Jesse Sublett Papers

Jesse Sublett was born May 15, 1954, in Johnson City, Texas. He was valedictorian of Johnson City's LBJ High School Class of 1972, and attended Southwest Texas State University from 1972-1974 as an English major.

From 1974 until 1986 Sublett lived in Austin, where he played a dominant role in defining the live music scene as bass player and/or lead singer for a number of bands, most notably The Skunks, who recorded three records between 1978 and 1983.

During this time, Sublett began writing short pieces for the Austin Chronicle, including record and restaurant reviews, and in 1984 he was assigned to write a short piece on the club circuit which bands like The Skunks played. Instead, he submitted a semi-parodic music mystery entitled "Traveling the Hardboiled Highway," which imitated the style of a hardboiled detective novel. This marked the birth of Martin Fender, the central character in Sublett's first three novels. He submitted a second Fender piece, "The Nature of the Crime," which the Chronicle's editorial staff declined to publish but which they encouraged him to re-work as a novel. After finishing the re-titled Capitol Crimes, he wrote Rock Critic Murders with the intention of selling the two novels as a series. While waiting for the attention of publishers on the first two books, he began work on a third novel, Blunt Instrument. In 1987 he moved to Los Angeles in order to be closer to the spirit of his hero Raymond Chandler. He continued to play music on the West Coast while awaiting responses from publishers and re-writing Blunt Instrument. Shortly thereafter, Lisa Kaufman at Viking took an interest in his work and agreed to publish Rock Critic Murders. Sublett has written several screenplays, and served as story editor for the Disney series Adventures of the Old West. During 1994-1995 he ventured into nonfiction, writing a history of the Texas Turnpike Authority.

Sublett now lives in Austin with his wife Lois Richwine, their son Dashiell, and two cats.