'Blanco County' coming to USA network?

Ben Rehder                                   Rob Thomas

Austin novelist Ben Rehder's series of mysteries is in development as a TV series called Blanco County at the USA Network. And that's not the end of the Texas connection--Rob Thomas of Veronica Mars fame has been hired as the showrunner/writer and is executive producer along with Tom Welling (Smallville's Clark Kent).

Thomas, who went to high school in San Marcos and taught high school journalism in Austin, moved back to the Capital City a few years ago. Rehder says the two didn't meet in person until after Thomas had signed on to the project.  A pilot has already been penned. Now it's up to USA to give the series a thumbs up or down.

Blanco County is based on Rehder's six comic novels (he cites Carl Hiassen as his inspiration)  and "follows the story of John Marlin, a worldly pro baseball player who would rather spend his down time traveling the world than return to his small Texas hometown. After the death of his father, Marlin returns home to find a lot has changed since he left. The place is now booming with rich ranchers and tourists and there’s an uneasy alliance between the locals and the nouveau rich. Believing the local cops to be inept, Marlin runs for sheriff and surprisingly wins. A man who spent his entire life running away from his roots must now adapt to a new way of life." In the novels, Marlin is instead a game warden.

Will the show shoot in Central Texas if picked up to series?

"One big reason Rob was interested is because of the possibility of shooting here," Rehder says. "I don't know what the odds are, but I know that's what Rob would prefer."

Sublett reinvents the novel with 'Grave Digger'

Jesse Sublett knows noir. He’s a student at the feet of Chandler and Hammett (he named his own son Dashiel) and penned three respected mysteries about an Austin, Texas, based musician/private dick named Martin Fender. He’s also a heck of a musician who led the seminal Austin punk/garage/new wave band the Skunks. What happens if those two parts of his persona crash together in a post-apocalyptic world with elements of dystopian sci-fi, poetry and outsider art? Grave Digger Blues is born, my friends. It’s not so much a book as an experience, particularly if you spring for the iPad version with all the bells and whistles.


 
Last year I wrote in the San Antonio Express-News about Sublett’s efforts to do something similar with the re-release of the Martin Fender novels. But here he’s taken it a large step further.

You’ll be thrown into the world of the Blues Cat, an a down-and-out jazz musician, and Hank Zzybnx, a private detective haunted by Marilyn Monroe’s ghost. It’s a wild ride into despair with bouts of frivolity. All along the way the Blues Cat keeps the beat pounding and Jesse Sublett keeps pulling the strings somewhere behind the curtain. Hop on this train. You’ll like where it takes you.

Jim Sanderson evokes 3 San Antonios in new novel

I talked with Jim Sanderson about his new novel Dolph's Team for today's San Antonio Express-News. I had previously reviewed Sanderson's story collection Faded Love in the Austin American-Statesman.

Book review: 'Nights of the Red Moon'

My review of Milton Burton's latest mystery novel Nights of the Red Moon was in Sunday's Austin American-Statesman.

Creating characters from real life

So here's what happened this weekend. They took me hostage and drove me at high speed across Lake Lewisville. One was a retired pilot who spoke through a voice box, another was an older b.s artist with a weave and a ready smile, and the third was a wannabe movie starlet in a bikini. I've clearly got three new characters for my next novel.

Joe and Kasey Lansdale

I had the pleasure of interviewing legendary Texas author Joe Lansdale this week for an upcoming Austin Chronicle story, and learned a lot of his stories began as dreams. Here he is after lunch at Threadgill's with his daughter Kasey Lansdale, who is a singer/songwriter.

Here's a beer for James Crumley

I woke up today to the news that James Crumley has died. If you don't know the name, you're missing out. Crumley was the finest mystery writer to ever come out of Texas, though he lived most often in Montana.

When I was studying creative writing in grad school, the two coolest people I got to meet were Andre Dubus and Crumley (both Iowa Writers Workshop grads). The latter influenced me to write mystery novels. He was hard-edged, hangdog and a hell of writer. I met him twice more but heard a lot of stories of his drunken excesses. Five wifes, too...

Austin author Jesse Sublett has talked doing some sort of tribute to Crumley. I hope it happens.