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

The fourth Luff Imbry novella, "Epiphanies," is now scheduled to be published by PS Publishing in October or November. If there are any changes to the schedule, I'll let people know.

Originally, "Epiphanies" was to be included in an omnibus of the previous three Imbry novellas -- "Quartet and Triptych," "The Yellow Cabochon," and "Of Whimsies and Noubles" -- but now it will come out as an independent title in limited editions. That means there will be a hardcover without dust jacket of a few hundred copies, and a jacketed, signed hardcover of one hundred copies. Being PS products, the books will be of excellent quality.

The omnibus, which will include all four novellas, will now be pushed back to sometime in 2016. It will be a paperback.

The fourth and final Luff Imbry novella, "Epiphanies," is scheduled for publication by PS Publishing in April, 2016. As with the others, there will be two limited editions, one of them signed and numbered. There will also be an ebook.

Sometime down the road, all four novellas will be put out as a paperback omnibus.

A Wizard's Henchman, a novel previously serialized in Lightspeed Magazine, is scheduled for July, 2016. It, too, will be published in two limiteds, with an ebook version.

For those who tuned in just lately, it was called The Kaslo Chronicles when it ran in Lightspeed, and started out as a Vancean space opera about Erm Kaslo, a hardboiled confidential operative (a private eye) pursuing his career in a far-future civilization spanning the Ten Thousand Worlds of our galactic arm.

But as the story proceeds, it morphs into a science-fantasy as the basic operating principle of the universe shifts from rationalism to magic. Kaslo's hard-won skills are rendered inoperative and he finds that he has no talents at all for "sympathetic association." He goes to work for a former client who was a rich ninny before the change but is now becoming a powerful proto-thaumaturge.

The plot ties in with elements of the Filidor and Hapthorn series.

I've just checked the copy edit of Epiphanies, the fourth Luff Imbry novella that will be published by PS Publishing in two limited editions in April. I believe Ben Baldwin will do the cover art, as he has for the others. He does very fine work.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've relocated from a housesit near Cassino, Italy, to a new one in Tipperary, Ireland. The weather's not of the best, but it will be a relief not to have to stumble on in my rudimentary Italian whenever I go out. Now I can have conversations in supermarket check-out lines and not be struggling to work my way around gaps in my vocabulary.

A bonus: the Irish have exactly the same sense of humor I do, me having been born in Liverpool as a typical Scouser mongrel. A Liverpool joke: why do they put fences around graveyards? Because people are dying to get in.

Or this one: They say money talks, but the only thing it ever said to me was "Bye, bye!" It's funnier if you smile and wave.

Speaking of good jokes, after I got set up in the new sit, I had an odd impulse to write a near-future what-if story set in America and Canada of 2017, after Donald Trump becomes president. I finished the draft yesterday -- 7,300 words. And what does Trump do: blows his lead in Iowa. Thanks a lot, Donny boy. Was it so much to ask?

I'm going to wait to see if he wins in New Hampshire; if he does, I'll send the story out quickly, before it can turn into a pumpkin.

I've applied to be the Vancouver Public Library's 2016 Writer in Residence, from August through November. If I get it, I'll need to find somewhere to live, if anyone has a spare room to rent.

Here's a link to the cover art for "Epiphanies," the fourth (and I think final) Luff Imbry novella from PS Publishing. It's by Ben Baldwin, who has done the covers for the previous three novellas as well as some of my self-published backlist books. I think he captures the feel of the Imbry stories perfectly.

I think we're going to do a launch of the novella at Eastercon (Mancunicon) in Manchester in late March. I'll update with more info as I get it.

http://www.matthewhughes.org/wp-conte...

"Epiphanies," the fourth and probably final Luff Imbry novella from PS Publishing, is now available for pre-order from the publisher.

We'll also be doing a launch of some kind at Mancunicon in Manchester over the Easter weekend. PS is working with concom to find us a good slot in the schedule.

In other news, I've spent the past week editing Door into Faerie, the fifth and concluding volume in the YA fantasy series, Shards of Excalibur, by fellow Canadian author Ed WIllett. It's about two plucky Saskatchewan teens chosen by fate and genetics to find and reforge the shattered pieces of Arthur's magic sword, while the evil, would-be world-ruling sorcerer, Merlin, tries to beat them to it.

If you like YA fantasy quests, or know someone of an age to appreciate them, the Shards series is pretty snappy stuff.

Now that the edit is finished, I'm about to turn my attention to the third draft of my forty-years-in-the-making historical novel about the founding of the Zambo state in 16th-century Ecuador. The working title is: What the Wind Brings.

By the end of this month, I hope to have it in the hands of a major literary agent, to whom I was introduced by the legendary (well, if he isn't, he ought to be) Canadian fantasy author, Dave Duncan.

I’m going to Manchester for the weekend for the big annual UK con called Eastercon. I don’t have much on the agenda, just one panel and a signing.

The panel is Supporting the Short Stuff, about writing and selling short fiction. It’s on Sunday, from 13:00 to 14:00, in Room 7 at the Hilton Deansgate – that’s the hotel where all the events are.

The signing will be on Saturday, from 11:00 to 12:00 at the PS Publishing table in the dealers’ room. PS will have copies of the new Luff Imbry novella, “Epiphanies,” for anyone who wants one.

Otherwise, I’ll be wandering around the con, probably spending time in the hospitality suite if there is one, and (even more probably) in the bar. Anyone who wants to talk to me or get something signed is welcome. I’m not shy or stand-offish.

In other news, Black Gate’s short story reviewer, Fletcher Vredenburgh, finds “Telltale” the only sword-and-sorcery short story worth talking about in February. He says, “The Raffalon stories are delightful gems that any fan of the off-kilter humor of Jack Vance’s Cugel the Clever or Michael Shea’s Nifft the Lean should enjoy.”

I see that Epiphanies, the latest Luff Imbry novella from PS Publishing, is now available as an ebook on Amazon. The three previous Imbry novellas were all released in two limited editions (signed and unsigned), as is the latest one. But they were not put out as ebooks. I'll be interested to see how Epiphanies sells.

For those who may be interested, in the story Luff is accosted by a young woman named Antheana, who claims to be his grand-niece and in need of his help on her home planet, Occitania. Since Luff is an orphan whose origins are shrouded in mystery, he is interested enough to accompany her. Of course, things are not what they seem and there is a mystery to unravel and a deadly peril to confront.

Here's the opening of Epiphanies, the latest Luff Imbry novella from PS Publishing, available in limited edition hardcovers and, new for one of these novellas, in an ebook.