Missions Unknown » Scott Cupp

TEXAS IN 2013, Reno, and the Hugo Ballot

Scott A. Cupp — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:00:06 +0000

As anyone who follows this blog knows, we are supporters of the TEXAS in 2013 Worldcon bid to bring the World Science Fiction Convention to San Antonio over Labor Day weekend of 2013. To do that, San Antonio must be chosen by the members of the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention. The WorldCon is a travelling convention, hosted by different cities each year. The 2011 convention takes place in August in Reno, NV.

You can be a part of the vote for San Antonio and, the best part, voting now will help you get your membership at the lowest possible price. To participate, you must be a member of the Reno convention. You can get a supporting membership for $50 online from the Renovation SF website or you can download this PDF form and pay by mail.

I hear those hearts stopping tight now. $50!!!! But you get something for your money. For your membership, you get to vote for the Hugo Awards (the annual Science Fiction Achievement Awards.) And you get electronic copies most of the nominees. That includes six novels (BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis, THE DERVISH HOUSE by Ian McDonald, CRYOBURN by Lois McMaster Bujold, FEED by Mira Grant, and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N. K. Jimisen) and all the nominated short fiction (five novellas, five novelettes, and four short stories). There are galleries of art by the fan artist and pro artist nominees (including Mission Unknown’s John Picacio). There are graphic novels from the nominees including Bill Willingham’s FABLES series. There are writings from the John W. Campbell Award nominees for Best New Writer including Lev Grossman’s novel THE MAGICIANS. In the Best Related Work you get two full volumes THE BUSINESS OF SCIENCE FICTION by Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg and CHICKS DIG TIMELORDS edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea as well as links to the entire WRITING EXCUSES, SEASON 4 by Brandon Sanderson, Jordan Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells. That’s a lot of stuff. Essentially what you do not get are the Dramatic Presentation pieces (long or short form). All that for your $50. Plus they send you the program book from the convention and their undying love. All that is available until July 31 when the voting ends and the files go away.

At the time that you vote, you can also do site selection (that means voting for TEXAS in 2013. The fee for that is $60 and it gets you an automatic supporting membership in the SA convention which can be converted to attending. The voting fee applies toward your conversion to attending to make things better.

Now, if you do not want to pay it all out now, you have options. Pay in July and get the Hugo voter packet and vote. Complete the site selection ballot (at http://renosf.org/downloads/2013-site-ballot.pdf) and get it with your check to me before I leave for Reno and I will personally take it there and get it processed. You get the credit and hold off the payment until August. Simple. If you want to do it that way, drop me a line at scott@scottacupp.com before August 10 and we will work it all out. The earlier the better.

So, if you have always wanted to attend the World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio and you missed the 1997 convention (or, even if you went), you need to get on this right away. There are now less than THREE weeks for you to join and vote. And only five weeks until it all starts to come together.

Three Views of ArmadilloCon 32

Sanford Allen — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:59:59 +0000

The bar scene at ArmadilloCon: Not quite as odd as the bar scene in "Star Wars," but still full of strange characters. Among them (left to right), SF Signal's John DeNardo, author Joe McKinney, Adventures in SciFi Publishing's Brent Bowen, and author/scholar Matt Cardin.

Joe McKinney

This year’s ArmadilloCon lived up to the legend of ArmadilloCons past. It’s one convention I never miss because it is so uniquely focused on books. I met with writers, fans, booksellers, old pros and new stars, but no matter where I went and what I was doing, the focus was on books. You just can’t get that kind of fun anywhere else.

My experience actually started on Thursday, a day before the convention itself got under way. I was set to be one of the instructors at the annual writer’s workshop the next day, and so, as a sort of welcoming party, the convention coordinators brought us all together at a great little Mexican restaurant near the hotel. As luck would have it, I ended up sitting between the convention’s Guest of Honor, Nancy Kress, and the writing workshop coordinator, the wonderfully talented Stina Leicht. Nancy is funny, insightful, and quite the authority on coffee, as it turns out. Our end of the table was having a great conversation…and then my dinner came. The waitress dropped this enormous platter of smoking fajita meat on the table in front of me, and of course it fumigated the room. Eyes were watering. People were coughing. Voices were raised to near shouting levels just to be heard over the noise my dinner was making. Afterwards, I went back to the hotel, got settled in, fired up the computer and a bottle of vodka, and got busy writing. All in all, a great opener.

