{"id":73,"date":"2008-06-29T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2008-06-29T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2022-12-14T14:01:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T19:01:41","slug":"spacewesterns-com-first-year-writers-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/spacewesterns-com-first-year-writers-interviews\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceWesterns.com First Year Writer\u2019s&nbsp;Interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"section\"><span class=\"dc\"><strong>T<\/strong><\/span>he first year at SpaceWesterns.com was a very good year. We received a wide variety of submissions from a wide variety of writers. From speaking with other fiction editors it seems that we receive a relatively small percentage of unpublishable material. So SpaceWesterns.com and it\u2019s editor would like to thank the very talented and dedicated writers who have appeared here in SpaceWesterns.com\u2019s first year. Surely they\u2019re writing for the love of Space Westerns.<\/p>\n<h2>Ben Jonjak<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/b_jonjak.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Jonjak\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\"> <strong>Ben Jonjak<\/strong> split the country and went to live in Lima, Peru after getting a degree in Literature from the University of Wisconsin\u2014Eau Claire. He currently resides there and keeps in touch with the writing community through the internet on sites such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.editred.com\/\">www.editred.com<\/a>. His writing has appeared in various print and electronic media.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/3\/\">Threshold<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/27\/\">Don\u2019t Look Back<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI had my first story published when I was a Sophomore in high school. I went on to get a degree in literature. I didn\u2019t start getting paid to write until two or three years after I graduated from college.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI was always a big science fiction fan. I enjoyed reading stuff by Asimov, Bradbury, etc. When it comes to writing, Science Fiction easily has the biggest market, so it\u2019s a convenient genre to like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nSpaceWesterns.com<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nWell, space is just a setting. Western lets you know that the stories deal with hard men and women who are ready to do anything it takes to survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nEscapism, adventure, and just good writing.<\/p>\n<h2>David B. Riley<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/d_riley.jpg\" alt=\"David B. Riley\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidriley.biz\/\">David B. Riley<\/a><\/strong> lives in Vail, Colorado. He\u2019s been writing for \u201cToo many\u201d years. In addition to numberous short stories, he has published two novels, including <em>The Two Devils<\/em>, a weird western novel. He\u2019s also edited a number of non-fiction projects and anthologies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/7\/\">The Preacher<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nAbout 25 years ago. I started out with poetry, and then got bored with it. My first fiction sale was a story called \u201cThe Orb\u201d that was picked up by a small magazine called <em>Virgin Meat<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI think I\u2019ve always been reading science fiction. I grew up on Heinlein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nA long time ago I read a book whose title is long forgotten that I thought was a regular western from the title. It wasn\u2019t. Wow westerns with space ships, how cool is that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nI don\u2019t know. \u201cWesterns in space\u201d is too simplistic. I don\u2019t really have a good definition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt lets you push the envelope a bit.<\/p>\n<h2>Jens Rushing<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/j_rushing.jpg\" alt=\"Jens Rushing\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jensrushing.com\/\">Jens Rushing<\/a><\/strong> is a writer from North Texas. Jens plays the banjo, very poorly. His wife is extraordinarily beautiful and patient. Jens is too young to have so many books.