Smoking Mirror Blues has a long
prehistory, and went through some bizarre transformations before it
became the novel it is today. An earlier, shorter version of it was
published back in the July 1993 issue of Science Fiction Age thanks to editor Scott Edelman.
Here's a
closer view of the corner with my name:
“Cybergod
in L.A.” is headlinese for the actual title of the story,
“Tezcatlipoca Blues.” According to Jamie Todd Rubin, "This was the first and only Ernest Hogan story that I have ever read and at first I didn't think I was going to like it but in the end I did."
I was
struggling to sell it as a novel with that title. After a few phone
calls in which I got to hear New Yorkers struggle to pronounce
Tezcatlipoca, I decided to translate the wizard/warrior's name into
English.
“Tezcatlipoca
Blues” has a wonderful illustration by Fred DeVita
Fred
called the painting “Beto.” I have a framed copy of it in my
house. His electronic teponaztle and Beto are pretty much dead on.
Fred has
dropped off the interweb radar. Anybody know what happened to him? I
can't seem to take a few steps without running into another mystery.
Maybe
it's me. Maybe it's Tezcatlipoca.
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