Diving Into Weird Texas History with Author Robert Freeman Wexler
Photo by Regina Brecha
Robert Freeman Wexler may no longer live in Texas, but from growing up there, he knows there’s plenty of wacky history. That’s the backdrop for his new book, The Silverberg Business, which spans multiple genres and offers all kinds of cool characters, from sand dune totems to skull-headed poker players trapped in endless cycles of playing cards and alcohol. Sadly, that reminds me of a couple of post-college evenings…
Robert spoke with Good People, Cool Things about his new book, how he tries to keep his research straight, and ways to create memorable characters. Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
What do you hope readers get out of The Silverberg Business?
The novel has aspects of western/historical, detective, and fantastic. I hope that readers who like any of those things will be drawn to it and appreciate its various parts. A connection to the characters, both human and skull, and what they’re doing. Also, as with all successful artwork, a subconscious connection that carries the reader past the words, or, inside the words to the pictures hiding beneath the words.
There's a lot of history in this book — what was your research like to keep everything organized?
Haphazard . . . I don’t take enough notes, which leads to missing details that I later decide I need and have to go back to whatever book it was to find. Sometimes I don’t find the source. For example, in some unremembered book, I read an excerpt from a Texas newspaper of that time (1888), in which the writer said that “we” need to keep the formerly enslaved and their descendants uneducated because if they get an education they won’t want to do the menial jobs that “we” want them to do. “We” being the people the editorial writer represents, not “we” of today, or I hope not “we” of today. He was admitting that they weren’t mentally inferior to white people but had to be kept oppressed so they could maintain their current economic system. At the time I read that, I didn’t know I would want to use it. Wanting attribution, I requested what I thought would be the right books, but never found it. I ended up using that sentiment in dialogue, but wish I knew where it came from.
I get stacks of books from the library. Reading them and studying the references leads to more stacks. References listed in novels set in similar places or times lead to more stacks. Eventually, I learn enough to work on setting and other details. The path of the story dictates other research needs. When I started The Silverberg Business, I didn’t know that I would be writing about the 1900 storm, but I had read books about Galveston and the Texas coast, so it was easy to go back and read about the storm—and look at the references to find more books to read.
It's easy to overdo research and overuse that research. I’ve read novels in which I thought I could tell what historical details the author liked so much they had to include but weren’t needed. I’m sure I did that too.
How do you create characters with depth and personalities?
Is “I don’t know” a sufficient answer? Okay, first, I’m going to assume from your question that I have characters with depth and personalities! Step one, do it. Step two, figure out how you can do it in the next book. Humans are brilliant, flawed, terrible, tender, exploitive, transcendent, and often the same human, so characters should be, too. That’s it. Give characters the kinds of traits that people have! But not in obvious ways with obvious traits.
For characters and other elements, I don’t like clichés or phrases that I call “tired pairs”. These are words that appear together too often, like torrential downpour or threadbare jacket/carpet/any article of clothing. Because I don’t know what a bare thread looks like, I would describe some aspect of the jacket that conveys threadbare. Character emerges from description. Uncluttered description leads to real characters. This takes a while. Drafts of self-editing to gain an understanding of the characters.
Have you learned anything from your earlier books that helped with this one?
My previous novel, The Painting and the City, was set in 2001 Manhattan. Present-day, but written after that time period; it came out in 2009. The book includes a journal from 1842 by a fictional artist. I researched painting 19th-century art and painting techniques and New York history. What I learned about research and incorporating that research carried over to work on The Silverberg Business.
What's your favorite thing to do in Texas (food, attractions, whatever)?
That’s a hard one because I haven’t been there in a long time. I grew up in Houston but haven’t been there since 2005, just before my parents moved here to Ohio to be closer to me as they aged. I went to college in Austin and lived there another 12 years afterward. I moved to New York in early 1995. I haven’t been to Austin since 2012. So there’s what I did as a resident and what I would do as a visitor.
This trip, I’ll be reading in Austin and Houston. In Houston, I’ll see cousins, go to the Menil Collection, go to as much of Chinatown as I have time for, and go to Three Brothers Bakery, which is near where I grew up.
When I lived in Austin, I went out to hear live music a lot, but doubt I will on this trip. I’m hesitant to spend time in crowded clubs. And, most disappointing, because of my Houston reading, I’ll have to miss Jon Dee Graham’s weekly Wednesday Continental Club show. While I’m in Austin, I’ll see friends and eat Mexican food and barbeque. If I’m lucky, the temperature will be over 100 degrees. A book release and Texas readings in winter might have been better.
What's next for you?
I’m about two-thirds through a new novel I had started and written about a third of before writing The Silverberg Business. And I recently finished a middle-grade novel. The adult novel is semi-historical — set in 1999 — and involves music, art, and Dick Cheney.
See Robert’s upcoming readings and grab a copy of The Silverberg Business at his website.