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/10\/\">How Beautiful the Herd on the Dark Matter Range<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/21\/\">No Right<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nIn grade school I had a teacher who let me scribble silly stories instead of doing actual work, and my folks encouraged me. I kept it up in high school, slacked off in college, and began writing seriously, with a regular schedule and quotas and the ideas of \u201cdeveloping a voice\u201d and \u201clearning the art of the narrative\u201d about a year and half ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI always loved genre fiction, but, as an English major, was taught to scorn it. I wrote some mainstream or \u201cliterary\u201d fiction in college, and it was pretentious, rotten, amateur bunk. Soon after I discovered that my stories improved dramatically if I included aliens, bears, murder, spaceships, dragons, Cthulhu, space-Aztecs, robots, or Crocodopoli. Many of my favorite authors (Dickens, Sinclair Lewis, W. Somerset Maugham) wrote non-speculative fiction, but from my own experience, I wonder how people ever write stories without one of the aforementioned elements. And genre fiction has unparalleled potential for storytelling and allegory. The symbolic power of a three-eyed Jacobite mutant fending off the zombified corpses of the US Presidents and mecha-Jesus with a raygun powered on crushed stars should be obvious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nLike almost everyone else, through <em>Firefly<\/em> and <em>Cowboy Bebop<\/em>. Of course I loved <em>Star Wars<\/em> as a kid without ever suspecting that it\u2019s a western in space. Although I hear it is also an opera in space. I also enjoyed the John Carter books &#8211; the planetary romance (or \u201csword and planet\u201d) sub-genre shares a good bit of territory with the space western.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe personal scale versus the political or epic, I think, much like the difference between conventional Westerns and historical fiction that happens to be set in the West. Westerns are the story of a single person, or a few people (or even large groups of people &#8211; as long as the focus is on the personal). They can be and often are plot-driven, but character is more important, I think, than in conventional scifi; this works so well with the big archetype of Westerns, the Loner, the Man with a Past. Also, the science is pushed to the background and becomes more of a plot device than the plot itself. It\u2019s less important how the spaceship works; what\u2019s important is that it does badass chases through twisting canyons while pursuing or being pursued. There are other ways to answer this; this is a big question!<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nSee above. The things that make the subgenre unique make it compelling. There\u2019s less baggage than in conventional scifi or space operas, too. I think the subgenre has more fun than the others. Also, people like seeing horses in space. Seriously! A horse, or a plain wooden table like in <em>Firefly<\/em>, or a six-shooter or cowboy hat or whatever, they\u2019re links to our familiar existence and our pop-culture canon and history. While the future presented by <em>Star Trek<\/em> and its ilk is sterile to the point of antiseptia, the space western offers something refreshingly scruffy and familiar.<\/p>\n<h2>Jason Andew<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/j_andrew.jpg\" alt=\"Jason Andrew\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.simianpublishing.com\/jasonandrew.htm\">Jason Andrew<\/a><\/strong> lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Lisa. By day, he works as a mild-mannered technical writer. By night, he writes stories of the fantastic and occasionally fights crime. As a child, Jason spent his Saturdays watching the Creature Feature classics and furiously scribbling down stories; his first short story, written at age six, titled \u201cThe Wolfman Eats Perry Mason\u201d was rejected and caused his grandmother to watch him very closely for a few year<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/18\/\">Mathematics of Hunger<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1.  When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve been dabbling with words all of all of my life. I used to write all manner of different little stories growing up. Some of them now would be termed fanfiction. I went to college wanting to be a writer. I wrote a really bad novel in college and gave up. In my mind, I was seeking greatness and if I couldn\u2019t have it, I didn\u2019t want to try. I didn\u2019t realize that every story you write helps build muscles that improves the next story. In 2005, my wife encouraged me to give writing a serious time. I started with short stories and finally worked my way up to novels. My short stories are selling and hopefully so will my novels with time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI suspect it was the <em>Saturday Morning Creature Theater<\/em> that started my interest. My world growing up was pretty drab, almost black and white. I think the first time I saw <em>The Day the Earth Stood Still<\/em> that I actually saw it in full color vision. Sure, I know it was made in black and white, but I was so into it that I knew right then and there what I wanted to do with my life. It aroused enough of an interest that I started exploring in the library and found Asimov and Heinlein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3.  