Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond, page 14
August 3, 2015
Goodreads Giveaway: Devil or Angel and Other Stories
To promote my new collection of backlist non-Archonate short stories, Devil or Angel and Other Stories, I'm doing my first Goodreads Giveaway. I'll be giving away one copy of the paperback edition.
The promotion runs until August 18 and is available to people in Canada, the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
You can enter here.
The promotion runs until August 18 and is available to people in Canada, the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
You can enter here.
July 30, 2015
Devil or Angel and Other Stories launches
I’ve launched Devil or Angel and Other Stories, a collection of my non-Archonate short sf and fantasy stories as an ebook on Amazon and Kobo and as a POD paperback on Amazon’s CreateSpace. They should start appearing on Amazon and CreateSpace in the next several hours. Kobo takes a little longer.
Both versions will soon appear in the Archonate Bookstore. The ebooks will sell for $3.99 US and the paperback for $12.99. If you want to hold off buying the paperback, I’m going to offer it as a giveaway on Goodreads.
Here’s the blurb:
From the award-winning author of Majestrum, Template, and The Other, this collection of short stories ranges from the thoughtful to the whimsical. Most of them appeared first in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov’s. Others were written for bespoke anthologies, including Songs of the Dying Earth, Old Mars, and Welcome to the Greenhouse; one is published here for the first time.
John Joseph Adams and Gardner Dozois were kind enough to give me some cover quotes.
"Matthew Hughes writes contemporary science fiction and fantasy with a classic sensibility--driven by adventure and thrills, and chock full of sense of wonder." -- John Joseph Adams, Series Editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy
"If you like vivid adventure science fiction and fantasy, of the sort written by Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, and Roger Zelazny, you'll like Matthew Hughes too." -- Gardner Dozois
All three of the names Gardner mentions were authors I read avidly as a teenager and in my twenties. To be mentioned in the same breath as Vance, Anderson, and Zelazny – let me tell you, that’s something.
I have dedicated the book to Bradley W. Schenck, soon to be a Tor author (watch for his Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom), who manages my web page and does an excellent job of designing my books.
Both versions will soon appear in the Archonate Bookstore. The ebooks will sell for $3.99 US and the paperback for $12.99. If you want to hold off buying the paperback, I’m going to offer it as a giveaway on Goodreads.
Here’s the blurb:
From the award-winning author of Majestrum, Template, and The Other, this collection of short stories ranges from the thoughtful to the whimsical. Most of them appeared first in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov’s. Others were written for bespoke anthologies, including Songs of the Dying Earth, Old Mars, and Welcome to the Greenhouse; one is published here for the first time.
John Joseph Adams and Gardner Dozois were kind enough to give me some cover quotes.
"Matthew Hughes writes contemporary science fiction and fantasy with a classic sensibility--driven by adventure and thrills, and chock full of sense of wonder." -- John Joseph Adams, Series Editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy
"If you like vivid adventure science fiction and fantasy, of the sort written by Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, and Roger Zelazny, you'll like Matthew Hughes too." -- Gardner Dozois
All three of the names Gardner mentions were authors I read avidly as a teenager and in my twenties. To be mentioned in the same breath as Vance, Anderson, and Zelazny – let me tell you, that’s something.
I have dedicated the book to Bradley W. Schenck, soon to be a Tor author (watch for his Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom), who manages my web page and does an excellent job of designing my books.
July 24, 2015
118k and Pausing
I've passed 118,000 words on the historical novel and I'm still happy with the shape of it. But I'll be putting it aside because fellow Canadian sff author Edward Willett is about to send me the manuscript of Cave Beneath the Sea, the fourth volume in the YA fantasy series
The Shards of Excalibur
. So I'll be an editor for a while. The book is due out in September.
In other news, "The Inn of the Seven Blessings," my contribution to the George R.R. Martin/Gardner Dozois-edited cross-genre anthology Rogues (NYTimes bestseller and winner of the Locus Award for best antho), will be reprinted in Chizine Press's Imaginarium 4: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, I'll be sharing the table of contents with no less a star than Margaret Atwood.
