Award-Winning Author David Boop Chats New Projects

In the Fifties, a hairless man being chased flees into a crowd of people, thinking he’s safe, until his head explodes.

David Boop grabbed the reader’s attention with that line out of his debut novel, the sci-fi/noir She Murdered Me with Science. The Denver-based speculative fiction author and award-winning essayist and screenwriter has continued to do just that. Along with his writing credits, he was a DJ, film critic, journalist, and actor. Successfully following up that novel, he edited the bestselling weird western anthology, Straight Outta Tombstone, for Baen.

His talent for weird westerns has made him popular and recognized at the conventions that he attends. He can always be found meeting his readers and socializing and networking. The amount of projects that Boop has in the works is staggering and they all sound so exciting! The guy is prolific with many short stories and two short films to his credit. He has been published across several genres including media tie-ins for Predator, The Green Hornet, The Black Bat, and Veronica Mars. His RPG work includes Flash Gordon and Deadlands: Noir for Savage Worlds. Be sure to check out his series, The Trace Walker Temporary Mysteries, which appears regularly on Gunshoereview.com. Get to know Boop and find out where he gets his creative inspiration and what he has next on the project horizon.

Colleen Bement: Where did you get the ideas to create your novel She Murdered Me with Science and your bestselling weird western anthology, Straight Outta Tombstone?

David Boop: Very different stories. SMMS started as a dream, that looks very much like the first chapter of the novel. In the Fifties, a hairless man being chased flees into a crowd of people, thinking he’s safe, until his head explodes. I woke up wondering who killed him and how. I didn’t have the answers, so I invented a scientist detective who could. Enter Noel R Glass. former child prodigy whose experiment killed the woman he loved. Fourteen years later, he’s working as a shamus, using an early form of forensics to solve crimes. In walks a rich recluse who tells him the accident was a set-up, a frame job to steal his invention, and now this organization is using it to off-world leaders. Glass goes on a quest to redeem himself and save the world.

For S.O. Tombstone, I’d been writing weird westerns for years, and toyed around with the idea of editing an anthology, but never gave it any real thought. After a panel with Jim Butcher, I asked him if any of his Dresden Files characters were alive in the old west. He said yes, so I asked if he could write a story for this weird western anthology I was putting together? He agreed, so I suddenly found myself having to put an anthology together

CB: I’ll bet that your creativity is constantly flowing and that you have another project in the works. Is there anything that you’re allowed to tell us about?

DB: I have so many projects right now, it’s maddening. Here’s the list: After finishing three weird western anthologies for Baen, I moved on to space westerns, of which one, Gunfight on Europa Station, just came out. The next, High Noon on Proxima Centuri b, is due next spring, with Last Train Outta Kepplar-283c after that. Additionally, I’ve begun work on a Jack L Chalker Well World tribute anthology called Permutations. I also have a pulp anthology coming out from Moonstone Books called Domino Patrick- Daughter of the Domino Lady, which I co-edited with Nancy Holder. It also features a Green Hornet story I wrote. Moonstone is also releasing two shorts I wrote, one featuring the pulp hero, The Black Bat, and one featuring my original pulp hero, Gridiron.

Back to weird westerns, the first volume of my collected weird western short stories is coming out from Wolfpack Publishing, called The Drowned Horse Chronicle – Volume 1. Over at another publisher, a weird western novella I wrote as my senior thesis and earned my summa cum laude is being published for the first time. And if that isn’t enough, I have two things coming out from Outland Entertainment. The first is a historical paranormal horror-fantasy media tie-in novel called The Soul Changers which set in the world Pinnacle Entertainment’s Rippers: Resurrected RPG (think Penny Dreadful). The other is a graphic novel series co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson featuring giant mechs as anger management therapy which will be going to Kickstarter this summer titled Travailiant Rising.

Add to this, various short story requests like a Kolchak – The Night Stalker story and a Cthulhu story and it keeps a guy busy.

CB: I see that you’ve written screenplays, and I’m wondering, do you have any advice for writers venturing into the screenwriting realm?

DB: Don’t. LOL! My screenplays have all been shorts and I’ve never seen a dime or reward for them. I just need to get more famous so someone will come buy one of my properties, then maybe someone will pay me to write a script. *wink* Serious, if you think breaking into publishing is hard, screenwriting is ten times worse.

CB: You’re well-known in the Colorado convention community and you were recently at All C’s Fan Expo. Two questions:

1.) What do you enjoy about attending cons?

DB: The best part of cons is socializing with my peers and friends I haven’t seen outside of a con in some time. Then there’s the networking with big name authors, editors, agents, and publishers. Next, it’s getting to spend time meeting the readers, either while in my booth or presenting at panels. Finally, dealer’s room, duh.

2.) What conventions do you have coming up?

DB: Still finalizing the year, but as of right now, I’ll be at Left Coast Crime, Western Writers of America, Stokercon, Dragoncon, and World Fantasy, I believe. Plus, locals cons like Denver Fan Expo and Mile High Con.

CB: I love it that you’re into Mayan History. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Chichen Itza. What is it about the Mayans that spark your interest?

DB: It was an evolution from my love of Greek and Egyptian history. I ran a roleplaying game back in the 90s when I discovered the Pangea theory. The Mayan culture adds a lot of credibility to it. I started studying it more, and here’s this whole culture we don’t hold up in the same light as Greek, Roman, Asian, or Egyptian history. I always felt that was a shame. I try to slip them into stories whenever I can.

Rapid Fire:

• What’s the latest TV show that you’ve binged?
  Peacemaker.
• What’s a recent film that you’ve seen?
  “The Batman.”
• What movie do you watch over and over?
  So many. “Nightmare Before Christmas.” Anything Indiana Jones. “Back to the Future.”