Derrick Ferguson left this world on April 4th, 2021. While he was here, he gave us many worlds beyond this one. His imagination was boundless, his heart even bigger.
Derrick was many great things to many people, for us at New Pulp Heroes he was an avid supporter, fantastic cheerleader and great inspiration. He was the first to subscribe to the updates, often the first to “like” a new post and his name appears more than any other in the ongoing 5 Questions With… interviews where other new pulp creators mention the people that inspired and supported them.
To that end, this page is a memorial of sorts, a place to collect some of the ingredients that made Derrick amazing.
First, we’ll re-post his 5 Questions With…
Question One: Thinking of the first pulp story that grabbed you, what was it and what about it hooked you?
DF: Although I’m pretty sure I had read other pulp stories before that one I’m going to go with THE MAN OF BRONZE because it caused such a shift in my consciousness. Up until I read that book, I had no idea that prose like this could exist. It was at the same time extraordinarily simple and deliriously complex. It combined action and emotion. It was high adventure that wasn’t just a story, it was an entire world. It had comedy and tragedy. It was the sunrise and sunset. It was everything I aspired to be as a writer. I had no idea what this style of writing was called but whatever it was, I wanted to do it.
Question Two: When did you first hear about the resurgence of pulp storytelling and why did you feel compelled to contribute to it?
DF: Tommy Hancock had been talking to me for years about starting a publishing company featuring Public Domain Classic Pulp characters. It was a dream of his for years that we used to have long IM discussions about until 2 or 3AM. And I told him that when he got it started up, let me know. I would say that 75% of the writers in New Pulp now I became associated with back when we were all doing Marvel and DC fan fiction and when most of them migrated to New Pulp I went along. We all were hungry to do something new and different and New Pulp looked to be it.
For a good many years I was associated with an original fiction site called Frontier which is where I think I came to be noticed by editors, writers and publishers who now are in New Pulp. Those years with Frontier was the transition period for me, I think.
Question Three: Recommend three new pulp properties you really dig and why you think other people would enjoy them also.
DF: I wish I could buy everybody I know copies of Nancy Hansen’s Jezebel Johnston series. It’s a fabulous swashbuckling pirate saga with a female POC as the lead and it’s astoundingly good stuff.
If you like Weird Westerns, I highly recommend Mark Bousquet’s Gunfighter Gothic series.
Read anything and everything you can get your hands on written by Chuck Miller. He’s a wonderfully deranged writer whose prose is absolutely fearless.
Question Four: Here’s the cheesy ask: If you could spend 24 hours with any old or new pulp character, who would it be and what would you do?
DF: Pat Savage. I’ve never gotten a pedicure or manicure in my life but I’d sure as hell get one at her salon if she would be good enough to do the honors. Throw in a facial and scalp massage, why not?
Question Five: Which of your upcoming projects excites you the most and why should people get excited about it with you?
DF: I’ve got my collection of Sebastian Red stories ready to submit for publication at last. Sebastian Red is a mystical gunslinger/bounty hunter roaming and adventuring in the Weird West of an alternate Earth that I describe as a what might have happened if Sergio Leone and Michael Moorcock had ever collaborated on a Western.
It’s been a long time coming and I’m glad to have all these stories in one volume at last so that readers who are interested don’t have to hunt all over the place to find them in the various anthologies they were first published in.
NewPulpHeroes.com would like to thank Derrick not only for taking the time to answer our questions, but for his unending drive to push the envelope and expand the horizons of speculative fiction.
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If you’re looking for some great reads right now, I highly encourage you to grab one or more of Derrick Ferguson‘s books. You’ll get some amazing entertainment from a master storyteller and the proceeds will help Derrick’s widow, Patricia, financially as she navigates her new season of life without her amazing husband.
Derrick Ferguson’s Amazon Author Page
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FergusonInk.com – Derrick’s personal webpage, chock full of news, reviews, OP/ED and all sorts of other greatness.
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Derrick Ferguson – “The Basics” – the history of one of the greatest new pulp authors in, well, history.
New Pulp Heroes 