The writer’s workshop the next morning was a real pleasure. It started with all the instructors assembling on the risers at the front of the room and going through a question and answer session guided by our coordinator, Stina Leicht. Afterwards, we broke up in groups. I was co-coaching Team Tolkien with very talented Melissa Tyler. It was my weekend, apparently, to meet up with genuinely cool people, of which Melissa Tyler is most certainly one. Here I’d like to give a special nod to the students in my group: Laura Beamer, Jennifer Daly, Raymon Daniel, Roger Kunshick, Salena Bargsley, and Teresa McWilliams. I was extremely impressed with my group’s work and their desire to get something out of the workshop. They were a real pleasure, and I think it won’t be too long before you start seeing some of their names in the major magazines.

Check after the jump for more from McKinney as well as Scott Cupp and Sanford Allen…

Afterwards, I met up with Sanford Allen (all around cool guy and a hell of a good writer), Matt Cardin (one of the smartest and coolest guys working in horror today), and Brent Bowen (one of the best interviewers around) and we made the rounds. We got something to eat at a local hamburger joint, then went back to the hotel to raise a little Cain with the other guests.

Saturday started with a hangover. Sanford and I went down for breakfast, then went back up to the room to write for about an hour. After that, my day got busy. I had two panels, one on researching and the other writing styles. The one on researching was my first ever turn as moderator, and despite the fact that I was about as nervous as I could be, I think the panel went really well. I owe this to the inspired contributions of Jess Nevins, Martha Wells, Cary Osborne, Robert Jackson Bennett, and Melissa Tyler.

Space Squid magazine's Matthew Bey lugs his books. (Photo by Lawrence Person)

Later that day, I sat in on a group signing in the dealer’s room and managed to sell out the books I brought. Actually, I was giving them away, so I guess I can’t really say I sold them out…but you get the idea.

Afterwards, I stuck around the Dealer’s Room and caught up with Mission Unknown’s very own Scott Cupp. I also saw old friends Lee Thomas, Nate Southard, Gabrielle Faust and Boyd E. Harris.

That afternoon I attended Stina Leicht’s reading from her new novel, due out in April from Nightshade books. I had heard that Stina is something of an expert on the Irish, and she certainly lived up to that reputation. Her reading dealt with the Bloody Sunday riots and was absolutely brilliant. She made a believer out of me, and as soon as her book comes out, I’m going to be in line for a copy. This lady is going places, folks.

Later, I got to watch Sanford Allen read his short story “Burma Jukebox.” He knocked it out of the park. If you’ve ever heard Sanford read, you know that smooth, country fried accent he can put on when he wants to….and brother, was he ever in good form. This is one of my favorite stories by him, a real Twilight Zone style twister of an ending at the end, and hearing it read aloud was an absolute treat.

After the reading, Sanford and I met up with Matt Cardin and Brent Bowen again and went to dinner. Matt had a panel on religion and worldbuilding right after dinner, so we all went to that. Matt was the moderator, and with some help from Matthew Bey of Space Squid Magazine, managed to put on a hell of a good panel.

The evening then turned into a party. Matthew Bey had a Space Squid party on the 8th floor, and we all ended up there. It got crowded and it got loud. Security showed up not once, but twice. The first time was a polite little warning to keep the volume down. The second time was a far sterner warning keep it inside the room. It reminded me of college, and, not surprisingly, was a wonderful time.

On Sunday, I had another panel, this one on worldbuilding. I was moderating, and again, things went great. I was especially pleased by the back and forth between Texas-based fantasy writer Steven Brust and audience member Matt Cardin. The audience really got into this panel, and I think it was one of the best I’ve ever participated in.

And finally, I finished off ArmadilloCon by reading my short story, “Survivors,” which I bill as a traditional zombie story…but it really ain’t. I was pleased to see the room was about two-thirds full, and I think I gave them a pretty good show.

Scott Cupp

It is always hard to pick out key moments from the convention because, I always have fun at each one I attend. ArmadilloCon 32 was no exception. Watching Kasey Lansdale perform on Saturday was certainly a highlight, especially when she invited Mark Finn, Master of Monkey Foo (or is it Poo?), up to sing a song he wrote for the Violet Crown Players’ performance of King Kong a few years ago. The piece was called “Don’t Shoot That Monkey Down” and it was a Dadaistic masterpiece (or something).

