Texas Reads with Sean Bridges
I started out as a screenwriter, but some of my stories have become books. I enjoy writing within the guardrails of the traditional movie script, three-act structure. But I discovered that other ideas seem to gravitate towards a different canvas and a longer journey. My Texas Reads choices are from three master craftsmen who moved between those two worlds with ease.
Picket Line (Elmore Leonard, 2025)
This recently published novella about a farm worker strike in South Texas and the growing anger on both sides was written in the early 1970’s but was unreleased. I immediately got a Mr. Majestyk feel to the story. But this novella is more of a boiling drama than his classic crime thriller. I’d bet they were both created around the same time. Apparently, Picket Line was written for a Hollywood producer who passed on the material, and the story was lost in time.
I savor any work from Elmore Leonard. He excels in creating believable characters. And this story weaves a number of them together.
From immigrant farm laborers who are on strike for fair pay, some trying to convince others to join the cause. To scab workers taking their place in the melon fields, barely keeping it together under hard labor and the oppressive Texas heat. A small band of union organizers desperate to hold the line as they try to convince farm management of their cause. And a local police force monitoring the crisis and hoping to keep the peace. Except some officers are more than happy to use violence to finally end the strike and force the laborers back to work.
It’s a constant tension inching right up to the edge. Especially with the arrival of two Hispanic ex-cons who find their way into this volatile world and are ready to stoke the fires and set it all ablaze.
My biggest complaint is that it’s over too soon. Right when it seems everything is in place for the story to shift gears, it’s done. I was totally left wanting more. Which is a feeling I often have with a number of Elmore Leonard stories. Frankly, I hate to see them end.
It takes an artist to make it look so easy, and I absolutely love his style. I miss him and have been pacing myself through his impressive catalog of work. He’s a personal favorite. So this discovery of a lost novella was such a treat.
High Cotton (Joe Lansdale, 2000)
I met Joe Lansdale at a screening of Bubba Ho-Tep in Austin. After the movie, he was signing posters. My girlfriend at the time asked him about the books he had for sale and which one would he recommend. He signed a copy of this short-story collection to us. It was a great introduction to discover a quintessential Texan.
To me, he’s a teacher as much as a writer. And Joe Lansdale taught me to never have a censor button. If you’re going to be a writer, then you’ve gotta go where the story and characters will take you. And sometimes that journey may be uncomfortable. I’ve never forgotten that lesson and I learned it with this book. His stories are crafted with a sharp edge. Plus he’s a favorite short story writer and High Cotton is the best of the best.
Lansdale can play your emotions like a virtuoso conductor. There’s warmth and laughter and fear and disgust. Shock and horror and dread and tension. To call it a page turner doesn’t do it justice. I used to think the people who populate his stories couldn’t be real. But if you call Texas home long enough, then you’re bound to run into any number of Lansdale characters.
I’m a big fan of his award-winning novels. I can’t get enough of Hap and Leonard. I love his work with DC Comics, and his episodes of Batman – The Animated Series stand out from the entire run. Cold In July is an absolute solid recommendation (book and film). But this collection of short stories is one I must highlight. I still feel a connection to it from all those years ago when I first turned the pages.
One other thing about Joe Lansdale. He always accompanies me when I go on a trip. Just to keep Texas close.
No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy, 2006)
When the Coen Brothers won Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, they said they didn’t so much as write it but transcribe it. And if you read the book, it reads and moves like a tight and taut thriller screenplay. Which, funny enough, it was. It was written for Hollywood, but Cormac couldn’t get any traction with the material at all. Studio after studio turned it down. But in the face of overwhelming rejection, he wasn’t deterred. He was still a fan of the story he created, so he decided to turn it into a book.
This was my inspiration to turn one of my screenplays into my first novel. I even tried to copy his style of limited punctuation. No quotation marks and a minimalist approach to the page. I took it all one step further and reached out to his agent at CAA. I made my pitch, said what a fan I was, and was surprised to receive a response. It was enough to get me a read.
His approach to Hollywood and not being stuck in one lane as a writer has always made sense to me. Write what you want and find a way to get it out to an audience.
If you haven’t read this book. Read it. If you haven’t seen the film. Watch it. I consider it one of the greatest American novels written in my lifetime.
He’s a Texas literary giant. His books are paintings in a gallery. But he always saw himself as a journeyman writer hammering away at his favorite typewriter. Even that has a mythos. He wrote all his books on an old Olivetti Lettera 32 manual typewriter that he bought in a pawn shop for $50. Years later, it was sold at auction for over $250,000. Then he went and bought another Olivetti Lettera and started in on another project. He’s a Texas and American icon who would never admit that to himself.
I once saw him at The Pearl in San Antonio. My dad was floored and nudged me to look over and check out who was leaving some office building. It was Tommy Lee Jones. I was more shocked at who was there with him. Cormac McCarthy. I knew enough to not approach either of those men and ask them anything. But it was like seeing John Steinbeck or William Faulkner in the flesh.
Sean Bridges was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. He’s an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl award-winning screenwriter and author. He’s a Stephen King Dollar Baby with his festival winning audio production of One for the Road.
His Audible Parade Productions created a serial audio thriller, Triple Six, and their next horror/suspense series is out on Audible, Parasite Zero.
His suspense/thriller novel, Gunbarrel Highway, is available as a paperback, e-book and audiobook. His next novel, On the Bayou, will be published in 2026.
He’s currently creating a spaghetti western/werewolf feature film, High Moon. He lives and works in the Texas Hill Country.