What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI think Han Solo from <em>Star Wars<\/em> is the modern archetype for the Space Western hero. Sure, there was Flash Gordon and a dozen others before then. Solo was the character that really attracted my attention. And after that, I started reading whatever space adventures I could like <em>Have Space Suit\u2014Will Travel<\/em>. I think the problem is that I grew up in the 80s and the hope for Space Exploration kind of died in the real world after the Challenger incident.  I think the brief Cyberpunk movement was somewhat of a reflection on that. Ironically, I think technology kind of killed the Cyberpunk movement. I have a phone that is as fast as the computers described in <em>Neuromancer<\/em> by William Gibson. I think that the interest in Space Westerns have regenerated because the interest in exploring space has increased. Private corporations are on the verge of getting in on the action. How much longer will it be before the private citizen gets his chance?<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4.  How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nWesterns are at their core about the conquering of nature by humans. The conflicts are all about taming the wild and introducing civilization. At first, it was large corporations or government sponsored explorers that settled the area. However, it was the pioneers that truly claimed the West for their own. I think Space Westerns are about bringing human civilization into the wild of space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5.  What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI think we want to be pioneers again. We want to go to space and make our mark. The technology isn\u2019t there yet, but we\u2019re getting closer. And, I think instinctually as a species, we all sense that we need to expand off this planet if we truly want humanity to continue to live. This planet is overpopulated and we\u2019re all starting to feel the burn of overextended resources. We won\u2019t really start exploring space until there\u2019s a proper economic motivation such as collecting resources.<\/p>\n<h2>John Whalen<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/j_whalen.jpg\" alt=\"John M. Whalen\"><strong>John M. Whalen<\/strong> grew up in Philadelphia watching Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials on his mom and dad\u2019s old black and white Stromberg-Carlson TV. It had a big round picture tube like a goldfish bowl and there was a button you could push that made the picture bigger. It also had a big 10-inch loudspeaker, and he will never get over hearing Franz Lizt\u2019s Les Preludes on it at the opening of every chapter of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. It explains everything.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/22\/\">Green River Rain<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI think I was ten years old when I turned out a long story called \u201cThe Chain.\u201d It was about a character who had a chain at the end of his right arm instead of a hand. He was like a trouble-shooting private eye who went around bashing bad guys with his chain-hand. Sometimes he\u2019d use it to swing from one place to another. Gregory Gemnon\u2014The Chain. I was fascinated with the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Sax Rohmer. And The Chain\u2019s adventures were a mixture of elements from both of those writers. I discovered Burroughs in a hard cover edition of <em>The Return of Tarzan<\/em> in a local library in Bucks County, PA. I\u2019d seen Tarzan movies and comic books, but the novel was a revelation. Here was a character who killed lions with a knife, hunted for food in the jungle, slept in the crotch of trees, and talked to apes. And he was also a character who traveled on ships, dressed and talked well, and was such a noble guy he takes a bullet in a duel and refuses to shoot his adversary because of a point of honor. I think reading that book made be want to be a writer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nAs a kid in Philadelphia, I became addicted to Buster Crabbe\u2019s <em>Flash Gordon<\/em> serials. They were shown on TV in the afternoon, and every day after school, I\u2019d sit there in front of my folks\u2019 Stromberg-Carlson black and white TV, and watch Flash battle the Sacred Orangapoid of Mongo (which was just a guy in a gorilla suit [Ray Crash Corrigan] with a horn glued on its head). I watched everday, as Flash fought the shark-men, clashed with the Hawk-Men, became an ally of the Clay People, and rescued the son of the King of the Rock People. It was heady stuff. Then I grew, and after college, I never followed up on my childhood interest in fiction writing and became a journalist instead, working out of Washington, D.C. But the impulse toward creative writing never really leaves you. I started writing some freelance articles on film and TV, for the Washington Post, including a piece on the Creature from the Black Lagoon that ran on a Sunday before Halloween. I aslo wrote an article for the Washington Times on Tarzana, Calif., where Edgar Rice Burroughs lived and died. I found that practically none of the people living there ever heard of Tarzan or Burroughs. Finally, I began writing fiction in 2005 and recently decided to retire from the nine-to-five routine and work full time at something I really love.