In other news, "The Inn of the Seven Blessings," my contribution to the George R.R. Martin/Gardner Dozois-edited cross-genre anthology Rogues (NYTimes bestseller and winner of the Locus Award for best antho), will be reprinted in Chizine Press's Imaginarium 4: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, I'll be sharing the table of contents with no less a star than Margaret Atwood.
July 15, 2015
I'm a Tor author again (sort of)
I was googling around, looking for new reviews of old stuff (found a good one of my story in the cross-genre antho Rogues), when I found one of my alter egos, the media tie-in author Hugh Matthews, listed on the Tor site. Unbeknownst to me, Tor has taken over publication of Paizo Press's line of fantasy adventures set in the role-playing game world of Pathfinder.
My contribution to that line was Song of the Serpent, featuring a Cugel the Clever clone named Krunzle the Quick. It has dwarves, wizards, and a promising young troll named Skanderbrog, of whom I was quite fond. But I can't say it burned up the track, sales-wise. Maybe coming under the Tor aegis will help. They're republishing the existing line in trade paperback format, and some people really like those things.
As for that Rogues review, it was at the Fantasy Book Review blog and the reviewer, Joe Warren, singled out my story, "The Inn of the Seven Blessings," which introduced Raffalon the thief to the world, for special mention: "I particularly enjoyed The Inn of the Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes. This short story was witty, original and punchy."
I also noticed a couple of nice new Amazon customer reviews for Majestrum and Template. I always encourage readers to put in those Amazon notices, at least if you've bought the book from Amazon. Apart from gladdening the author's heart, they do help sell books.
My contribution to that line was Song of the Serpent, featuring a Cugel the Clever clone named Krunzle the Quick. It has dwarves, wizards, and a promising young troll named Skanderbrog, of whom I was quite fond. But I can't say it burned up the track, sales-wise. Maybe coming under the Tor aegis will help. They're republishing the existing line in trade paperback format, and some people really like those things.
As for that Rogues review, it was at the Fantasy Book Review blog and the reviewer, Joe Warren, singled out my story, "The Inn of the Seven Blessings," which introduced Raffalon the thief to the world, for special mention: "I particularly enjoyed The Inn of the Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes. This short story was witty, original and punchy."
I also noticed a couple of nice new Amazon customer reviews for Majestrum and Template. I always encourage readers to put in those Amazon notices, at least if you've bought the book from Amazon. Apart from gladdening the author's heart, they do help sell books.
July 7, 2015
I'm in Italy
I'm starting a new housesit that will run at least until December in a little hillside village in the Apennines, about midway between Rome and Naples. A very old-fashioned Italian house, more or less dug into the hill, overlooking an intermontane plateau of olive trees and farm fields. It's the birthplace of Thomas Aquinas.
It took us three days to drive down from Brittany, in heat that touched 40 degrees C at times, and with no air-conditioning in the car. And people think authors have a soft life. Well, of course we do, but we can still pretend to hardship.
Back on the internet, I've found blogged reviews of the first two volumes of my urban fantasy series, To Hell and Back from Angry Robot Books. The blogger is Rocky Sunico, who describes himself as a gay Filipino geek who picked up the trilogy months ago and got around to it only lately. Which is fine; I'd sooner be read later than never.
The reviews are positive and comprehensive. If you've been looking at the series on Amazon and wondering if you'd like it, I think Rocky's take on it will tell you whether or not it will delight you. If you ask me, of course, I'll swear that you'll love it, and you ought to get extra copies for your friends and colleagues. I'm told they make excellent Christmas and birthday gifts. Besides, it would be nice to see the trilogy earn out its advance.
Links to the reviews: http://www.geeky-guide.com/2015/06/bo...
http://www.geeky-guide.com/2015/07/bo...
It took us three days to drive down from Brittany, in heat that touched 40 degrees C at times, and with no air-conditioning in the car. And people think authors have a soft life. Well, of course we do, but we can still pretend to hardship.
Back on the internet, I've found blogged reviews of the first two volumes of my urban fantasy series, To Hell and Back from Angry Robot Books. The blogger is Rocky Sunico, who describes himself as a gay Filipino geek who picked up the trilogy months ago and got around to it only lately. Which is fine; I'd sooner be read later than never.
