Long Eyes and Other Stories by Carlson Jeff

Author:Carlson, Jeff [Carlson, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: JVE
Published: 2012-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Afterword

"Gunfight" is my Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. My parents took my brother and me to see Butch Cassidy at a drive-in when we were kids. It made a huge impression, not least because we were each given our own bucket of popcorn.

When I grew older, William Goldman became one of my favorite writers and a man I've studied for his craft. Go read The Color Of Light or The Princess Bride. (Yeah, yeah, I know you've seen the movie version of Bride, which was adequate, but go read the book.) Goldman's technique is deft, spare, and honest. Even better, he always delivers a rollercoaster ride of surprises and reversals.

I didn't process any of this when I was eight. Not consciously. Sitting in our station wagon's front seat beneath a sixty-foot screen, here's what I learned: Guns are TOTALLY AWESOME! And cliff-jumping! Horse chases! Explosions and bank robberies!

It's a mystery why I didn't grow up to be an outlaw.

Julie Beauchain ranks among my favorite characters because she's fun. I'm a fun guy. People who know me — my friends and family — are still trying to figure out why I write dark novels like Plague Year. That's because my parents also let me read books like The Stand and On The Beach before I was twelve. Gritty drama resonates even more deeply than all-for-laughs adventures like Butch Cassidy. Like I've said, the things I admire the most about human beings are our strength and intelligence. But I enjoy a good romp.

"Gunfight" was sparked by a Newsweek article about a Wisconsin taxidermist who aided local rangers by creating robot deer, which they used to entrap poachers. That was the coolest thing I'd read all year. Instantly I knew I wanted to write my own story, and I have family in Montana, including an uncle who runs one of the largest nurseries in North America.

Sugarloaf is a fictional town, but the landscape is real.

One more thing. Sheila Williams, the editor at Asimov's, was brave enough to ask me for a sequel to "Gunfight" after taking a lot of heat from an abusive nut who objected to what he perceived as the subversive pinky-pie liberal agenda embedded in this story. After all, the heroes are a black woman and a Native American, whereas the evil sheriff and his cronies are white guys. Obviously I'm trying to indoctrinate the youth of America. White, bad! Color, good!

Well, no.

For me, Julie's race was nothing more than craftsmanship. I am not a Manchurian Candidate brainwashed by the mainstream media who's now regurgitating the same self-hating message of the weak, socialist left. Relax, man! Science fiction is supposed to be a literature of ideas. Its fans don't tend to be people who purposely limit themselves, and yet more than one white supremacist has also taken me to task for the cast of Plague Year, which features a Latino and a genius Jew.

I'll talk more about their weird accusations later in this collection in an essay called "Rose-Colored

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