the thread: Author Discussion: Jim Sanderson – Messing With Texas and the Dolph Martinez/Jerri Johnson Mysteries > Likes and Comments

How has your writing process changed over the years?

What challenges did you face when writing crime fiction compared to your nonfiction work?

Freikin wrote: "What inspired the creation of Dolph Martinez and Jerri Johnson?"
Actually, I wrote SAFE DELIVERY first. And it, ironically, was a screenplay. And in that screenplay Jerri was a man and it was set in Nicaragua. I was watching the 1979 revolt. But after one novel didn't work, I changed genders, locale, plot, and narration to write SAFE DELIVERY. I couldn't get that novel published either. So for seven years, I lived in Odessa, Texas and went to Big Bend quite a bit. I started talking to border patrol agents. I read articles about them. I talked to residents. Later, I left Odessa, but I went back to Big Bend and talked to agents in the area. So I had Dolph in mind. I borrowed a villain from SAFE, used the characters, language, area, and stories I heard to come up with EL CAMINO DEL RIO. El CAMINO got published, did well, So my publisher wanted a second novel. I had SAFE. So it too was published. Then, I "forced" myself to bring Jerri Johnson and Dolph Martinez together in LA MORDIDA.

Later, I moved my whole crew from those three novel to San Antonio, Texas and wrote DOLPH'S TEAM. So there is a 4th novel hanging out.

So I guess the answer is some inspiration but more of making character , story, and narration fit place or situation. However, for all of my work, I had or have these characters and scenes buzzing around in my head.

FAITH wrote: "How much of the series was planned from the beginning, and how much developed naturally over time?"

Faith, see above. I didn't plan a series. I guess that I was sort of desperate for all three. I started out writing short stories and didn't think that I could possibly write a novel. So I started thinking about using what I had written to try to make a novel. SAFE was screenplay altered so much that it is unrecognizable. EL CAMINO DEL RIO was a stand alone that was a literary novel. It won an award for "Southwestern rural fiction." It got published as a "mystery." So I became a mystery writer. Thus La MORDIDA. I got other novels in mind for Jerri and Dolph and the rest. But because of sales, upon advice, I've put an end to them.

So I wrote a series out of necessity and not intent. I may have been too dumb to think ahead.

GRACE wrote: "Why did you choose Texas, particularly San Antonio and the surrounding areas, as the setting for these stories?"
Grace, I was born and raised in San Antonio--a long time ago, when it was a totally different town. I left for college and stayed in college for ten years because I liked college. When I got a Ph.D., I thought I'd end up somewhere exotic, like Wisconsin or something. But only place that would hire me was in Odessa, Texas. So I was back in Texas. Then I moved to the other side of Texas to swampy Beaumont, Texas. My parents remained in San Antonio, so I returned. I tell folks that, if you get a map of Texas and draw a line from Beaumont Texas to Lubbock, Texas, I've written about stuff south of that line.

I hope that that is a good answer.

FAITH wrote: "Which character has surprised you the most while writing?"

From that series, I think that Joe Parr was my favorite. I just sort of let him go. Other characters from other stories have surprised. The historical character John S. "Rip" Ford and the fictional narrator in NEVIN'S HISTORY--a historical or western novel surprised me more than most.

But characters are always surprising. Pooter showed up in a short story about a Midland, Texas football coach. He was consistent but surprising. Of course, Pepper was consistent yet surprising. Dolph's mother in LA MORDIDA and later DOLPH'S TEAM would take over a lot.

KYLE wrote: "Do you have a favorite book in the Dolph Martinez and Jerri Johnson series?"
EL CAMINO of course gave me the title as a mystery writer and got the other stuff published. It is also the most popular, and it gave me Dolph. So I am obliged to that novel. But the 4th in the series, the one you don't have in the collection, DOLPH'S TEAM, may be my favorite. It deals with a lot of characters, all going in different directions. And mostly it is about getting older. And it sort squared Jerri and Dolph.

If you could have dinner with any character from the series, who would it be and why?

