Wild West Gender Outlaw: Christa Faust
This month, on September 29, 2021, the trade paperback version of Christa Faust’s Redemption will hit shelves. OFM had the opportunity to learn a bit more about Redemption and the author behind it.
How did you get into writing, comics, and novelizations?
I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember. I was a voracious reader as a kid and created my own ‘books’ as soon as I was able to write. As far as publishing, I kinda fell into it backwards. Retrospectively charting the course of my wildly unpredictable career through all those different types of writing, the one thing that remained consistent was the element of luck.
I know people hate to hear that because they want to believe there’s a magic formula that they can duplicate and be successful, but for me, that’s just not how it worked. I got into novelizations because someone I knew was unavailable for a project and recommended me at the last minute. Comics, I just happened to have a little pet project I’d been tinkering with when my prose publisher decided to take a stab at creating a comic line. Things could have easily gone a different way, but they didn’t, and I got lucky.
I like to tell anyone looking for advice on how to ‘break in’ as a writer that you should think of yourself as a boxer. Watch and study every fight ever recorded. Practice your footwork, skip, work out, work the heavy bag and focus pads. Hone your craft. Then, when you get lucky like I did and you finally get your chance to throw a punch, you’ll knock ‘em out.
Why was it important for you to explore the thematic elements in a Western setting, or was it important at all?
I’m a character person first and foremost, and what’s most interesting to me about the classic, Western archetype is the character of the grizzled, old outlaw. Since I’m now in my 50s, I’m especially interested in highlighting older characters, but you rarely see stories that center the voices and experiences of older women. Older male characters are still allowed to be tough and cool and sexually active, whereas older women are relegated to supporting roles, either as comic relief or somebody’s mom.
Also, who is a more dangerous outlaw than an older, queer woman who doesn’t give a damn what men think of her?
Why was it important for you to include strong female characters, and more specifically, queer female characters?
It’s always been important for me to include strong female characters in the stories I write, so much so that it feels as fundamental and invisible as breathing. I don’t write simplistic, shallow, or male-gaze-oriented, cliché characters because I don’t know any. I write about the women I know.
I write about queer women, marginalized women, and sex workers because I am one and because I want women like me to see themselves on the page in all their complicated, messy, and imperfect glory. I’m tired of people like us being nothing but a pretty body in a dumpster that exists simply to make the male hero feel manly feelings.
I love that there are other writers out there creating upbeat, queer stories with heroic, aspirational protagonists who get to live happily ever after, but that’s never gonna be my jam. I love the gray areas, the darker places in the human heart, and the ways in which we all struggle just to make it through the day.
What do you want people to take away most from Redemption?
I want people to care about older women. After we get above a certain age, we become culturally invisible, and I’m determined to challenge that. I want people to see that perceived ‘fuckability,’ or even more general likeability, isn’t all female protagonists have to offer.
What’s your favorite fandom? And why?
Did I mention I’m old? So old, apparently, that I don’t even honestly know what to make of this question. I’m not sure any of the things that I like are associated with what could be called fandom. I’m a Film Noir fanatic and have been attending the Film Noir Foundation’s Noir City film festival every year for nearly 20 years now. I love to get pie and talk about the movies with my fellow Film Noir enthusiasts, at least I did back in the Before Times. That’s gotta count, right?
Also, don’t forget to take a light wrap in case it gets chilly later; stand up straight, and close the damn door because I’m not paying to heat the whole neighborhood.
Do you have any other projects or books in the works that you are able to share with our readers?
I’m currently working on something new with AWA, but if I told you about it, I’d have to kill you. Needless to say, strong female characters are involved. And even though it’s not exactly new, I really hope you’ll all check out my graphic novel Peepland. That one is really close to my heart. It’s based on my own life growing up in Hell’s Kitchen in NYC in the 80s and working in the Times Square peep booths. But, you know, with murder.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just that you can chat with me about Westerns or Film Noir or queer pulp novels or rescue pets or whatever on my various social streams.
And no, your Auntie Christa is not on TikTok. #GetOffMyLawn
