SA's place in the SF Universe: Thirteen Days of Glory SA’s place in the SF Universe: Thirteen Days of Glory

Alamo defender Davy Crockett gives a bear hug.

There’s a long-standing school of speculative fiction that likes to look at world history and ask “what if?”

What if the Allies lost World War 2? What if America had dropped out of the space race? What if this or that technological advance never happened?

And then there are those “what if” stories that get downright weird. Like San Antonio author SCOTT A. CUPP’s “Thirteen Days of Glory” — a story that asks what if everyone defending the Alamo was gay?

So the story goes, writer NEAL BARRETT JR. originally came up with the concept, riffing on the idea that Santa Ana was persecuting gays during the Texas revolution. Texas horror stalwart JOE R. LANSDALE, a friend of Cupp’s, tried and failed to run with it. (Maybe Joe was just too afraid of the Daughters of the Texas Republic parading through Alamo Plaza with his head on a bayonet.)

After talking about the story while staying at Lansdale’s house in East Texas, it ended up being Cupp that breathed life into the hilarious and irreverent ”Thirteen Days of Glory.”

He had a dream while sleeping in Lansdale’s library, and the voice of the narrator popped right into his head.

“By the time (Lansdale and his wife  Karen) got up I had half of ‘Thirteen Days of Glory’ written,” Cupp told MISSIONS UNKNOWN. “He read the fragment and immediately wanted the rest, which I provided within the week. It was nearly (not really) called ‘They Died With Their Skirts On’ or ‘Thirteen Days of Flaming Glory.’ ”

The story ended up in Lansdale’s weird Western anthology RAZORED SADDLES and earned a spate of glowing reviews. Ed Bryant called it ”a minor classic” in LOCUS MAGAZINE, and it was even translated into Spanish by Mauricio Jose Schwartz and Don Webb, the editors, of FRONTERA DE ESPEJOS ROTOS (THE BORDERLAND OF BROKEN MIRRORS).

Now you, dear reader, can sample it right here.