Biographical Information
I was born May 15, 1954 in Fredericksburg, Texas, and spent the next 18 in Johnson City, Texas, a small redneck town that I couldn’t wait to leave so I could become either A, a famous writer or B, a rock star. I’ve spent the last few decades working on both dreams, with varying degrees of success. But I did escape that little redneck town. One of the best things about it, though, was that it was the hometown of Lyndon B. Johnson, who has always been one of my big heroes. If you’re ever in Austin, Texas, where I live now, you should visit the LBJ Library, which has some pretty nice things to remind you of his legacy. Vietnam was a tragic mistake, yes, but he inherited that war. The Great Society, with Medicare, civil rights, equal opportunity, and many, many other aspects of modern American life we tend to take for granted, are among the stellar highlights of his legacy.
But back to my story – I started writing poems when I was nine or ten. The first one was published when I was eleven, upon the tragic accidental death of a girl I had a crush on named Nancy.
I served my musical apprenticeship in a band called Jellyroll,
which broke up in 1977. Things started looking up at the beginning of 1978.
First of all, I met a pretty brunette named Lois Richwine. We fell in love
and we’ve been together ever since. I was also in not one but two great
bands: the Violators and the Skunks,
which happened to be the very first punk bands in Austin, Texas. Together,
these bands provided the focus of the Austin punk/new wave scene. I was the
singer, chief songwriter and bassist for the Skunks, and played bass and shared
vocal duties in the Violators. The Violators, which should not be confused
with any other band of that name, including the one from Colorado, also featured
Carla Olson (Later of the Textones)
on guitar, Kathy Valentine
(later of the Go-Go’s
and Delphines) on guitar, and Marilyn Dean on drums. The Violators broke up
in early 1979 when Kathy, Carla and Marilyn moved to LA and formed the Textones.
The Skunks’ original lineup was myself on bass and lead vocals, Eddie Munoz (later of the Plimsouls) and Billy Blackmon on drums. In early ’79, Jon Dee Graham replaced Eddie on guitar. For more about the Skunks and my subsequent music career, see MUSIC. But before moving on, I have to say that my music career in my twenties and thirties was a fantastic experience. Not only were the guys and girls in my bands outstanding, but we got open shows for many of my musical heroes, some of whom even stopped in at my shows to jam with my band. I jammed with Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, and members of Blondie, the Clash, Cheap Trick, and many others. I gigged and recorded with Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), Ian McLagen (Rolling Stones, Small Faces), and others. Music critic Margaret Moser said “The Skunks put Austin on the rock ‘n roll map." I didn’t make that up. It happens to be true.
Lois and I got married in 1984, and three years later, we moved to Los Angeles so I could become a mystery novelist. LA was Raymond Chandler’s town. It was also the city of film noir, and many other things I’d become obsessed with in addition to blues and rock ‘n roll. Fortunately, when Lois and I decided to make this big change so I could concentrate on writing, the Go-Go’s had broken up, and Kathy Valentine was ready to start a new band. Did I want to write songs and play bass with her? Of course I did! So, during my last few months in Austin, I was flying out to LA periodically to rehearse with Kathy and the new band, World’s Cutest Killers. By the time I arrived, we were ready to start gigging. A new phase of my life opened with lots of fun and excitement. Playing with Kathy was fun and rewarding, and one morning during our third month in LA, I spoke with an editor at Viking Penguin who wanted to see the manuscripts for my Martin Fender novels. A week later, I had a book agent and a publishing deal. The first novel, Rock Critic Murders, wasn’t published till 1989, but by then, I was already writing the screenplay for a production company, and another series of short stories I’d written, about a North Hollywood detective named Clapton, had also been optioned for a potential TV series. As with the Martin Fender novels, the Clapton option never went past the development stage, either, but it was part of a new type of livelihood for me: writing screenplays, documentaries, treatments, and other types of work I’d never imagined doing before. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t in the Writers Guild or even remotely making big money, but I wasn’t having to wait tables or park cars to pay the rent, either. And I LOVED living in LA. Even during the earthquakes, fires and riots. LA is a very troubled town. LA is paradise.
The next two Martin Fender novels, Tough Baby and Boiled in Concrete, followed in 1990 and 1992. I joined an organization called Mystery Writers of America, and between our monthly meetings and hanging out at mystery bookstores, I met scores of great crime writers, many of whom are still good friends of mine today – James Ellroy, Wendy Hornsby, Michael Connelly, Les Roberts, Jerry Petievich, and many, many others. Writing documentaries was another rewarding experience. The first series I worked on was called Adventures of the Old West, for the Disney Channel. The series took a long time to develop, and by the time it was in production, I wasn’t just the writer, I was associate producer, writer, story editor, and music consultant, and I also composed a couple of songs for the show: an outlaw tune, “Bad Man from the Brazos,” and “Ballad of Lewis & Clark,” which was sung by the narrator of the series, Kris Kristofferson. I eventually wrote for numerous war documentaries. Probably the highlight of my documentary work was the Biography episode I wrote on Attila the Hun and a two hour special on the so-called Perfect Storm called The Killer Storm.
A complete list of my production credits can be found on my credits page.
Our son, Dashiell, was born on September 24, 1993. We named him after Dashiell Hammett, who was, with Raymond Chandler, one of America’s best writers ever, and not just limited to the crime fiction field. He was also a man of high moral principles. He was also a fascinating human being. I never get tired of reading about him, flaws and all. The three of us moved back to Austin in February 1994, because of family ties, mostly, and because, after growing up as an Air Force brat, Lois gets itchy feet every few years. For the next three years, I continued to write documentaries, and also worked on other projects, including a new Martin Fender novel called Pandora’s Jukebox.
In 1997, I was diagnosed with neck cancer. I put the new Martin Fender novel in a box and stuck it in the garage. For the details, check out Stayin' Alive, the account of my cancer battle I wrote for Texas Monthly in 1999. In this account, I credit Dr. Melba Lewis, my otolaryngologist, and rock ‘n roll for helping save my life. Of course, Lois and Dashiell deserve a lion’s share of credit as well.
Martin Fender didn’t retire from the music business – he’s just been doing some extended touring and a lot of studio work. He will return. In the meantime, I’ve been doing some writing that I’ve put off way too long, including several new screenplays and my memoir. The memoir covers my music career, my cancer experiences, and the sad story of the murder of Dianne Roberts, my first love. Two essays centered around her story have previously been published (Rock and Roll Gothic, in New York Times Magazine, August 2001, and When a Loved One is Murdered, Texas Monthly July 2002). I hope to have this book finished soon.
Besides bringing Martin Fender back to center stage, I think I might also need to do some sort of comic writing next. I’m a pretty funny guy when I want to be --and sometimes when I don’t. Laughter is one of the best things about life, and one of the most powerful forces in the universe.
You’ve got to have a sense of humor to live with cats, especially ones as badly behaved as ours. They ruin our sleep, destroy our house and furniture, and make wearing black a big mistake.
Dashiell, who happens to be the world’s most handsome man, also keeps us smiling. He’s now in fourth grade, super-intelligent, extremely artistic, a good piano player, an acrobat, a cub scout, a cat lover. Because of him, I’ve developed a keen love of many of the new, hard rocking pop and nu metal bands, like Weezer, Korn, Phantom Planet, and Jimmy Eat World.