Christopher Caldwell is a queer, Black American who lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship and an alumnus of Clarion West. His work has appeared in publications such as Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Fiyah Literary Magazine, as well as the anthologies New Suns 2, Trouble the Waters, and Glitter and Ashes, among others. His debut collection of short stories Call and Response: Stories of the Fantastic is published by Neon Hemlock Press. “Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy” is his sixth appearance in Uncanny, a vivid and powerful tale that returns us to the world of “Femme and Sundance” and “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride.”
Uncanny Magazine: I love that the opening line of this story (“Sometimes when the desert poppies bloom all over and the moon rides high over the lonesome hills, a body gets a yearning to shake that ass.”) quickly gives the reader a sense of setting, voice, and character. What was the starting point or inspiration for this story?
Christopher Caldwell: Just before my mother died in 2024, I spent some time with her and my family in the California high desert, where “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride” and “Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy” are largely set. My aunt had never been to a drag show and had always wanted to go, so she and I went to a drag show in Antelope Valley. That bar provided a kernel of inspiration for the bar Davion ends up at. The long drive from where my aunt lives into a small city provided both a beautiful and harsh backdrop as well as an intense feeling of yearning, which I hope underscores the story.
Uncanny Magazine: “Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy” is set in the same world as some of your previous stories—how important is (or isn’t) it to you, as a writer, that the worldbuilding be consistent across stories? How much additional worldbuilding do you do for each new piece?
Christopher Caldwell: Generally when I start a new work, the setting is informed by the characters I want to tell the story about. What made them the way they are? How is their experience shaped by the world? The three stories featuring Davion and Tommy (“Femme and Sundance,” “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride,” “Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy”) are a little bit different. Their world is very much like ours and draws on real places. I invented the towns of Siren, Colorado and Paloma Negra, California, but they draw on real geography and history. It’s also the same setting as a novel I’ve been slowly working on and re-writing. So many of the concepts, how magic existed in the world, the role of the ASA, what sort of structural oppressions exist, etc. all predated “Femme and Sundance.” I didn’t really need to add a lot of new worldbuilding, because I had already developed ideas about how the larger world works on a much bigger canvas than a short story provides.
As far as consistency, the world needs to be consistent for the characters. “The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battiste” and “If Salt Lose Its Savor” take place in the same secondary world. It’s different to ours in a lot of ways that haven’t yet completely come out on the page. But those stories differ from each other pretty widely because of culture, geography, class, and environment. The lens through which the focal characters view that world is very different, so I don’t think it should necessarily appear uniform to the reader.
Uncanny Magazine: What was the most challenging part of writing this story? What was the easiest thing?
Christopher Caldwell: The story rattled around in my head in several variations before I got it down. I had a few false starts that I abandoned. So I suppose the most challenging part of the story was finding my way into it the first place.
The easiest thing was finding Davion’s motivation. He can’t really be pinned down or settled for too long.
Uncanny Magazine: Your stories feature compelling characters and vivid, immersive descriptions, giving them an almost cinematic feel—if you could pick anyone, who would direct a movie based on your fiction?
Christopher Caldwell: That’s such a hard question! I’d hope to be out of the way of any creator who adapted them. I’ve seen some bad films that were overly weighed down by a director who worked too hard to be faithful to the text and the perceived authorial intent. But written fiction isn’t the same as film, and what is compelling on the page sometimes falls flat on the screen. That said, RaMell Ross’s adaptation of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead was absolutely dazzling. It would interest me to see what he would make of my work.
Uncanny Magazine: Do you ever put literary Easter eggs in your story? If so, are there any in “Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy” that you’d like to call attention to?
Christopher Caldwell: I’ve got a fairly allusive brain, so allusions definitely pop up from time to time, although I try to kill the more self-indulgent ones during revision. The Mónica Naranjo song that plays in the bar is meant to be “Sobreviviré” (“I Will Survive”). Davion’s restlessness mirrors some of the opening sentiments of the song.
Other than that, Drew is the protagonist of my novel. But he’s also the adult version of a character I developed over years, who appeared in multiple stories on a writing website I used to belong to years ago. There’s a small handful of readers who will remember Andy and his imaginary friend who lived in his shadow.
Uncanny Magazine: What are you working on next?
Christopher Caldwell: I have a couple of shorts to finish and most of a novella done. Then I’d like to focus on the long-gestating novel.
Uncanny Magazine: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!
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