You don’t have to look far beyond the cover of Kathleen Kent’s The Outcasts, with the woman in saloon attire and a gun behind her back, to know that this Western is blazing a new trail quite different from those spun by L’Amour, Dobie and Kelton. Despite being ill last week, Kent took time for an email interview with LSLL. Take a look at what the Dallas writer had to say.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Kathleen, you grew up in Dallas. How would describe the Dallas of your youth, and how did it influence your writing?

KATHLEEN KENT: Dallas has changed quite a bit since I was a child. Much of what is now developed was at that time open fields and farmland. My siblings and I had a lot of time to roam outside, and more importantly, to imagine; it was unstructured and free.

My father, a born-and-bred Texan, loved the westerns of Louis L’Amour and J. Frank Dobie, and I read them as well. I grew up riding horses, and my dad took me hunting on occasion, so I understand the fascination that Texans have with Western lore, and wanting to cling to a simpler time. But I am also old enough to vividly remember the assassination of JFK, the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, and the Vietnam war, which cast a long shadow over the concept of America being any kind of a Camelot. As a writer, I have always been fascinated by the emotional conflict caused by the nostalgic yearning for an idyllic past, clashing against the awareness of the historic violence that was used in the building of Texas.

You attended the University of Texas in Austin and were interested in writing, but as I understand it, you never took creative writing classes or received a creative writing degree. What path did you choose that led you to ultimately live in New York for twenty years?

My major was history when I first started college, but I was a constant reader and always wrote for my own pleasure. For a brief period of time I entertained the idea of becoming a writer when I left college, but my father, an eminently practical man, convinced me to study business instead (so I wouldn’t starve). Consequently, I worked for ten years in commodities and another ten years as a civilian contractor for the Department of Defense, traveling often to the former Soviet Union. I did a lot of writing during those years, but it was contract writing, and not in the least bit imaginative or fanciful.

In 2000 you returned to Dallas with your family to write the book you had always wanted to write, The Heretic’s Daughter, the story of Martha Carrier, your grandmother back nine generations who was hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692. For our readers not familiar with the book can you tell them about the novel, and what role your family’s stories played in it?

My mother’s maiden name is Carrier, and I grew up hearing stories from her, and from her parents, about my nine-times-great-grandmother, Martha Carrier, one of the nineteen men and women hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692. My grandmother in particular had a lot of knowledge of the witch trials, but she also imparted to me the personal history of the original Carriers of New England, stories that chronicled the day-to-day life of the family, which had been passed down through many generations.

Martha was perhaps the only person who not only refused to admit to being a witch, but who admonished her judges, telling them they should have been ashamed of listening to a group of girls who “were out of their wits.” The Heretic’s Daughter tells the story of Martha’s arrest, trial, and execution through the voice of her young daughter, Sarah. Sarah and three of her brothers were also arrested on the charge of witchcraft and held in prison for many months after their mother’s death. The novel is based on the actual history of the time, but also includes many of the anecdotal stories that my grandmother told me as a child.

How had Dallas and Texas changed from when you left?

Dallas has changed enormously since I left for New York City in the late 1970s. There are many more people and neighborhoods, obviously. But for me the most important change has been a cultural one. There are so many more theaters, museums, galleries, and usable public spaces than when I was growing up. And sidewalks! It’s sounds silly to say, but there were fewer sidewalks in populated areas, except for downtown, because everyone drove everywhere. Dallasites have discovered the joy of walking and gathering in groups. Urban city planning now reflects this love of community living.

Your next novel was a dramatic departure from your first book. The Outcasts was described by Kirkus as “a cinematic but refreshingly unsentimental take on the classic Western.” For our readers not familiar with The Outcasts, will you describe it in your own words?

The Outcasts is set in nineteenth-century Texas, a few years after the Civil War. There are two main characters whose stories are revealed alternately throughout the book. The first character is a prostitute named Lucinda Carter who is seeking an escape from brothel life by posing as a schoolteacher in a place called Middle Bayou, south of Houston. She goes to this isolated backwater settlement to meet her lover, who has a plan to make them both rich, chasing a century-old rumor of pirate’s treasure buried somewhere in the bayous. Lucinda is an intelligent, resourceful, yet deeply flawed young woman who can be cunning and ruthless as well as empathetic and kind.

The second protagonist is Nate Cannon, a young, newly sworn-in Texas State policeman who has joined two veteran Texas Rangers in tracking down a serial killer—a murderer of men, women, and children—across the whole of Texas and into New Orleans. Nate is too young to have fought in the Civil War and so is unprepared for the violence he encounters in pursuing his fugitive.

