Texas Almanac, 1990-1991 Page: 463
611 p. : col. ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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CULTURE 463
he was twenty-one, and two years later, his first novel,
Mists of Time, appeared. His 1954 novel, Shadows in the
Sun, was the first science-fiction work to be set in Tex-
as. But Oliver recalls a period when he and Walter
Miller Jr. constituted a "convention of Texas science
fiction writers" by simply splitting a six-pack of beer.
Though not a Texan, Miller wrote his classic science
fiction tale, A Canticle for Leibowitz, while living in a
house his wife owned in Kyle, near Austin.
Science-fiction writers, in particular, were isolated
in Texas until the 1960s. Oliver, for example, knew only
one writer, David H. Keller, while he was a youngster in
Crystal City. Robert E. Howard had the same experi-
ence in Cross Plains in the 1920s and early 1930s,
although he carried on a lively correspondence with
H.P. Lovecraft, the horror writer.
Oliver points out that science-fiction writing was a
small phenomenon in the 1930s and 1940s based mostly
in New York and California. He was bitten early by the
writing bug. During a bout with rheumatic fever, he
began reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian books
and Amazing Stories. At 14, he got a typewriter and be-
gan writing. Seven years later, his first short story was
sold.
Like many Texas writers, Oliver creates in more
than one genre. In 1967, his novel, The Wolf Is My Broth-
er, won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of
America.
Oliver sees no conflict between his professions of
anthropologist and science-fiction writer. Both deal
with cultural contact and man, he observes.
Whitley Strieber, a San Antonio native, is another
of Texas' modern expatriates, living in New York. But
he is one of the top horror writers. Among his novels
are The Wolfen, The Hunger, Black Magic, The Night
Church, and CatMagic. He also has written science fic-
tion such as War Day (with fellow Texan James W. Ku-
netka), Journey Onward, and Nature's End. His Wolf of
Shadows was an award-winning juvenile book.
In recent years, Strieber moved to nonfiction in
Communion and Transformation, in which he describes
personal experiences with unearthly visitors.
Ardath Mayhar of Nacogdoches (see "Nacog-
doches: A Frightful Place" in this section) has several
science-fiction novels among the 25 books she has
written.
Neal Barrett Jr. of Fort Worth terms himself "the
second oldest science fiction writer in Texas (after Oli-
ver)." His writing career began with the sale of a short
story in 1960 and has progressed steadily. Two of his
short stories were selected for the anthology The Year's
Best Science Fiction, Fifth Annual Collection in 1988. Sto-
ries by two other Texans, Bruce Sterling and Howard
Waldrop, who with Lewis Shiner are regular contribu-
tors to Omni magazine fiction, also were in the book.
A native of San Antonio, Barrett was raised in Okla-
homa and received a degree in professional writing
from the University of Oklahoma at Norman. After a
stint in the army, he moved to Dallas and worked in
public relations before becoming a full-time writer in
the early 1970s. Through his career, Barrett has author-
ed more than 30 books and any short stories. He is
moving out of the SF field, writing now what he wants
without regard to market demands.
For many years, Barrett was isolated from other
professional writers. In the 1970s, he was introduced to a
group of young science-fiction writers in Dallas, which
he was unaware that existed.
It is difficult, he said, to get away from the science-
fiction label once it is acquired. But he is determined to
write without labels in the future. A great many good
writers don't get the recognition they deserve, Barrett
feels. And too many SF writers don't read outside their
genre. He thinks one must read broadly beyond special-
ized fields.
George Proctor of Arlington also began writing sci-
ence fiction in the 1960s and moved into western writing
in recent years. Proctor has authored more than 70
books. He and Steve Utley, however, edited a unique
book of science-fiction in 1976, Lone Star Universe. Com-
posed of writings only by Texans, it was the first region-
al science fiction anthology produced.
Science fiction attracted Proctor because it was the
only literature that offered answers to problems. It just
didn't leave you hanging, he says. "That may be why it
is so attractive to young people."
The genre was recognized in 1986 when a panel on
science fiction was presented at the Governor's Confer-
ence on Texas Literature at the University of North
Texas in Denton. Proctor, Oliver, and Warren Norwoodof Weatherford were panelists on the program that
attracted a spirited crowd.