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nFrankly I never heard that term until somebody wrote a bad critique of one of my Jack Brand stories for RayGunRevival.com, calling it a space western, \u201cwhere you have heroes toting ray guns instead of six shooters.\u201d But I guess he was right in a way. I actually wrote the first Brand story for the Latta brothers great e-zine pulpanddagger.com. The late Jeffrey Blair Latta liked it a lot and wrote some very encouraging words about it. The Brand stories are soon to come out in paperback, I\u2019m happy to announce. I was surprised to learn I had actually written an episodic novel with a beginning, middle and end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nI hate definitions. They\u2019re just a way of trying to pigeonhole a writer into a certain category. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s healthy for a writer to be put in a box that way. It\u2019s mostly because of the whole marketing concepts of commercial fiction. It makes it easier to sell, when you can tell potential book buyers this is the kind of book this is. The trouble is that readers come to expect the work to follow a certain paradigm, certain conventions. And what happens is that writers find themselves trapped into following those predictable conventions. Where is the creativity in that?<br \/>\nIt starts to become writing by numbers. It\u2019s a trap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nFor me personally, the attraction to space westerns, however you define it, is that it still seems to be a relatively new label. I\u2019m surprised at how few people, writers included, even know what a space western is. I\u2019m constantly being asked to describe it. So there may be room in it to do something different. Something creative. I\u2019ve been surprised to see that some of the more dramatic elements of my tales are being accepted by editors\u2014 elements that frankly belong more in mainstream novels or dramatic films. But what I hope to be able to do is create an original body of work. Something that builds on what has gone before and moves on into realms not yet discovered or explored.<strong><\/strong> At the core of my stories is the essential humanity of the characters. That\u2019s what I\u2019m interested in writing about. The emotional scars, the demons they live with, the things that make them still want to get up in the morning and put their space boots on. The giant flying insects, the underwater creatures, the blue-skinned swordsmen, they\u2019re all incidentals. It\u2019s got to be about the character searching for his identity. Because his story is really everyone\u2019s story. And it\u2019s endlessly fascinating.<\/p>\n<h2>Vonnie Winslow Crist<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/vw_crist.jpg\" alt=\"Vonnie Winslow Crist\"><strong>Vonnie Winslow Crist<\/strong> is author-illustrator of two collections of award-winning poetry, <em>Essential Fables<\/em> and <em>River<\/em><em> of Stars<\/em>, and a children\u2019s book, <em>Leprechaun Cake &amp; Other Tales<\/em>. She\u2019s also editor of the science-fiction and fantasy anthologies, <em>Lower Than The Angels<\/em> and <em>Through A Glass Darkly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/25\/\">For the Good of the Settlement<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI was an avid reader as a child, and enjoyed writing stories and poems. As I got a little older, I was \u201cdistracted\u201d by illustration. When I was in my mid-twenties, I fell back in love with the written word, and began to write poetry. By age 30, I realized I wanted to write fiction, too. Of course, I\u2019ve never given up my art!<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019d always read science fiction and fantasy (and watched it on television), but didn\u2019t realize it was my calling as a writer until I attended a \u201ctraditional\u201d poetry workshop. The workshop leader read my poems for critique, and commented, \u201cThese are science fiction. I don\u2019t know anyone else who\u2019s writing this kind of poetry.\u201d And a stick of dynamite went off in my head. Yes, I was writing science fiction poetry, and the genre fit me like a leather cattleman\u2019s glove!<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nSome of the stories I read when I was younger had the space-opera\/adventure feel to them. I was also a great fan of westerns. When I saw the <em>Firefly<\/em> series on television, I realized there was a whole niche in science fiction that combined two of my favorite genres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nFor me, space westerns are science fiction adventures set in a frontier environment using standard western characters and themes. Of course the science fiction aspect gives the writer the opportunity to tweak and mutate the traditional western.