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.
Great story! Scott told me about this story a while back and I’ve wanted to read it. Thanks for providing the link.
Nice what if…and who’s to say it isn’t really historical fiction? Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Hey Scott,
Did you know that Frontera de espejos rotos is listed as one of the essentailm books in Mexvian SF between 1990-2000. (Ok it is a small field)
7. Frontera de espejos rotos (1994), compilada por Mauricio-José Schwarz y Don Webb. Si Más allá de lo imaginado demostró que la ciencia ficción mexicana no era golondrina de verano, sino un movimiento creativo en marcha, la antología de Schwarz y Webb hizo ver que la estrecha relación entre la ciencia ficción estadounidense y la mexicana tenía que ver tanto con la cercanía geográfica entre ambos países como con los contactos personales entre los autores nacionales y sus vecinos del norte. Recuérdese que, en la conciencia del país, los Estados Unidos siguen siendo tanto una amenaza latente como un ejemplo a seguir. Un futuro que se desea y se teme al mismo tiempo.
We are cool!
Don