My story
Novaheads, is in Claude
Laumière's new anthology Super Stories of Heroes and Villains. It's about a masked
Mexican – well, Chicano, if want to be precise – wrestler named
Steelsnake.
Why
would I write about such a character? Believe it or not, my motivation
was money. All I had to do was to create a superhero in a deranged
postcyberpunk world spiced with Chicanismo, sell the comic book,
television, and movie rights, quit the day job . . .
Unfortunately,
as often happens with me, I was ahead of my time. This was the
Ninteen-Nineties. The speculative/fantasy genre wasn't going all gaga
over diversity. I gathered the usual pile of rejections slips. Seems
my characters weren't right for “the audience.”
One
editor even said, “This kind of noir is going out of style.”
I kept
trying, though. Finally, Claude Lalumière bought it for his
now-defunct LostPages.net. Yes, kids, actual money was involved.
Recently,
Novaheads was accepted by
Álvaro Rodríguez, who wrote the movie Machete,
for an anthology to be titled Border Noir.
I signed a contract and everything. Unfortunately, the book was
canceled due to mysterious circumstances.
Suddenly,
none other than Claude Lalumière swooped down to save the day, and
bought it for
Super
Stories of Heroes and Villains!
Publishers Weekly calls it, “the best
superhero anthology around, and a must-read for comic book fans.”
Steelsnake
may become a profitable franchise yet. I've been thinking about
more stories about him. Anybody out there want to buy a superhero?
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