MURAY wrote: "Which character do readers tend to connect with the most?"Murray,
maybe I should ask you. I hope that readers enjoy all of them. I kind of like writing about characters like Trujillo. But I guess that I have to put the most investment in the lead characters to get a reader through the novel or the series. A friend and a reviewer told me that they most enjoyed Pepper.

Have any of your characters ever surprised you so much that they changed the direction of the story?

MATHEW wrote: "How has your writing process changed over the years?"
Mathew, I'm trying to publish a completed novel, with four different drafts, growllll. And I'm writing another. I've slowed down. I'm not writing as fast as I used to. I'm not adapting as well as I used to. Before I write, I try to think through the action, the thoughts, the words. But the actually making of the words changes.

Maybe, I hope, as my mentor used to say, it's knowing sort of instinctively at what not to do. While I write slowly, I think that I am better at not doing certain things. I anticipate the problems.

NATALIE wrote: "What challenges did you face when writing crime fiction compared to your nonfiction work?"

As I said earlier, I didn't know that I was writing a mystery, let alone a series when I wrote EL CAMINO DEL RIO. So when I became a "mystery" writer, I nearly panicked. I'm not sure that I knew what a mystery was. I certainly didn't know much about police work. When I watch TV crime or mystery or police shows, I am intimidated because I don't believe that I can make those intricate plots. So I try characters.

What I've started doing, especially with GAMBLED DREAMS, is to write more about dumb criminals rather than smart police. I think that I can fake knowing something about dumb crimes rather than fake knowing something about smart investigative work.


My non-fiction is basically just personal essay, notations on what I observe, and I hope that these essays are funny.

NICOLAS wrote: "How much real-life experience influences your fictional characters and events?"
Nicholas,
I am writing "historical" fiction now. And as with NEVIN'S HISTORY where all but two of the characters were actual people. The real people seem so much more interested than what I can make them. But at least I have them to guide me.

I hope that, since I write about crime, I don't have any real life experiences related to crime. However, I note particular places or images or details. I have a hard time writing about something in which I don't know about the setting. How does a place feel or smell? What is its history? So that's why I write using Texas.

I also get ideas from absurdities, from different stories from people. I sometimes use real life event or situations in order to figure out how to give characters more trouble.

A lot of the incidences in EL CAMINO and LA MORDIDA came from scraps of information that I cut out of newspapers. Most recently, my unpublished novel, concerns a San Antonio, Texas family that starts money laundering Colorado pot sales money. Since selling marijuana is not nationally legal, federally insured banks can't take it, so it was a cash business. So what are the sellers going to do with their cash? So there is at least the premise. The writing was a lot harder than finding the premise.

ANNY wrote: "If you could have dinner with any character from the series, who would it be and why?"

I've had dinner with people LIKE Pepper and Pooter. But I think the more complex and fascinating would be the villains. I made them smarter, I think. So Vincent and his father Palo would be the most interesting. But given what they are, I'd probably be to nervous to enjoy the dinner.

HOPE wrote: "Have any of your characters ever surprised you so much that they changed the direction of the story?"

Hope, I'm thinking of characters that I am writing now. And I'm trying to recall ones from the series. Joe Parr comes to mind. I started writing more for him once I got him in my mind. He seemed consistent. Since I wrote LA MORDIDA by the seat of my pants, with a general idea of characters rather than plot, I'd say that they perplexed me throughout.

And as said earlier, different revisions of SAFE DELIVERY changed due to character changes.

Donna wrote: "Jim, thank you for all of your thoughtful and detailed responses today.

I was particularly intrigued by your mention of the unpublished novel involving a San Antonio family laundering money from C..."

Donna,

First thanks for all. The unpublished novel has a lot of "nickel research." As you can see from above comments, before wide spread internet, I literally cut and pasted. Now with google and (gulp, I hate to say it) AI, I can find bits and pieces of information very fast.