As the story unfolds, Nate’s and Lucinda’s paths converge in surprising and dangerous ways, and they both discover that they are bound together by blood and by long-held secrets.

It seems there’s a new generation of writers redefining western literature. Which Western writers do you enjoy reading? How has the western changed from the days of Louis L’Amour?

There is no doubt that there is greater dimensionality to the characters and stories of more modern Western writers. Authors such as Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy were not afraid to explore the darker side of human nature, the explosive violence or the relentless opportunism of the western settler. What’s taken a bit longer has been the development of more interesting, more complex female characters in the Western genre. Recently, a few writers have explored the courage and resiliency of women in such books as Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, and Neverhome, by Laird Hunt, two of my favorites. I also love the novels of Joe Lansdale, such as Paradise Sky and The Thicket. The Western tale has survived into the modern era, but it’s often dressed in a suit instead of Wrangler jeans and driving a Lincoln Continental instead of riding an old pinto pony.

How would you describe the writer’s Dallas today? In former days Houston and Austin seemed to have all of the indie bookstores and writers’ programs. But now there’s a lot of buzz about the emerging Dallas literary scene, and your name gets dropped as one of the bestselling authors who’s a part of that. What’s your take on all of that?

I’m so thrilled to have met some wonderful Dallas authors who are about the most talented, generous-hearted and encouraging people you could ever meet. Writers such as Ben Fountain, Suzanne Frank, Harry Hunsicker, Merritt Tierce, and Daniel J. Hale, to name but a few, have put Dallas on the map as a modern literary city.

What’s your creative process like? How much do you write every week?

I try to write a few hours every day, usually in the morning. I’m a slow writer and I’m thrilled if I get one page a day that I’m pleased with as I do a lot of editing, deleting and changing as I work. I’m living proof that there is in fact no such thing as writing, only rewriting.

What’s your favorite literary destination in Dallas?

My favorite place in Dallas to hear other authors speak, to meet with friends to have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, is the Wild Detectives bookstore in the Bishop Arts District. Besides author readings, the store also hosts musical and dance events, and even theater groups who perform live either inside the shop, or outside in their backyard garden.

We understand that you’re well under way with your next novel. Can you give us a hint of what it’s about?

This fourth book is a departure for me as it’s not a historical novel, but a contemporary crime novel based on one of my short stories published in the crime anthology, Dallas Noir. The new book is titled The Dime (Mulholland/Little Brown forthcoming February 2017). Detective Elizabeth “Betty” Rhyzyk, of the Dallas Police Department’s undercover narcotics squad, is a standout with her mostly male colleagues for the kinds of weird and dangerous cases that keep falling into her lap like scorpions dropping from the ceiling, and which seem to be possible only in Texas: a shootout between a group of Mexican cocaine dealers and a Civil War reenactment group, a religious cult that pays its bills distributing methamphetamine, and a top-ranking cartel boss who literally loses his head over disputed drug distribution channels.

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Praise for Kathleen Kent

“Kent ditches predictable romance for a tense, unsparing look at the price we'll pay to get what we think we want.” —Publishers Weekly

“A talented storyteller...[Kent] manages to upend expectations through rich characterizations, historic verisimilitude and a close study of East Texas geography...There are echoes of...Cormac McCarthy, in Kent’s bloody novel....But time and again, largely because of the humanizing attention to women and minority characters traditionally given short shrift in historical fiction, Kent manages a fresh take on a tale that could have been just another redundant entry in the Lonesome Dove sweepstakes.” —Dan Oko, Texas Observer

“As historically grounded and perhaps more explosive than her first works, this new offering should be great for book clubs, which have always favored Kent." ―Barbara's Pick, Library Journal

“A rollicking tale.” ―Steve Bennett, San Antonio-Express News

“Vivid...Mixing history, love story and suspense, Kent seamlessly blends true events with fiction to bring a fraught, endlessly fascinating period of American history to life.” ―Joanna Powell, People

“A cinematic but refreshingly unsentimental take on the classic Western, starring a woman who is no romantic heroine, but a definite survivor.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Kent's novel burns slowly, with polished prose, a gripping plot and characters-particularly smart, independent-minded Martha—who will linger in your mind...A novel of suspense, a love story and a moving portrait of the struggles of the early colonists, The Wolves of Andover is a richly layered tale.” ―Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Beautifully written.” ―Shawna Seed, Dallas Morning News

“Kathleen Kent has a unique talent for early American storytelling...combines the steadfastness of well-research historical fiction with the organic mien of oral storytelling." ―Catherine D. Acree, BookPage