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nThey\u2019re fun! And when well-crafted, they can be thought-provoking, imaginative, and downright inspiring.<\/p>\n<h2>Cheryl McCreary<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><strong>Cheryl McCreary<\/strong> educates the masses as a college instructor of biology. She\u2019s lived in a variety of places, Oklahoma, Ohio, New York, Virginia, and currently South Carolina. She fell in love with the West while doing her dissertation research. Her work has been published in <em>Alienskin<\/em> and <em>Amazing Journeys Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/32\/\">Hidden Answers<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI believe I started trying to write and publish serious science fiction in 2003. Actually the \u201cHidden Answers\u201d story that Space Westerns published was one of the first stories I wrote. It then was revised several times to become what finally made a good finished story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve always been a fan of SF. Was into the episode 4-6 <em>Star Wars<\/em> movies as a child. My mother was a <em>Star Trek<\/em> fan, so I saw all The Original Series movies. When I started to write I felt like using possibly worlds of the future and my background in science allowed for more freedom than mainstream fiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI looked over the webzine after finding it listed on Ralan\u2019s market list. Being a fan of Firefly and liking combinations of westerns and science fiction it\u2019s a a place with a collection on things I enjoy reading.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nI likely have a rather broad definition of the term. Anything set in the future, and especially in space, with a western feel would be included. That feel could be about the frontier, the beauty and danger of another world that we may never fully tame. Or it could be about characters; the sheriff that\u2019s not as good as he seems, the villain with morals, the young man bent on ruining his future, and the gunslinger with a past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve always loved both Westerns and Science Fiction so why wouldn\u2019t something that combines the two not be fun.<\/p>\n<h2>Robert Collins<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/r_collins.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Collins\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/members.cox.net\/rlckansas\/frontpage.html\">Robert Collins<\/a><\/strong> has had stories and articles appear in periodicals such as <em>Tales of the Talisman<\/em>; <em>Marion Zimmer Bradley\u2019s Fantasy Magazine<\/em>; <em>The Fifth Di&#8230;<\/em>; <em>Wild West<\/em>; <em>Model Railroader<\/em>; and the <em>Wichita Eagle<\/em>. He\u2019s sold two biographies to Pelican Publishing, and six railroad books to South Platte Press. His first SF novel, <em>Expert Assistance,<\/em> has just been published by Asylett Press.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/34\/\">Frontier Justice<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/46\/\">Captain Ayers and the Waconda \u201cWar\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI started writing in the eighth grade, but I started writing professionally in 1987.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nBy seeing <em>Star Wars<\/em>, then <em>Star Trek<\/em>, and then by reading \u201cAsimov on Science Fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nHonestly, I didn\u2019t know there was such a subgenre until I submitted my first story here and began to poke around the website. I think I now get why some publications didn\u2019t want some of my short stories. The funny thing is, I was writing these sorts of stories before I knew there was a name for them. It was all just SF or F.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe best definition I\u2019ve heard is, a SF story with elements of the traditional Western: takes place on a \u201cfrontier\u201d; solitary hero or anti-hero; a Western-style plot; and so on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nFor me as a writer, the attraction is that I can take what I discover in my nonfiction work and apply it to fiction. But I can\u2019t just fictionalize the material; I\u2019ve found that I\u2019m not interested in writing a story unless it\u2019s SF\/F. It\u2019s another tool I have to tell good stories. I can\u2019t say as a reader. Personally, genre or subgenre doesn\u2019t matter; either I like what I read or I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<h2>Camille Alexa<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/c_alexa.jpg\" alt=\"Camille Alexa\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/littlebird-blue.blogspot.com\/\">Camille Alexa<\/a><\/strong> is a full member of Broad Universe and writes for <em>The Green Man Review<\/em>. Her fiction is forthcoming in <em>Ruins<\/em> (Hadley-Rille books), <em>Black