Though writing has been a real struggle to “master” (if anyone ever does), it always has come naturally to me (through genes, no doubt). In high school, writing English “themes” and stories for the journalism course I took were exciting adventures. In college, I naturally migrated toward a degree in journalism, ultimately becoming managing editor of the student-edited semi-weekly paper. My first professional jobs (with a master’s in journalism earned along the way) were as a television reporter. I also served for a time as an Associated Press Writer in Little Rock where I had a bureau chief who was a writing instructor extraordinaire. Law school almost ruined me as the good writer I had become. So much of legal writing is so tortured – and for no good reason. It took me several years after law school to regain the writing skills I lost to “hereinbefore,” “incorporeal hereditament,” etc.

Academic publishing...

While lawyering in those early years, I wrote a magazine article or two (and lots of contracts and other legal documents, of course), but long-form writing took a back seat until I joined the faculty of a communications school at a major research institution and was thus obligated to publish “scholarly” works. I enclose “scholarly” in quotation marks because, in my case, I think of academic publishing as more borne of good research and writing than of “scholarship.” In any event, if it was “publish or perish,” then I would gladly publish. During an academic career now spanning more than 20 years, I have published (some with co-authors) about a dozen law review articles and dozens of articles that have appeared in what in the academic world are called “secondary publications.” (I also have given innumerable speeches and presentations, including in Australia, Belize, and Canada, since 1985.)

Fiction...

In the early 1990s, I read a John Grisham novel, and – like no doubt thousands of other lawyers – said to myself that I could write “one of those,” so I decided to give mainstream fiction writing a shot. The first version of my first try was 143,000 words and was fairly seriously panned by all the literary agents and creative writing instructors who read it. One of the literary agents, though, was kind enough to be fairly detailed about the manuscript’s problems. Tough guy that I am, my feelings were hurt, so I put the project away. Several years later, I braved my way through the criticism again, only to discover that this time I wholeheartedly agreed with nearly everything my tormentor had written. All the reviewers had agreed that I had a great story and some really good characters but that, otherwise, I had made every mistake first-time novel manuscript writers make. So, I rewrote the entire text, trimming it to 101,000 words, excising “all” the mistakes – ending up with a novel that I continue to like years after its Xlibris publishing and modest sales. I must say that I have enjoyed the kind words its readers have shared with me over the years (bookstore signings are fun, too). Its title is Oedipus Tex (click for synopsis and ordering information). I am writing two sequels to Oedipus Tex, Liberation of the Secret Kind, a direct sequel, and Unfathomable Depth, an intelligent science fiction novel about the relationship between humans and cetaceans and involving a few of the characters from Oedipus Tex. Liberation of the Secret Kind and Unfathomable Depth are works in progress. Check back here for updates on my novel-writing career.

Oedipus Tex (click for ordering information) is mostly set in the relative Texas present (July-November, 2000), but the story actually begins in 1973 when circumstances foreshadow the calamitous events to occur 27 years later. Of course, with the title Oedipus Tex, one might assume that the story begins in the fifth century, b.c. – and perhaps it does. The characters are more ensemble than main and supporting; that said, it is the life of Ginger Fontenot that provides the common thread.

Ginger is a tall, black-haired, blue-eyed, high-cheek-boned beauty who grew up in the extreme southeastern Texas hamlet of LeMieux, just across the line from Louisiana’s Acadiana parishes. Her parents and her brother are Cajuns – coon-asses – through and through, but Ginger doesn’t quite fit in. Try as she might, she doesn’t look, talk, or act like her family. Ginger’s parents, Boudreaux and Tailese, are proud of their Ginger, what chu mean, mm mmmh!

After successfully completing a full-ride college scholarship in foreign languages, Ginger has spent the past four years in Manhattan trying to become a successful fashion model (for reasons a bit different than the norm). Things aren’t going so well. Taz Sterling was Ginger’s college boyfriend at TCU, but Ginger chose New York over Taz’s marriage proposal. Four years of no contact and one law degree later, Taz discovers he may not be over Ginger as their lives become strangely enmeshed.

The new entanglement is thanks to the images on a piece of videotape inadvertently recorded in a restaurant by Taz’s 12-year-old sister, Heather. The images concern Ginger and the Texas U.S. Senate candidacy of controversial Congressman Winford Thomas, a ten-term Democrat from east Texas. In a sense, Heather’s fate hangs in the balance of what happens to these images as Taz’s new love interest becomes television reporter Shannon Gillette.

Taz’s father, Rance Sterling, is second-generation, old-line Dallas law firm – Gentry & Sterling. Though he has tried, Rance cannot entice Taz to join the firm. Rance, a Republican, has designs on a federal judgeship, and though he doesn’t know it, his fate, too, may ride on Heather’s camcorder video.

Beyond a doubt, Congressman Thomas’ political career hangs in the balance of Heather’s video. Throw in a second piece of video that the subject had no idea was being shot – nothing inadvertent about the shooting of this one – and therein resides sex, lies, videotape, and Oedipal circumstances harsh enough to make even the most hardened of Texas politicians wish for a different career.

Though she doesn’t exactly know where it all came from, Shannon falls heir to both pieces of videotape. Taz has some serious side-choosing to do, and it is his relationship with Ginger, Shannon, and various family members that may suffer the most.

Television broadcasts beget tragedy and lawsuits. Shannon goes to jail. Every time he turns around, Taz’s life comes apart a little more. For Ginger, the peaks and valleys are higher and lower than anyone would wish. Where will it end? Human circumstances and the concept of confidentiality result in unexpected conclusions. Oedipus Tex has the size of a Texas story – and it tells the Texas truth – but, more than anything, it’s a story about the world we live in today.