Stina Leicht and Elizabeth Moon enjoy the revelry. (Photo by Lawrence Person)

My panels were fun, especially the cross genres panel, which had Don Webb, Michael Bishop, and others on it. (Forgive me others. My brain is still fried from the convention.) And the Review/Criticism panel with Derek Johnson, Lawrence Person, Rick Claw, Martin Wagner, and Nancy Kress on it. And the vampire panel where I got to reiterate that there was nothing sexy about vampires. (They are undead Satan-spawn with no redeeming qualities and should be killed on sight!) I was also on the Welcome to ArmadilloCon panel with Karen Meschke and con chair Elizabeth Burton. I had a pleasant interview with Fan GOH Elspeth Bloodgood, which no one attended so we caught up on the last several years’ activities. And, unfortunately, I was unable to make my scheduled reading due to a conflict with selling books.

What is generally fun for me at the conventions is making new friendships or renewing old old ones. Among the old friendships renewed were with Michael Bishop, with whom I had spent a hectic day in Dallas some 20 years ago for an ill-fated book tour that fell apart that day. We had fun, but few books other than mine got signed that day. I also caught up again with Mark Nelson, an artist I had not seen in way too many years. I got one of his art books with a nice doodle inside. I talked some with john DeNardo of SF Signal along with Derek Johnson. I found out my short story “Thirteen Days of Glory” had been listed as one of six influential Texas science fiction stories by Don Webb in the previous Sunday’s Austin American Statesman. I spent some time with Mike Walsh of Old Earth Books, Mike Bishop, Mark Finn, Jess Nevins. I also saw Cary Osborne, an old friend and dancing partner from ArmadilloCons past. She is now in New Mexico and seems to be happy there.

As usual, I picked up great books, including the limited editions of SON OF RETRO PULP TALES (edited by Joe R. Lansdale and his son Keith) and THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION by Peter Hamilton. I got some reading copies of things like Lafferty’s PAST MASTER, Ed Bryant’s CINNABAR, Lawrence Bloch’s THE SCORELESS THAI, and other titles. I also picked up the ultra-limited lettered edition of Lansdale’s FOR A FEW STORIES MORE, which contains an extra novelette not printed anywhere else. I have one of the best Lansdale collections in the world including some items limited to fewer than 100 copies. Normally, I would pass this by (it was bloody expensive), but Joe and I have a collaboration in this one, so I needed it for my shelf of cool stuff.

I went to several parties including ConDFW and Texas in 2013. I managed to have dinner with several great friends, Becky and Jeff Haynie on Friday and Ed Scarbrough, Sam Hudson, Nina Siros, Willie Siros, Charles Siros, and Jonathan Miles. Of the seven of us there, three had birthdays within a one-week period around the convention (Nina on Thursday before, Ed on Sunday and Willie on Tuesday).

Sanford Allen

I attended my first ArmadilloCon three years ago, after decades of staying clear of the SF convention circuit. My memories of cons past were of people in badly fitting Star Trek costumes haggling over toys and packing into hotel rooms to watch sixth-generation copies of anime shows.

If that’s also your memory of SF cons, listen up: ArmadilloCon is not that. Not by a long shot. It’s a con for writers, aspiring writers and people who love SF, fantasy and horror literature and art. Sure, there are a handful of people walking around in steampunk duds and few toys on sale in the dealer’s room, but mostly it’s about the books.

I spent a good deal of ArmadilloCon 32 hanging with author and Missions contributor Joe McKinney, podcaster and whisky expert Brent Bowen and the brilliant horror scholar and writer Matt Cardin (who also records eerily beautiful music, it turns out). The three of us put down unhealthy amounts of booze and spent quite a bit of time talking about our favorite obscure horror films. I also enjoyed hooking up with old friends Nicole Duson, an up-and-coming Austin writer, and John DeNardo of the brilliant SF Signal website.

