Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "the-book-of-magic"
I'm invited again
I thought this was worth posting about:
While I was reviewing the copyedit on my story in Gardner Dozois's anthology THE BOOK OF SWORDS (Bantam, October), I received an email from Gardner asking me if I could do one for a companion antho, THE BOOK OF MAGIC, because another author has dropped out.
This is the third time I've been asked to step in on short notice like this. It's very heartening.
While I was reviewing the copyedit on my story in Gardner Dozois's anthology THE BOOK OF SWORDS (Bantam, October), I received an email from Gardner asking me if I could do one for a companion antho, THE BOOK OF MAGIC, because another author has dropped out.
This is the third time I've been asked to step in on short notice like this. It's very heartening.
Feeling pretty skookum
So, on March 6, Gardner Dozois asked me if I could send him a 10,000-word Vancean piece about dueling wizards for his anthology, The Book of Magic because somebody had dropped out of the ToC.
On March 7, I started and on March 17 I sent in "The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable." Today, Gardner accepted it, said he liked it very much.
Normally, I would say I'm dead chuffed (the language of my youth). But I think I'll start saying, at times like this, that I'm feeling pretty skookum.
Back in the 1980s I was Vancouver's first freelance speechwriting specialist. I made my bones by being the guy to call when somebody had dropped the ball in corporate communications and nobody had written the speech the CEO or Chairman of the Board was scheduled to give any day now. I would come in, get the info, and be back within twenty-four hours with a speech that did the job. On one occasion, my turnaround time was eight hours, and that included traveling downtown and back.
It's nice to know I can still get it done.
On March 7, I started and on March 17 I sent in "The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable." Today, Gardner accepted it, said he liked it very much.
Normally, I would say I'm dead chuffed (the language of my youth). But I think I'll start saying, at times like this, that I'm feeling pretty skookum.
Back in the 1980s I was Vancouver's first freelance speechwriting specialist. I made my bones by being the guy to call when somebody had dropped the ball in corporate communications and nobody had written the speech the CEO or Chairman of the Board was scheduled to give any day now. I would come in, get the info, and be back within twenty-four hours with a speech that did the job. On one occasion, my turnaround time was eight hours, and that included traveling downtown and back.
It's nice to know I can still get it done.
I'm invited again
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.
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.
