He Ain't Me; I Ain't Him
People ask me all this time -- well, not all the time, but often enough to cause me to wince:
Is Ed Earl Burch you? Or, are you Ed Earl Burch?
I suppose it's my own damn fault because when I conjured up the main character for my five hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers more than a few decades ago, I gave him some of my physical features -- he's bald, bearded, has bad knees and wears specs -- and a lot of my character flaws and endearing quirks and qualities.
We're both cynical and surly. Fairly smart but not brilliant. Don't take shit off anybody. We're also terminal smartasses who don't know when to shut up. We'd rather deliver the wisecrack and get smacked around for it than keep our mouths shut.
He's still a saloon sport; I hung up the bar rail spikes more than a decade ago. He still chases women smarter than he is and likely to drive a spear through his heart. I'm a retired rogue, happily married and content to let him have one more ex on the books than me.
We both love our bourbon -- Maker's Mark in Ed Earl's case, which used to be my on-the-road-again pick. These days, I prefer George Dickel Tennessee whisky, which is a very close cousin. Ninety proof, please. And no mixers or candy-ass infusions. In a rocks glass with a few cubes thrown in and a tall glass of ice water to back it up.
He still fires up Lucky Strikes with a Zippo lighter, blowing through a pack of unfiltered nails a day. I still have the Zippo but gave up the Luckies twenty years ago and shelved the cigars after triple-bypass surgery that left me a zipper scar on my chest.
While we both have an abiding love John Browning's most famous firearm, the 1911, I've never been a devoted follower of The Way of the Gun. I've never killed anybody and hope I never do. Ed Earl lives in a hazardous world of murderers, cartel gunsels, neo-Nazis, Kluxers, bikers and gunrunners and has to rely on his Colt 1911, his fists, a blackjack, his wits and a little bit of luck to survive.
So, here's the key writing thing: it's fine to use yourself and people you know as models for the characters in your novels. Poach their physical characteristics, how they talk, their quirks and tics.
But remember this -- most people are fairly boring. That means all your poaching is only a starting point. You have to think through who these folks are and what you want them to do to advance your story. Starring role or supporting cast?
They need to be fully fleshed out -- even the minor players. They can't be stick figures. And you might give serious thought to making them interesting, compelling and unforgettable.
Like Ed Earl Burch. He's a violent man, a killer when he has to be -- not out of blood lust and never for money. He's seen death up close and personal. Has the scars to prove it -- on his skin and in his soul. And the nightmare demons he had to hose down with pills and bourbon to make it through the night. And the day.
Burch is battered and warped in a way you and I will never be. He talks to his dead partner, who answers back. And he lives in the stark desert mountains of West Texas where the horizon is a long ways away and you can see the demons and devils long before they get close.
That's a little bit about the difference between Ed Earl Burch and me. He ain't me. And I damn sure ain't him. No matter how much I'd like to be.
Ed Earl Burch Hard-Boiled Texas Crime Thriller #5
MAYHEM WITH A BADGE
After wandering the peephole wilderness of a private detective for two decades, defrocked Dallas homicide detective Ed Earl Burch is an official manhunter again, wearing the badge of a DA's investigator in the harsh desert mountains of West Texas.
Big D, it ain't. And life as a resurrected lawman isn't everything he hoped it would be. Too many rules. Not enough satisfaction. And a boss who hates him for saving his life.
But Burch is back, tracking a serial killer who tortured and murdered his ex-lover--an Aryan Brotherhood gang leader Burch thought he killed in a desert shootout.
He's also trying to protect the fugitive granddaughter of an old friend and her four-year-old son-- from this straight-razor butcher and gunsels hired by her incestuous Dixie Mafia daddy.
Throats get slashed. Bullets smack flesh. Bodies drop. Ed Earl Burch and his partner, Bobby Quintero, are in reckless pursuit, dodging death, closing in on their prey.
No place Burch would rather be. Unless he gets killed.
Thriller Crime [ Spotted Mule Press, On Sale: December 14, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780998329475 / eISBN: 9780998329482 ]
Jim Nesbitt is the award-winning author of five hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers that feature defrocked Dallas homicide detective Ed Earl Burch. Nesbitt's latest, THE FATAL SAVING GRACE, will be released December 15, 2025 in paperback and e-pub versions.
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