So the novel that I mentioned is a valentine to where I was raised and a family story as well as a crime story. I google a lot about crime: how to make fake credit cards, how to steal credit card numbers (remember those days), how to transfer money, how different divisions of Texas Department of Public Safety worked. I also asked friends.

So I hope that potential readers believe me.

And you guessed it, besides the narrative, plot, and genre concerns that I have in four drafts, the most difficult part was relying upon my memory, actual geography/locations, travel times.

And of course, I think that what is true of all writers is to write something that is true of people so that readers will continue reading.

How do you balance fiction with real crime details?

GLORY wrote: "How do you balance fiction with real crime details?"

I'm not sure that I do. Mostly, I make stuff up. However, I find myself afraid that I am practicing being a criminal. I was at the school where I teach looking up details and talking to criminal justice folks about money laundering. I wondered if people were getting suspicious about what I was trying to do. And I find myself intrigued by what could be crime or how people get involved in crimes.


While I am writing, I find myself multi-tasking. I'll work on character or on something that I can handle without specific details or something that I think that I know, then I'll constantly google to look up some detail.

Helen Jones PRO. wrote: "Am so interested in this your book, i will like to have the PDF of reading companion of this book.
For my students?"Helen:
I'll check with my publisher, but I don't think that sending a PDF would be okay. Brash Books, I believe, would want you and/or your students to buy the book.

Or if you mean the document that I sent to Donna Tar, which you may have seen, then I can, indeed, send that. The question now would be, how would I send it?

Payne wrote: "have you ever considered creating a professional reading companion for your novels? How do you think such a resource could help readers engage more deeply with your themes and characters?" Payne,
I think that I have done such a thing in the past for book groups, but that project didn't really go anywhere. I guess, if there was a demand, I could try this. Of course another problem is that MESSING WITH TEXAS is long and my memory is short. I wrote those novels so long ago.

Thank you Donna, I have material that I am working on even as I type this that approach a different novel, but also apply to a lot of my writing in general. I'll try to work on something that I can post here. I also noted that Helen ask about a PDF, I believe. My technical abilities are limited as how I would get a PDF to Helen or the group.

I apologize for my ignorance or a Readers' Guide. I'll try to post some simple statements. You might be able to cut and paste, as I did.

Most of my novels deal with families, either traditional or accidental or chosen. The protagonist, in the case of El Camino del Rio and La Mordida, Dolph Martinez, must choose what his family is. He has his mother. He has his desire and the old history degree. But he has become a part of the culture and terrain that he is in as a Border Patrol Agent. So the question those novels pose is whether Dolph can choose or adapt to a culture, a group, family, a terrain, or purpose. Likewise, Jerri Johnson has a past, same as Dolph. She prefers that past, but in Safe Delivery and La Mordida and Dolph’s Team, she must choose or adapt to what she will become.

I wrote Safe Delivery first. I wanted to examine the motives of three characters: Jerri Johnson, Joe Parr, and Vincent Fuentes. So I alternated points of view and hoped that that alternation pushed the story forward. With El Camino del Rio, I wanted to stay within Dolph’s consciousness, to let him tell and show his world. I continued with Dolph as the narrator in La Mordida. So I hope that point of view in all three novels help with the plot and the them.

Fiction, to me, first connects emotionally. Can readers see, hear, feel the world in the novel. So theme is tough to talk about. But are there instances where the emotional appeals of the novels in Messing With Texas around sensual response?

I wrote these novels in the 1990s. I talked to several Border Patrol agents. What I tried to do was to convince the readers that what they were reading was authentic. It didn’t have to be pretty, just “real.” So first, do parts of the novels capture this authenticity? Do they seem real? The second part of this is that the role of the Border Patrol, the nature of it members, its growth, even its name have drastically changed. What does this change do to the novels?

One of the generic conceits of the Private Detective Novel is that the P.I. cannot find justice in the criminal justice or legal systems. So these heroes drop out. Neither Jerri nor Dolph “drop out” but stay employed by “the system.” Sometimes they act against it. What do their positions in their jobs to do justice, their psyches, the world of the novel?