Box<\/em> (Brimstone Press), <em>Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic<\/em> (Raven Electrick Ink), and the <em>Machine of Death<\/em> anthology. Her poetry will be appearing in the March 2008 Humor issue of <em>Star*Line<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/36\/\">The Clone-Wrangler\u2019s Bride<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy boyfriend bought me a laptop for my birthday in 2006. I\u2019d never written anything before, and I didn\u2019t plan to. I\u2019ve no idea why I began to type fiction a few weeks later (novels, flash, poetry, short stories), but the phenomenon seems to have continued with intermittent urgency and success. I think of it almost like an embarrassing medical problem which doesn\u2019t seem to be going away. Perhaps there\u2019s an ointment for this?<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve been reading spec fic all my life, starting with the first \u2018grownup\u2019 book I read on my own when I was about eight: Richard Adams\u2019s <em>Watership Down<\/em>. My mother then lent me a few books which are still among favorites: <em>A Canticle For Leibowitz<\/em> by Walter M. Miller, Jr; Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s <em>Childhood\u2019s End<\/em>; Peter S. Beagle\u2019s <em>The Last Unicorn<\/em> and <em>A Fine and Private Place<\/em>. When I was in the fourth grade my grandmother came to Texas to live with us, bringing her enormous SF&amp;F collection with her: Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert A. Heinlein, Tanith Lee, Ray Bradbury, Patricia McKillip, LeGuin and Lovecraft and Asimov. For the most part I didn\u2019t watch television as a child. It left me with some serious gaps in my pop culture repertoire, but made for an awful lot of time to read SF &amp; F. An awful, awful lot of time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019m a terrible anti-genre-ist. A campaigner, in fact; a dreaded soap-boxer, even. I want my fiction <em>good<\/em>. If you can write a tale as exciting as those by Robert Heinlein, Jane Austen, Louis L\u2019Amour, Fritz Leiber, or Georgette Heyer, I want to read it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nI recently read an excellent essay in George R. R. Martin\u2019s two-volume <em>Dreamsongs<\/em> (reviewed in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenmanreview.com\/book\/book_martin_dreamsongs.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Green Man Review<\/a>) called \u201cThe Heart in Conflict.\u201d He begins by quoting the (in)famous Bat Durston passages from the backflap of the original Galaxy magazine: \u201cHoofs drumming, Bat Durston came galloping down through the pass at Eagle Gulch, a tiny gold colony 400 miles north of Tombstone&#8230;\u201d; and the other: \u201cJets Blasting, Bat Durston came screeching down through the atmosphere of Bbllzznaj, a tiny planet seven billion light-years from Sol&#8230;\u201d And then he adds his own: \u201cArmor clinking, Lord Durston rode toward the crumbling old castle, hard by the waters of the Dire Lake, a drear land a thousand leagues beyond the realm of men&#8230;\u201d \u201cStories of the human heart in conflict with itself,\u201d says Mr. Martin, \u201ctranscend time, place, and setting. So long as love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice are present, it matters not a whit whether that tall, lean stranger has a proton pistol or a six-shooter in his hand.\u201d Gimme, baby. Gimme gimme gimme. Gimme it all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI like my fiction to be allowed to soar beyond the ordinary. A pirate\u2019s cove or an asteroid belt or High Society in Regency England all have the potential, in the hands of a talented storyteller, to soar far beyond the ordinary. There\u2019s a certain freedom, a generousness, to the Space Western tradition in particular which has more latitude than many others. I think many readers have become a little disillusioned with the literary snobbery and infighting that seems to have been rampant in spec genres recently; everyone seems to be jockeying for position, genre-wise, each sub-sub-sub genre picking on the next. I like that Space Westerns fans are permitted come to these stories with no more agenda than the desire to be entertained. There\u2019s a certain unapologetic <em>joie de vivre<\/em> apparent in Space Westerns which currently seems lacking from other branches of fiction. I appreciate what SpaceWesterns.com has tried to do by seeking to be particularly inclusive of all types of writers and readers and characters. Long live Bat Durston, in all her guises. Hah!<\/p>\n<h2>Amanda Spikol<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amandaspikol.com\">Amanda Spikol<\/a><\/strong> works in the telecom industry and is also a bookseller. When she\u2019s not doing those things, she\u2019s a writer from Upper Darby, PA where she lives with two diva cats. Her work has been featured on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apocalypsefiction.com\/\">apocalypsefiction.com<\/a> and in LifeStyle Montgomery County and LifeStyle Philadelphia Magazines.