Kathleen Kent: The Outcasts

Olivia Flores Alvarez October 23, 2014 4:00AM

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Dallas-based author Kathleen Kent wasn’t quite prepared for her tour of the Middle Bayou area during research for her western novel The Outcasts. “I show up in a T-shirt and shorts. [My guide] has on a beekeeper’s helmet, long sleeves, boots and his pant legs are duct-taped closed so no fire ants can get in,” she tells us. Kent traveled to many of the places mentioned in the novel. “I did a lot of research, of course, but at some point it’s not enough to just read about it. I like to get a real lay of the land, see it for myself.”

Set on the Gulf Coast in the 19th century, Outcasts follows Lucinda and her lover as they search for a buried treasure. “She’s trying to make a new life for herself,” Kent tells us. “There’s nothing that she won’t do to survive. And no, she’s not the stereotypical woman you see in a western novel. The women who [are usually involved in the action] in westerns tend to be prostitutes with a heart of gold. That’s not Lucinda.” Well, at least not quite. Lucinda is a prostitute. It’s just the heart of gold part that she’s missing.

7 p.m. Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-523-0701 or visit brazosbookstore.com. Free.

Photo: Kathleen Kent by Remi David
Tue., Oct. 28, 7 p.m., 2014