a ride,” I said to myself in April when the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees in about 2 hours. These rapid changes must portend a soon to be felt exhilaration, that kind of feeling as good as a green flash at sunset, or, even better, finishing a good book. But the wind also resurrected mounds of hidden leaves I thought I’d disposed of last fall. Not so euphoric, unless you like stepping on scattered wet leaves.

It’s my sunny disposition that makes me believe that change is good. Summer will arrive soon. Good warm, dry days for picking up those leaf remainders. My enthusiasm abounds! I plan to pay no attention to the weeds, bugs, and road work. Change is in the May air. And it won’t cost a thing, until next April 15th.

If you like change that comes with age, you might pick up my latest novel, The Narrows. It takes place on Cape Cod over 10 days in the 1970s. Larry Brown, the protagonist, goes for a wild emotional ride during the novel, speeding between despair and exhilaration, juggling a cultish cousin and a two-timing girlfriend, choosing whether or not to join the establishment. If you were coming of age in the 1960’s, you’ll recognize Larry. He was the guy ambling around aimlessly, pondering whether to choose the Vietnam jungle or college. In the story Larry shuffles through a lot of wet leaves.

The reviews have been good. One reviewer says the novel “employs dialogue, philosophical and psychological reflection.” What better way to distract yourself from the leaves, weeds and bugs in the coming weeks.

Now, I must look for my rake. Warm regards to all of you during the advent of summer. If you’re looking for more books to read, you can check out the book reviews I have written here. 

November 14, 2020
You’ll Always Have Reading

I was in high school more than half a century ago. That’s why I can’t remember the name of the teacher who told me, “you’ll always have reading.” I liked her for saying that. Today, being the recovering lawyer that I am, writing has taken a place alongside reading. And that means I can offer you reading, both from my own prose and from recommendations of some very good books I have reviewed.

My novel, The Narrows, is available now in paperback and as an eBook. Speaking of a half a century, the story takes place in the early 1970's. And speaking of teachers, in the story Larry Brown is an insecure junior high school English teacher. He is struggling to reconcile his idealism with the reality of his day-to-day life. Sounds like today, doesn’t it?  In short order, Larry discovers that his cousin Bradley has joined a religious cult, that his cousin’s mental health isn’t at its best and that kidnapping someone from an ashram isn’t particularly easy. If you’ve ever tried to talk sense into a friend, you already have an idea about how Larry’s efforts go.

While writing this novel, I was often concerned that I was digging a hole for Larry that was so deep he would never get out. But I couldn’t help myself, which several times made me compare my own mental health with Bradley’s. I pushed Larry forward because I believe that from adversity comes clarity, even if not the “enlightenment” Bradley speaks about in the story. Several readers of the Advance Review Copies were disappointed that the end of the novel was inconclusive. I admit to that. If I was ever certain while writing the novel, the certainty never lasted long enough to write a conclusive ending. And, in my own humble opinion, certainty should never be hasty.

I am certain that I’ve read some very good books recently that I can recommend to you. One is The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis. Fiona writes beautiful historical fiction. If you like great women protagonists, you won’t be disappointed with Laura and Sadie in this wonderful book that takes place in the New York Public Library. Fiona was also an editor and contributor to the recently published Stories from Suffragette City. The stories in this book were written by women and include heroines who will inspire you. The Lions of Fifth Avenue and other books are reviewed on markzvonkovic.com, if you want to take a look.

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