Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "spatterlight-press"
For the Jack Vance fans
Over the past few months, I've been writing blurbs and then narrating them for a series of YouTube promotional videos extolling the works of Jack Vance, upon whose literary shoulders I teeter.
The videos are produced by Koen Vyverman, Vance aficionado and one of the forces behind the Vance Integral Project, which restored all of Jack's novels and stories to their original form, removing edits which were often crudely performed by editors whose only concern was the space available in their magazines.
Spatterlight Press is run by Jack's son John, who has become a long-distance friend. If you wnt to read Vance -- and everybody should -- it's the place to go for ebooks. And you'll be reading Vance as he wanted to be read.
Here's a link to the YouTube channel.
The videos are produced by Koen Vyverman, Vance aficionado and one of the forces behind the Vance Integral Project, which restored all of Jack's novels and stories to their original form, removing edits which were often crudely performed by editors whose only concern was the space available in their magazines.
Spatterlight Press is run by Jack's son John, who has become a long-distance friend. If you wnt to read Vance -- and everybody should -- it's the place to go for ebooks. And you'll be reading Vance as he wanted to be read.
Here's a link to the YouTube channel.
Sold a crime story
Besides fantasy and science fiction, I've also written crime fiction -- even won an award from the Crime Writers of Canada some years ago. I had one little short story -- "Sealed with a Kiss" -- on my hard drive that I had never sold. I sent it out to Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen years ago and got no nibbles, and after that it just sat there. I would notice it every few months and think, "I ought to do something with that one."
Today I got an acceptance on it from an editor who is putting together an anthology of Canadian crime fiction. When I checked my emails I found out I'd submitted it in November of 2013. I'd completely forgotten. Now I can truthfully say that I've sold every crime short story I ever wrote, which is gratifying.
I'd sold all the sf stories, too, except for a 500-word flash fiction piece called "Ant Farm" that, as with "SWAK," I sent out to only a couple of places. I included it in the sf collection "Devil or Angel and Other Stories," so there's no place sending it anywhere else now.
The crime fiction antho will be out in the next few months. I'll announce it when I know the publication date.
John Vance, son of Jack, runs Spatterlight Press, which has been producing ebooks of his father's works, using the authoritative Vance Integral Edition texts which restored all the good bits cut by pulp magazine editors obsessed by page counts. I've mentioned that I've been writing and narrating the promotional copy for videos produced by Koen Vyverman for the Jack Vance YouTube channel.
Well, now Spatterlight is expanding into the publishing of print-on-demand paperbacks. The first title is Emphyrio which, by coincidence, is the Vance work I usually recommend for those who haven't read him yet. And I've just written the back-cover "About the Author" blurb and an enthusiastic preface which was a great pleasure to write.
Today I got an acceptance on it from an editor who is putting together an anthology of Canadian crime fiction. When I checked my emails I found out I'd submitted it in November of 2013. I'd completely forgotten. Now I can truthfully say that I've sold every crime short story I ever wrote, which is gratifying.
I'd sold all the sf stories, too, except for a 500-word flash fiction piece called "Ant Farm" that, as with "SWAK," I sent out to only a couple of places. I included it in the sf collection "Devil or Angel and Other Stories," so there's no place sending it anywhere else now.
The crime fiction antho will be out in the next few months. I'll announce it when I know the publication date.
~~~~~
John Vance, son of Jack, runs Spatterlight Press, which has been producing ebooks of his father's works, using the authoritative Vance Integral Edition texts which restored all the good bits cut by pulp magazine editors obsessed by page counts. I've mentioned that I've been writing and narrating the promotional copy for videos produced by Koen Vyverman for the Jack Vance YouTube channel.
Well, now Spatterlight is expanding into the publishing of print-on-demand paperbacks. The first title is Emphyrio which, by coincidence, is the Vance work I usually recommend for those who haven't read him yet. And I've just written the back-cover "About the Author" blurb and an enthusiastic preface which was a great pleasure to write.
~~~~~
For those keeping track, I'm 136,000 words into the historical novel. Two more chapters should see the first draft finished, then it will be time to pull it all together. Should be done by Christmas.
Barbarians of the Beyond
I've written an authorized sequel to Jack Vance's iconic series, The Demon Princes
Barbarians of the Beyond is not the further adventures of Kirth Gerson, but a companion novel that takes place during the time frame of the first two DP novels, The Star King and The Killing Machine.
Here's the draft back-cover blurb:
Twenty-some years ago, the five master criminals known as the Demon Princes raided the peaceful community of Mount Pleasant to carry off its five thousand inhabitants into bondage in the lawless Beyond. Now Morwen Sabine, daughter of slaves, has escaped her cruel master and returns to Mount Pleasant to recover the hidden treasure that can buy her parents’ freedom.
But things have changed and Morwen finds she has to cope with mystic cultists, murderous drug-smugglers, undercover “weasels” of the Interplanetary Police Coordinating Company, and the henchmen of the vicious pirate lord who owns her parents and wants Morwen returned – so he can kill her slowly.
Barbarians of the Beyond is a return to “Jack Vance Space” and space-opera derring-do that follows in the science fiction grandmaster’s footsteps.
John Vance and I have been sending out an ARC and already have laudatory blurbs from George R.R. Martin, David Gerrold, Robert J. Sawyer, Glen Cook, and Kurt Busiek.
We're looking to interest a larger-than-small press in taking on the novel. If not, it will be published by John's Spatterlight Press as a POD paperback and ebook.
Barbarians of the Beyond is not the further adventures of Kirth Gerson, but a companion novel that takes place during the time frame of the first two DP novels, The Star King and The Killing Machine.
Here's the draft back-cover blurb:
Twenty-some years ago, the five master criminals known as the Demon Princes raided the peaceful community of Mount Pleasant to carry off its five thousand inhabitants into bondage in the lawless Beyond. Now Morwen Sabine, daughter of slaves, has escaped her cruel master and returns to Mount Pleasant to recover the hidden treasure that can buy her parents’ freedom.
But things have changed and Morwen finds she has to cope with mystic cultists, murderous drug-smugglers, undercover “weasels” of the Interplanetary Police Coordinating Company, and the henchmen of the vicious pirate lord who owns her parents and wants Morwen returned – so he can kill her slowly.
Barbarians of the Beyond is a return to “Jack Vance Space” and space-opera derring-do that follows in the science fiction grandmaster’s footsteps.
John Vance and I have been sending out an ARC and already have laudatory blurbs from George R.R. Martin, David Gerrold, Robert J. Sawyer, Glen Cook, and Kurt Busiek.
We're looking to interest a larger-than-small press in taking on the novel. If not, it will be published by John's Spatterlight Press as a POD paperback and ebook.