This was the first year I participated in panel discussions, and they turned out to be a blast. During a panel on the New Weird, Neal Barrett Jr. and I agreed that there probably isn’t a New Weird, per se, since many writers — including Neal — have been weird for a long, long time. I also enjoyed my panel on the challenge of writing short stories, where I ended up between luminary authors Michael Bishop and Howard Waldrop (how the hell did I end up so lucky?). Finally, I ended up on a panel about H.P. Lovecraft’s enduring legacy with Matt Cardin and Don Webb, who displayed amazing knowledge of the author’s work. The always witty Joe R. Lansdale made a great case (and one I agreed with) that horror authors can learn far more from writers like Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch and Flannery O’Connor.

Between all the panelizing, socializing and drinking, I managed to fit in a few readings. Stina Leicht read from her upcoming novel, which mixes Celtic mythology and the complicated politics of Northern Ireland. Can’t wait for that one to hit the stands. Joe McKinney’s Sunday afternoon reading of his story “Survivors” proved a great capper to the con.

What we’re reading: July 2010

Sanford Allen — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:33:21 +0000

Every newspaper, magazine and blog seems to be running a summer reading list right about now. So who needs another one? You do, friends. How many, we ask, are going to be as chock-full of geeky and creepy goodness as ours?

John Picacio

“Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly

Just finished reading a short story by Nebula Award-winning author James Patrick Kelly. It hasn’t appeared publicly yet and is slated to appear in the December 2010 issue of ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION. I’ll be creating cover art for this issue based off of this story, which is titled “Plus or Minus.” Note that the cover you see here is the cover I did for the September 2009 issue of Asimov’s, and has no bearing on what I’ll do for the December 2010 Asimov’s. I’m posting it here because it’s the most recent thing I’ve done for the magazine, and a solid issue in its own right to boot. Kelly’s a terrific writer and I’m really looking forward to doing a new Asimov’s cover.

Scott Cupp

I just finished reading a three novel series featuring the pulp character the Spider (see Thursday’s Forgotten Books post) entitled The SPIDER VS. THE EMPIRE STATE (Age of Aces). Socially relevant, violent, and pure pulp madness. I have also been reading THE COMPLETE BLOOM COUNTY, VOL. 2 by Berkeley Breathed (Idea & Design Works). I read Bloom County regularly once I discovered it in 1983 and so there are some strips I missed in this (and Vol. 1). I had not reread the strip in a while (about 20 years) and it is still refreshing and biting. On my Kindle on the iPhone I have been reading Charles Dickens’ BLEAK HOUSE for the last few months. It runs over 1,000 pages and I am loving it but I tend to read it when I am waiting to see the doctor, waiting for food in a restaurant, or waiting for a move. Consequently after six months I am about a quarter of the way through it, Finally, I just started re-reading Robert Stallman’s THE ORPHAN which may be my Forgotten Book next week. It is the first of three volumes that Stallman published featuring a shape shifting alien who lands on Earth in the 1930’s. They were a terrific read when I read them a long time ago with great Don Maitz covers and there is a fascinating back story about them and Stallman.

Sanford Allen

SKIN by Kathe Koja (Dell)

I’ve had this one on my to-read list for a few years now, and it finally floated to the top after spending a couple of weeks with Einsturzende Neubauten in heavy rotation on my iPod. Horror writer Koja uses her third novel to explore the performance art scene and the industrial subculture of the early ’90s — and true to life, what starts out as an artistic statement rapidly devolves into a self-destructive mess. Sculptor Tess Bajac integrates her constructs of jagged metal into dancer Bibi Bloss’s often-violent performance pieces, and their artistic partnership soon blossoms into a physical and emotional one as well. Tess is dragged to edge as her partner and collaborator becomes obsessed with cutting, scarring and otherwise modifying her body. Using language that draws as much from William Burroughs and Kathy Acker as it does contemporary horror, Koja welds together an unsettling novel that effectively captures the reckless, boundary-pushing spirit of the industrial subculture.

Pete Barnstrom

Just finished Christopher Moore’s unnecessary but hilarious sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends, 2007′s You Suck. He’s apparently putting out yet another, even more unnecessary sequel, Bite Me. I’ll probably read it, too.

Currently in the pool bag is Retro-Pulp Tales, a Joe R. Lansdale-edited collection of modern genre writers working in the style of the old pulps. The F. Paul Wilson entry was quite nifty, a “Yellow Peril” story that gradually feeds in another classic genre of the period, which I won’t talk about because half the fun is figuring it out. (I can still remember the time I spoiled Psycho for a friend… who doesn’t know about Norman’s mother?)