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/38\/\">A Few Sunsets Too Many<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI began writing in kindergarten, when we had a parent volunteer who came in with a typewriter and transcribed little stories we told her. Mine was called \u201cAliens in the Shopping Mall,\u201d and was about little green aliens that lived in the ominous-looking black globes (security cameras) I saw on the ceiling at the mall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nVisually, it was the <em>Star Wars<\/em> movies when I was very young. For the written word, it was a beaten-up paperback copy of <em>I, Robot<\/em> I found on my parents\u2019 bookshelves in 4th grade, it changed everything for me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe part of <em>Star Wars<\/em> where the Luke Skywalker and his family are introduced; there was something wondrous about another planet where there were spaceships, but also ranches and rough saloons. It blossomed in my little 1st grade mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nAnything that combines the common themes of science fiction and the traditional American western; it can be an equal split, or more skewed towards one genre or the other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nBecause it\u2019s possible to bring so much into stories set in the genre, it reaches a wider audience. The cult success of the <em>Firefly<\/em> series and <em>Serenity<\/em> spin-off movie have done an excellent job of bringing the genre back into pop-culture.<\/p>\n<h2>Filamena Young<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/f_young.jpg\" alt=\"Filamena Young\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filamena.com\">Filamena Young<\/a><\/strong> is a twenty-something working writer and mother of one, both full time jobs in their own right. She writes in most genres and is very interested in the cutting edge of writing and publishing from Big House publishing to PoD and everything in between.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/40\/\">Mars Ain\u2019t No Place For Ladies<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI actually know the first essay I wrote. It was a bit of autobiographical fiction with horror undertones. I wrote it on October 8th in the year I turned nine years old. (Year withheld to protect my age. HA!) I fictionalized the death of my cat Muffin the weekend before. My teacher sniffed and told me I needed to work on my spelling. That hasn\u2019t happened yet. I\u2019ve been writing ever since and have a long line of (mostly useless) awards for writing under my belt. I also spent a lot of time being told that I \u2018shouldn\u2019t have my mother write for me.\u2019 That was always a fun filled trip to the principal\u2019s office. I loved explaining to them that it was actually my writing and that, yes, I was precocious, and then I\u2019d write something for them on demand to get out of undeserved detention. I wonder if that\u2019s where I developed my love for writing under a strict deadline, hmmm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy mother raised me on Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines and Asimov. There was always a stack of them in the bathroom and the living room just begging for me to read them. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve spent the last decade or so reading the best of the best science fiction has to offer, but mostly I can remember the illustrations. Strange pictures of strange people or things on alien planets. Sometimes those images were so strong that I\u2019d have to get my mother to explain to me what ever they had to do with the short story attached. A great deal of it went over my head, of course, and so the need for understanding compelled me to read on and on. I\u2019m sure there are much worse ways to waste a childhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI know I\u2019ve read a lot of stories with that feel. Often I remember them happening on Mars. Mars fascinates me as a result. I think, as a young adult, the first time I could identify the genre specifically was watching <em>Firefly<\/em> when it first came out. Good show and fun movie, but I think for me, the potential for my own creative juices far out weighed the stories themselves. That is, I liked watching the show, but I LOVED the way it made me think.