There are many barriers for a writer to overcome
in Texas, says Proctor, a graduate of Texas Tech Uni-
versity. "Writing is not seen as 'work' in Texas," the
writer points out. And Texans, if nothing else, are ded-
icated to "productive" labor. Proctor was actually dis-
couraged from pursuing a writing career while in
college. After working for The Dallas Morning News as a
reporter in the early 1970s, he launched a free-lance
writing career. He was determined to succeed because
so many people told him he couldn't make it. But his
wife, Lana, told him she had always wanted to be
married to a writer, and with that support, his career
was launched.
Warren Norwood of Weatherford got similar sup-
port. Armed with a degree in philosophy and a minor in
English from UNT in Denton, he managed bookstores
for several years. The urge to write was so great, how-
ever, that his wife told him to take a year and "get it out
of his system."
That was in January 1980. By the end of the year, he
had sold a novel to Bantam Books, the first in his Wind-
hover series, and had a contract for two more. Over
the next eight years, Norwood had 11 novels pub-
lished.
Norwood was early influenced by Edgar Allan
Poe's poetry, which "made him fall in love with
words." It was several years before he discovered that
Poe also wrote short stories. Part of one summer was
spent at the Panther Boys Club in Fort Worth reading
Poe and everything else available. That fall, he discov-
ered Robert Heinlein's works in his school library, and
he was hooked.
Storytelling came easily to Norwood. As a camp
counselor, he spent summers telling campfire stories
to wide-eyed children. So putting the stories onto pa-
per was only a logical step, albeit one that was de-
layed a bit. "I made a conscious decision to become a
professional writer at age 17," Norwood quips, "And
17 years later, I sold my first novel. I'm a slow learn-
er."
Norwood began writing science fiction because
"it's the easiest genre to break into." But it can be re-
warding. According to Norwood, a first novel in the
genre can sell 50,000 copies in paperback.
While some debate rages about what Texas a wh nlitera-
ture is, Norwood sees science fiction as a good oppor-
tunity for writers to create stories about their state.
New York editors are reluctant to purchase
mainstream or literary stories with Texas as the lo-
cale, he says. So a Texas story can be slipped into the
science fiction genre. Norwood's Shudderchild is a good
example. Set in the future when the world has been dis-
rupted by earthquakes, the book reads like a frontier
western with West Texans dealing with Indians from
Oklahoma. But it projects a definite idea of Texans'
feeling about the land. "During hard times, Texans
learn to laugh along the way," Norwood says, "And this
is the point I try to get over to New York editors."
"With a few exceptions, Larry McMurtry's and Dan
Jenkins' Texas books are considered regional litera-
ture," Norwood explains. "But if you write a Texas sci-
ence fiction story, no one blinks an eye or says it is
regional literature. A lot of writers have discovered that
you can fell a good Texas story in a science fiction for-
mat."
Indeed, Texas crops up often. The first book to
exploit the Texas mythos was Californian Fritz Leiber's
A Specter Is Haunting Texas, written in 1969. (Leiber's
son, Justin, who teaches at the University of Houston,
also is developing a reputation in the science-fiction
field.) In 1974, Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop
wrote The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 about an independent
Texas taking the U.S. President hostage and battling
the Israelis. George Proctor did a spinoff of the TV se-
ries V called The Texas Run, and in 1982, Daniel de Cruz
wrote The Ayes of Texas in which a recommissioned
Battleship Texas defeats a Russian armada. Texas also
was the locale for two other de Cruz books, Texas on the
Rocks and Texas Triumphant. Zach Hughes took the
Texas theme even further in 1976 with For Texas and
Zed in which a Planet Texas is settled by immigrants
and maintains its independence while uniting warring
factions in the galaxy.
Writers with a background in speculative fiction
crop up in unexpected places. The respected historian
T. R. Fehrenbach, whose history of Texas, Lone Star: A
History of Texas and the Texans, is a classic in the field,
wrote science fiction early in his career. Working with
editor John W. Campbell at Astounding (now Analog)
sharpened Fehrenbach's writing skills. Fehrenbach
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Kingston, Mike. Texas Almanac, 1990-1991, book, 1989; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth162512/m1/465/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.