Also slogging my way through Mamet’s slim little treatise, On Directing Film, which isn’t a bad book at all, but I’m having trouble concentrating on the subject these days.

Paul Vaughn

THE DEVIL IN GREEN by Mark Chadbourn (Pyr)

The Devil in Green is the first book in Chadbourn’s The Dark Age trilogy which is a follow-up to his Age of Misrule trilogy. The book takes up in the world left after the events of the first series, the age of reason is over, magic is back in the world and with miracles on every corner people have lost faith in the religions with which we are all familiar. Chadbourn explores the consequences of a world where technology has broken down, where creatures of myth and nightmare roam the land and the human population has been decimated.

I have only just started this book and we have not yet encountered any of the characters from the first series. Those characters were memorable and I hope to meet some of them again. The sweet John Picacio cover leads me to believe that we will at least encounter the god-like being (or simply god?) Cernunnos. I’m definitely looking forward to this one being a compelling page-turner, just like the books of the Age of Misrule were.

SA’s Scott Cupp Launches New SF Signal Column

Mission Control — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:00:59 +0000

CROSS PLAINS UNIVERSE: World Fantasy Award-nominated anthology edited by Scott Cupp and Joe R. Lansdale

San Antonio author Scott Cupp has joined the team of SF Signal, one of the leading science fiction news sites. His new column is called Geek With (Lots of) Books and the first installment went live this week. Check it out!

Made In SA: Scott A. Cupp

John Picacio — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:35:39 +0000

Scott A. Cupp. Photo by Jayme Lynn Blaschke.

SCOTT A. CUPP is a John W. Campbell Award-nominated short story writer and World Fantasy Award-nominated editor who frequently deals with the West (mythic and otherwise) in his fiction. He’s published eighteen works of fiction and an assortment of non-fiction articles and reviews over the last thirty years. He co-edited the World Fantasy Award-nominated anthology CROSS PLAINS UNIVERSE: TEXANS CELEBRATE ROBERT E. HOWARD (2006, FACT/Monkeybrain Books) which honored Howard in the 100th anniversary of his birth. He lives and works in San Antonio with his wife, Sandi, and a Bengal cat, Tygrr, who tolerates him.

Favorite authors, books, and comics include:

Philip K. Dick, Joe R. Lansdale, Fritz Leiber, JG Ballard, Stephen King, THE NIGHTRUNNERS by Joe R. Lansdale, UBIK by Philip K. Dick, THE LAST STARSHIP FROM EARTH by John Boyd, NOVA by Samuel R. Delany, THE HEREAFTER GANG by Neal Barrett, Jr., CREEPY and EERIE (different titles but pretty much the same in content and tone), WEIRD SCIENCE FANTASY (Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood and EC Comics), UNCLE SCROOGE (Carl Barks is a hero), HAWKMAN (the Murphy Anderson version), GREEN LANTERN or THE ATOM (Gil Kane is still an all-time favorite). Full interview behind the cut.

What first brought you to San Antonio, and what made you stay?

I’m kind of a yo-yo with San Antonio. I have lived here on at least four separate occasions, depending on how you count some college time. My dad was in the military and we moved here in 1967. I stayed until I got out of high school and then moved to Austin for most of the next six years (with one brief interlude back in SA while I tried to accumulate cash to continue school. I moved to Houston for a brief period and then came back to SA in 1977. I found work with Montgomery Ward later that year. I met my future wife here in 1979 and was then promptly transferred to Laredo. We got married while I was there and in 1980 we moved to Dallas where we stayed for 20 years. I got a chance to move back to San Antonio in 2000 as District Controller for Wards and stayed in that position until the company imploded and liquidated in 2001. Since then I have had three jobs which included travel but San Antonio has a big enough airport that everyone seemed happy. I like SA. Anthony is my rarely used middle name, so a city named after my personal saint is cool.

What are your earliest fond memories of genre, whether it be sf, fantasy, or horror?