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nThere are definitely genres that need explanation and background. I think one of my favorite things about space westerns is that it is so straight forward. If you know what a western is, and you know what science fiction is, you get it. If you don\u2019t know what either of those things are, you should probably be reading something else anyway. It\u2019s tradition and traditional story telling with new themes and new feelings. It\u2019s new tech and new shinny settings with real people you can get your hands on because they\u2019re usually dirty and foul mouthed just like most of the rest of us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nFor me, at least, it\u2019s the dreaming it inspires. I can imagine the turn of the century bored housewife who reads her penny novels about all the rugged adventure and danger of the Brand New West. The cowboys and stage coaches, the Indians and bandits. The exotic and exciting. At that time, westerns were sexy, they were the coming thing, and so they inspired that house wife in her cramped New York hovel to dream about wide open spaces, dangerous men without shirts on, and of course romance. The west is won, in my time, and so in order to fill my head with dreams like that, the frontier has to shift. Instead of dreaming about Montana and a log cabin my husband and I build from nothing, now I need to fill my mind with being the first of a crazy group of people to homestead on the Moon, or Mars, or where and how far space travel can take us.<\/p>\n<h2>Shauna Roberts<\/h2>\n<div id=\"bio\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/i\/contributors\/s_roberts.jpg\" alt=\"Shauna Roberts\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ShaunaRoberts.com\/\">Shauna Roberts<\/a><\/strong> is a multi-award-winning medical writer and editor who specializes in diabetes and related subjects. She also writes fantasy and science fiction stories and novels and is a recent transplant to Southern California.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/45\/\">A Llama\u2019s Tale<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>1. When did you begin writing?<\/strong><br \/>\nI started writing stories when I was a child. But I only got serious in 2000, prompted in part by my mother\u2019s unexpected death. I realized that I wasn\u2019t getting any younger and if I were going to become a fiction writer, it was time to buckle down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>2. How did you get involved with the Science Fiction genre?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve read science fiction since I was in elementary school. When I decided to write fiction, it seemed best to choose a genre that I read frequently and am familiar with, so I chose speculative fiction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>3. What was your first introduction to Space Westerns?<\/strong><br \/>\nI first became aware of the genre as a separate entity when I watched the wonderful TV show \u201cFirefly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>4. How would you define \u201cSpace Western\u201d?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe facile answer is \u201ca Western set in space.\u201d But I think that\u2019s too limited a definition. Traditional Westerns must use real history as their underpinning. Thus, Westerns of necessity deal directly or obliquely with sexism, racism, genocide, and destruction of our natural resources. There\u2019s an underlying sadness in reading a Western because we know how things turned out\u2014the beautiful hot spring is turned into a tourist trap, the Indians get shipped off to reservations to die, women and blacks lose their new freedom as the outside society encroaches and imposes its mores, etc.<\/p>\n<p>A Space Western can feature the same types of protagonists and antagonists we love in Westerns\u2014the Loner, the Wanderer, the Dreamer, the Adventurer, the Prostitute with a Heart of Gold, the Woman Disguised as a Man, the Opportunist, the Town Bully, the Mean Henchmen\u2014but with a note of optimism, if desired. The eventual outcome is not predetermined. The writer can write the story as she wishes, and the reader doesn\u2019t know what that story will be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"section\"><strong>5. What do you think the attraction is to Space Westerns?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nostalgia for the Western TV shows and movies of our youth.<\/li>\n<li>The human urge to see what\u2019s beyond the next horizon.<\/li>\n<li>Civilization is confining, and some people yearn for the freedom of the frontier, even if frontier life is dangerous and hard.<\/li>\n<li>When we have space colonies, they\u2019re not going to be glitzy, shiny, and high tech. The infrastructure for that kind of society requires a huge population to first mine the raw materials and then to manufacture and support it. America\u2019s Western frontier is a better model for how a real space colony consisting of a small group of people with irregular access to outside goods might work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceWesterns.com invited the writers who submitted original fiction in our first year to answer these 5 questions. <em>&mdash; ed, N.E. Lilly<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,12],"tags":[58,43,114,113,9,115,23,33,32,74,116,112],"media":[299],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1155,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/1155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"media","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}