 The place went nuts and of course it was pretty much downhill from there. He started writing crime novels in the 1980s. Friedman told the Associated Press in 1997 his friends were characters in his books and he used their real names. As I've pointed out quite often, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't wipe your friends off on your saddle. So I put them in the manuscripts. Friedman ran for governor of Texas in 2006 and twice for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.