I grew up watching things like THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, THE LONE RANGER, THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, and SKY KING on TV. I was already a good reader but there was a competition in the class to see who could read 100 books first. I tried hard but did not win. However, I did read SPACESHIP UNDER THE APPLE TREE and a couple of other juvenile SF books. By the time I was 8 I had my own library card and was searching out TREASURE ISLAND and other adventure titles. I read comics from the beginning. I went to the movies frequently, seeing JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE TIME MACHINE, and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA when they were released. By junior high I was actively searching for genre titles. I read Verne, Wells, Heinlein. A friend introduced me to the works of Philip K. Dick via THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE and I loved it. I read DRACULA early on. The scene were Lucy Westenra is killed in the tombs may be one of the scariest things I ever read.

Scott A. Cupp. Photo by Jayme Lynn Blaschke.

What made you want to write professionally in the first place, and why do you still do it?

Part of the writing thing was I always thought I would, even in high school. I would take vocabulary tests and try to make a sort of continuing story out of the words, featuring Captain Goodguy. When I got to college, I met my friend Henry Melton who also wanted to be a writer. For a year we went around together, worked on some short pieces, and listened to music via his reel-to-reel tapes. He has since gone on to produce some wonderful YA SF books and won a couple of awards. In 1973 I met up with the Science Fiction club at UT. Their sponsor on campus was the amazing Chad Oliver. Through the club I met Bill Wallace, Walton (Bud) Simons, Joe Pumilia, Lisa Tuttle, Lewis Shiner, Howard Waldrop, Jake (Buddy) Saunders, Bruce Sterling, Steve Utley, George Proctor, Tom Reamy and many other Texas writers. I saw them at the beginnings of their careers and I knew I wanted to do that. Then I met Joe Lansdale, Bill Crider and James Reasoner. Joe was doing horror, Bill was doing crime fiction and James was doing crime and western stuff. From them I got the final urge to go and do likewise and started producing some stuff.

I wrote my first sellable story “Night of the Blade” in one day in 1981 in Palestine, TX during a snow storm. It took me five years to sell. It was finally published in a semi-prozine called HARDBOILED edited by Wayne Dundee. Around this time I wrote the initial version of “One Fang”. It took 24 years to sell that one. But in 1988, things began to change. I sold a story to Lansdale for the western anthology THE NEW FRONTIER. While visiting Joe I was told of an anthology he was editing RAZORED SADDLES. He said “You really want to be in this thing. It is going to warp people’s minds!” He was right. I did want to be there but I didn’t have a good idea. He told me about an idea that Neal Barrett, Jr. had which he could never wrap up into a coherent piece. It was about the Texas Revolution and how, while fighting rebels, Santa Ana was also carrying out pieces of the Inquisition and was persecuting gay folks that he found. Neal had said “What if everyone at the Alamo had been gay?” I was blown away by the concept. So was Joe. He said he had noodled on it but had never quite gotten it to gel either. That night sleeping in Joe’s library I had a dream and woke with the voice in my head. By the time he and Karen got up I had half of “Thirteen Days of Glory” written. 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”. Nearly every review of the book mentioned the story in a positive way and it has been called “a minor classic” by Ed Bryant in LOCUS MAGAZINE. It was later translated into Spanish and caused some grief for Mauricio Jose Schwartz and Don Webb, the editors, of FRONTERA DE ESPEJOS ROTOS (THE BORDERLAND OF BROKEN MIRRORS).

Based on my two western/sf/horror pieces I got a nomination for the 1991 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer at the WorldCon in Chicago. I still write because I enjoy the finished product. Writing can be a big chore to me, particularly if I am not passionate enough about the story. That’s why I stop and start so often. When the time is right, the words come. And when they are good, I am very happy. Right now, I need maybe one more piece to be able to shop around a collection. With the book market in the toilet like it is now, it may take a while to sell. But, hey, I’m a writer, I’m used to rejection.

You’ve worn several hats in the publishing business. You’ve been an editor and a retailer, in addition to your career as an author. Do those experiences influence your writing life, and the choices you make in your writing? Or not?

The retailer and author pretty much go hand in hand. I love to read and tell people about things I like. I love to see someone discover a writer they have never heard of and have a whole new body of work to explore. Hand selling books is easy if you are passionate about what you are selling. When I write, I try to be memorable. I don’t have a passion to turn out 200 stories before I am gone. I will be happy for someone to read one of my stories and to have them say, “No one but Scott could have done that.”

