Shadows and Storylines 6: This Ain't Dallas

In this episode, I talk openly about how Perfidious Tides really began — not as a polished Southern-noir vision, but as a mix of unexpected influences, personal history, and a story that took on a life of its own. I share how helping someone edit a memoir pulled me back into writing, how old attempts at novels resurfaced, and how the idea of brothers — shaped partly by Dallas and partly by my own family — first took root.I dive into the surprising moment when a System of a Down song lit the fuse, the line that pushed me to think about Vietnam, the draft, corruption, and the realities my own father faced. I explain how those thoughts reshaped the entire story, transforming a tale about a family business into a generational saga of manipulation, guilt, class, and the gray-area morality that guides every character across the trilogy.From the draft board to Mac Tate’s puppet-master role, from Vern and Rolf’s fracture to the way guilt ripples through their children, I lay out how the book wrote itself — organically, unexpectedly — and why the ending of Perfidious Tides mirrors the unresolved tension of The Empire Strikes Back. Some readers loved it, some didn’t—but it was intentional, and it was honest.This episode is the raw, behind-the-scenes truth of where the trilogy began, how the characters chose their own paths, and why these stories unfolded the way they did. If you’ve ever wondered what really shaped Perfidious Tides, this is the episode to hear.