Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "baldemar"

Back in November, I was invited to submit to Gardner Dozois's upcoming theme antho, The Book of Swords. So I wrote up a 10,000-word story about a wizard's henchman named Baldemar, who is sent out on a job that goes wrong. But it bounced: publishable but not good enough for a prestige anthology, Gardner said. So I rewrote it, and now it has sold.

I've since written an origin story for Baldemar and submitted it to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, my favorite market. If it sells and if the readers like the character -- a hardboiled operative in an archetypal fantasy world -- I'll write more of them. That's what I've been doing with a character called Raffalon the thief, originally conceived for the Dozois/Martin-edited antho, Rogues.

Ultimately, I'll gather all the Raffalon stories into a collection and self-publish them in ebook and POD paperback. I've done that with three of my other continuing characters, Henghis Hapthorn, Guth Bandar, and Luff Imbry -- and it seems to be a workable strategy. If Baldemar catches enough interest, I'll do the same with him.

I’ve had official word that Charlie Finlay, editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, has bought another story from me. This one’s called “Ten Half-Pennies,” and it features my new series character, Baldemar. I hope Charlie won’t mind my quoting from his acceptance letter, in which he said, “I loved this story -- probably my favorite thing from you in a while, which is saying something.”

I created Baldemar for the anthology, The Book of Swords, edited by Gardner Dozois and due out in 2017, or possibly very late this year. The story in the anthology, “The Sword of Destiny,” finds the character at the end of his career as a wizard’s henchman. “Ten Half-Pennies” starts him out as a young boy and tells how he came into the service of Thelerion the thaumaturge, a wizard even less dependable than the average spellslinger.

I plan to do the same thing as I did with Raffalon the thief, who was created for the cross-genre anthology, Rogues, co-edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. While waiting for Rogues to come out, I wrote several stories about the earlier life of my thief and sold them to F&SF. Next summer, I will put together all the Raffalon stories, including an extra I have yet to write, and self-publish them as an ebook and POD paperback.

Meanwhile, I’m halfway through another Baldemar story, as he pursues his career as a young henchman to Thelerion. I’m about to send him off to Khoram-in-the-Waste, a ruined city in the desert, to recover an ancient magic object for his master. How that’s going to work out, I don’t know yet, but it’s always fun to see where these stories go.

I've sold One More Kill, a suspense novel that grew out of a story of the same name that won me the Canadian equivalent of an Edgar Award (it's called the Arthur Ellis Award) years ago. It will come out in limited and hardcover trade editions from PS Publishing, my favorite small press. There will probably be a paperback at some point and maybe an audio version. There will definitely be an ebook, though it's not yet decided who will produce it.

In other news, I've just reviewed the copy edit for "Ten Half-Pennies," a short story that will introduce my new serial character, Baldemar the wizard's henchman, to readers of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Editor Charlie Finlay says it will run in the November/December or January/February edition.

Charlie also says that the last Raffalon story, "The Vindicator," will run before then, so look for that in the fall.

I've sold another novelette to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It's called "The Prognosticant" and carries on the life and times of my new serial character, Baldemar, a young wizard's henchman. It's my thirtieth sale to F&SF.

And I've turned in "Thunderstone," a space-opera/science-fantasy mix to Nick Gevers, who is editing an invitation-only antho I was invited to submit to on a last-minute basis when somebody else didn't deliver a story. It features Erm Kaslo, a far-future Sam Spade. I'm hoping Nick takes it.

I invented Kaslo some years ago for a story called "And Then Some," that ran in Asimov's and then again in Lightspeed Magazine, where it became the beginning of a serialized novel called The Kaslo Chronicles. After it ran, I tidied up the narrative and sold it to PS Publishing, which will bring it out in limited editions and ebook format in the next few weeks, retitled as A Wizard's Henchman.

I'm telling you all this because I see I have set things up for possible confusion. Erm Kaslo is a hard-boiled, Sam-Spade-type private eye who becomes a wizard's henchman when the universe switches from science to magic, and we make the transition from a Jack Vancean Gaean Reach kind of civilization to the decadence of The Dying Earth.

Baldemar is a wizard's henchman on an Old Earth that is already well into the Dying Earth era. They have nothing in common except the henchman thing.

I've done an interview on The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction blog about the genesis of my new character, Baldemar, a poor widow's son who grows up to become a wizard's henchman.

I've done another interview with Stephen Mazur on the Fantasy & Science Fiction blog. It's about my new series character Baldemar, who appears in "The Prognosticant," a second story in the current issue. It also inspired the majorly skookum cover art.

With the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology, The Book of Swords, due out in less than three weeks, Gardner has picked my story, "The Sword of Destiny," to use in a promotional excerpt.

You can check it out here:

On Thursday, this week, I’m going to be participating in an Ask Me Anything event on the reddit.com/r/fantasy discussion group to promote The Book of Swords.

In case you’ve missed my several mentions of it, The Book of Swords, is a new anthology edited by Gardner Dozois that was officially published today and is already ranked number nine in fantasy anthologies on Amazon. The consensus of critics is that it’s going to be one of the top sff anthos of the year.

The AMA launches late morning, Central Time. I’m right now on UK time (about six hours later) so I’ll probably connect about then and be available for a few hours, if anyone wants to ask me anything. If you’re not already a member of reddit.com/r/fantasy, it takes only seconds to join the group.

In other news, my Patreon page has attracted more than two dozen Heroes of the Archonate since I launched it five days ago. If you’d like to join the ranks of heroes, here’s where to go:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4687520

Came across this on George R.R. Martin's Not a Blog.

"Today is. . . publication day for THE BOOK OF SWORDS . . . There's an impressive table of contents, including brand new stories by giants of the genre like Robin Hobb, Ken Liu, the criminally underrated Matthew Hughes, Scott Lynch, Daniel Abraham, Cecelia Holland, Lavie Tidhar, and many more."

So I'm one of the "giants of the genre," and "criminally underrated," according to George. From his lips to the readers' ears.

Patreon says I should keep reminding people that I now have a Patreon account. So consider yourself reminded. Here's a link:

 

I've had an email from editor-extraordinaire Gardner Dozois, inviting me to submit a novelette to another one of his signature anthologies, this one to be called The Book of Legends, due out next year. I look forward to writing something in the next couple of months.

This will be the seventh Dozois antho I've been asked into. It puts me in with the cream of the science fiction and fantasy writing community. Makes me feel as if I'm getting somewhere. I appreciate the encouragement.

Meanwhile, last year's The Book of Swords seems to be selling well, and my story "The Sword of Destiny," which introduced Baldemar the wizard's henchman, is getting good reviews -- and earning me new readers. In a few months, The Book of Magic, which includes my story "The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable," will be published.

So on we go.