I am, and always have been, drawn to mystery novels. James
Lee Burke, Robert B. Parker, and Stuart Woods are among my favorite writers. So
it was natural that I decided to write a mystery. Maybe even a series. But who
would be the hero…the protagonist…the doer of great deeds?
As I began to think
about the possibility, a name popped into my head. Burleigh J. Vinson.
Burleigh? An unlikely name for a fellow who had to carry the load for an entire
series. But there it was, and it wouldn’t go away. He could be known as Burl.
Or Leigh. Neither rang a bell. But B. J. Vinson sounded pretty good. Okay, so
it would be BJ…with no punctuation. I liked that. Punchy. What did the J stand
for? Nothing. It was a MIO…a Middle Initial Only. Why? Because I didn’t want to
burden the guy with any more letters of the alphabet.
Now that was settled. But when you got right down to it, BJ
didn’t have an intimate sound. Because my hero was a flesh and blood guy, he had
to have some cozy moments. In a previous post, I explained why he was gay, therefore I
won’t cover that ground again. So how about Vince (taken from his last name)
for those who were closest to him? Sounded good to me. In the post titled “Who
is BJ Vinson and Why is He Gay,” I gave you his history and threw in the fact
that he was independently wealthy—thanks to his parents—which allowed him to pick
and choose his cases. That was important since I wanted to write about is this
great, big, beautiful state I have chosen to call home.
New Mexico is truly an amazing place. Members of my family,
who hail from Oklahoma and East Texas, come for visits and shake their heads
because everything isn’t covered in carpets of green. There are places lush
with grama and buffalo grass, but there are also great swaths of stark, barren
rock. There are exotic, unreal places like the Tent Rocks, the Bisti/De Na Zin
Badlands, the black lava beds of the Valley of Fire, the enormous caverns at
Carlsbad, the Rio Grande Gorge…and other places too numerous to mention here.
That was what I wanted to write about…the State of New Mexico. I wanted to
share the beauty of this place with readers.
One way to accomplish this is to send the intrepid BJ all
over the state on behalf of his clients. Each of the novels takes him to
different parts of the state. The Zozobra
Incident is set in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor. In The Bisti Business, BJ travels from
Albuquerque to the Continental Divide, to Taos, Farmington…and finally the Bisti/De
Na Zin Wilderness area. The City of Rocks sends him to Deming and
deep into the Boot Heel country. The
Lonely Pines, puts him squarely in the wine country north and east of
Albuquerque.
BJ is an ex-Marine MP and an ex-Albuquerque Police
detective, so he is seldom satisfied with simply collecting information (which
is essentially a private investigator’s job). He’s compelled to dig into it and
see what lies behind the data he collects. He’s gay, but he doesn’t serve just
the gay community. Some of his cases involve homosexual clients, but in others
there isn’t a gay in sight…except for BJ and his companion, of course.
I also have an abiding interest in various cultures, and
New Mexico is awash in them. So BJ deals with Anglos, Hispanics, Pueblo
Indians, Navajos, and in one case, Swiss immigrants.
This is a very lengthy way of saying BJ Vinson was
created as a foil to indulge my passion for history, love of my adopted home, a
fascination with diverse cultures, and the intrigue of a good mystery. I pray
my writing enmeshes the readers in these fascinating subjects, as well.
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