Do you have a personal favorite amongst your body of work?

Perhaps the story I am most pleased with is “King of the Cows” which initially appeared in SOUTH FROM MIDNIGHT, an anthology given to members of the New Orleans World Fantasy. It was later adapted into a comic format for Mojo Press’ WEIRD BUSINESS, edited By Joe R. Lansdale and Rick Klaw with art by Matt Guest. I like it because it came to me in one quick storm while I was driving back from Conestoga in Tulsa. I had five hours to ruminate across central Oklahoma with little in the way of entertainment. I was stoked and ready to write (which is what conventions do to me) and from the combination of boredom, Sunday churches, and barb wire fences came the story of the bovine messiah. I am also high on “Johnny Cannabis” which had been percolating in my mind for a long time (over ten years) before it came out. And of course, “Thirteen Days of Glory” is hard not to love.

What are one or two of your most gratifying moments as a professional in the sf/f/h biz?

Finally finding a home for “One Fang” (in CROSS PLAINS UNIVERSE) after 24 years and then having it make the Recommended Reading for both YEAR’S BEST SF AND YEAR’S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR. And getting notified of the nomination for CROSS PLAINS UNIVERSE for Best Anthology at the World Fantasy Convention. We did not have a prayer of winning–the competition was too strong, but it still made me feel great. I was on Cloud 9 the whole weekend.

What’s your most recent published work, and where can we find it?

My most recent piece is my short story “Johnny Cannabis and Tony, the Purple Paisley (Sometimes) Colored White Lab Rat” which appeared online at Revolution SF.com. The story is the result of being an old fart who lived in Austin in the early 70’s, when much of the early portions of this story take place. I was a quiet, dull type, not the doper or stoner, though I knew folks who fell into those categories. For years I had wanted to do the ultimate doper fantasy (kind of like combining DESTINY’S CHICKENS and DIVINE RIGHT’S TRIP). I didn’t do that but I wrote what I think is a fine, fun story. I’ve had talking cattle twice in stories as well as the talking rat. And I had a giant horny toad. Nothing same and normal in my world. Or in Austin in those days. Nowadays, too.

What are you currently working on?

I am working on two pieces with Mark Finn (“Hell in a Boxcar” and “Jumbo, All American gorilla and Nazi Smasher”). Both stories are killers but they are difficult and I am slow when I am fast and right now I am in the really slow mode. I am also working on an alternate universe story involving the Texas navy, zeppelins and James Fennimore Cooper called “Monikin of the Gasbags”. This is probably what I will finish first for ArmadilloCon.

What’s your favorite San Antonio place?

There are several places which I have fond spots for. The Alamo is the setting of “Thirteen Days” and I love the whole metaphor revolving around it. I once used the Alamo as a reference to a Patti Smith concert at Randy’s Rodeo (Which had also hosted the Sex Pistols) as holding a small group of people who knew their cause was doomed but who hung on anyway. Also, the San Antonio Zoo. My first job was there in 1970, making cotton candy and selling refreshments. I made $1.45 an hour. It was tough work and, to this day, I still cannot eat cotton candy. The smell will make me sick. Also, I loved the old Wards stores. It still hurts to drive by Windsor Park or Wonderland and see those building being used for other purposes. I spent 23 years, 9 months, and 4 days working for Wards and would probably still be there today if things had not changed. 2001: A job odyssey. What a year. And, of course, there’s Atomic Comics where I get my weekly fix of books and conversation with the owner, John Minton. The conversations are as much fun as anything I do each week.

Favorite food that can be found nowhere else but SA?

I have maintained for years that you cannot get great Mexican food north of San Antonio. I love going to Panchito’s on McCullough (the Todo De Mexico platter is to die for–or because of) as well as their Olmos tacos. Warning: Do not be deceived by Panchitos at the Quarry. Not the same place, the food isn’t as good, though they have nice fideo. And Taco Taco on Hildebrand. My wife is really fond of Cachito de Mexico because their hot salsa is hot enough for her. It melts my spoon so I don’t go quite that far. I may love Mexican food but I am still a gringo. But, I can eat Mexican food many, many days in a row. And a Whataburger. Anytime. And the pastries at the Guenther House. To die for.