The reviews are positive and comprehensive. If you've been looking at the series on Amazon and wondering if you'd like it, I think Rocky's take on it will tell you whether or not it will delight you. If you ask me, of course, I'll swear that you'll love it, and you ought to get extra copies for your friends and colleagues. I'm told they make excellent Christmas and birthday gifts. Besides, it would be nice to see the trilogy earn out its advance.
Links to the reviews: http://www.geeky-guide.com/2015/06/bo...
http://www.geeky-guide.com/2015/07/bo...
July 2, 2015
Free read: "Not a Problem"
A few years back, Gordon Van Gelder was putting together an anthology of bespoke stories about global warming. He called it Welcome to the Greenhouse, a title reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's famous short story, "Welcome to the Monkey House."
He asked me for a story. I realized, and still do, that global warming is a big problem. I've been anticipating it since the 1960s when J.G. Ballard published The Drowned World. So I tried to come up with something grim and gritty, but nothing good came to mind. The only idea I'd had was something a little goofy that did sort address the issue that the kind of thinking that gets you into a problem is probably not the kind that will get you out.
Then Gordon emailed me to ask how I was doing and I told him I was only coming up with goofy stuff, at which point I understood from his reply that comic relief was what he was expecting me to deliver. So I wrote the story and sent it in.
It's called "Not a Problem," and it's now available for a free read on the SF Canada site. When you've finished reading it, you might stick around the site and get to know some of Canada's up and coming new sff authors.
He asked me for a story. I realized, and still do, that global warming is a big problem. I've been anticipating it since the 1960s when J.G. Ballard published The Drowned World. So I tried to come up with something grim and gritty, but nothing good came to mind. The only idea I'd had was something a little goofy that did sort address the issue that the kind of thinking that gets you into a problem is probably not the kind that will get you out.
Then Gordon emailed me to ask how I was doing and I told him I was only coming up with goofy stuff, at which point I understood from his reply that comic relief was what he was expecting me to deliver. So I wrote the story and sent it in.
It's called "Not a Problem," and it's now available for a free read on the SF Canada site. When you've finished reading it, you might stick around the site and get to know some of Canada's up and coming new sff authors.
"Myrmelon" review and interview
There's a nice review of my latest F&SF story "Curse of the Myrmelon" over at SF Revu. Sam Tomaino calls it, a "fun detective story. Another delightful tale from Hughes."
Meanwhile, I've done an interview about the genesis of the story and what people call "the writing process" with Stephen Mazur for the F&SF blog.
Tomorrow, I start the long drive from Brittany to my new housesit in central Italy. So I may not post anything for a while.
Meanwhile, I've done an interview about the genesis of the story and what people call "the writing process" with Stephen Mazur for the F&SF blog.
Tomorrow, I start the long drive from Brittany to my new housesit in central Italy. So I may not post anything for a while.
July 1, 2015
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.
June 21, 2015
90k and counting
Nothing much to report except that I've passed 90,000 words on the historical novel and it's coming along well. I expect to have a finely polished draft of some 150,000 words by the end of the year and then we'll see what happens. It looks as if the title will be What the Wind Brings.
The only other news is a couple of nice reviews of "Curse of the Myrmelon," the new Raffalon/Cascor story in the latest issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Lois Tilton reviewed it for Locus online and Martha Burns did so for Tangent Online, adding "the banter was delightful."
It's true. I do give good banter.
"Curse" is my twenty-sixth appearance in F&SF (twenty-seventh if you make allowances for my Neb-nominated Guth Bandar novella, "The Helper and his Hero) having been serialized over two issues). If you'd told me fifty years ago, when I was sixteen and dreaming of being an sf writer, that I'd become one the magazine's regulars, I would have been over the moon. Hell, even at the fully ripened age of sixty-six, I'm still pretty chuffed.
The only other news is a couple of nice reviews of "Curse of the Myrmelon," the new Raffalon/Cascor story in the latest issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Lois Tilton reviewed it for Locus online and Martha Burns did so for Tangent Online, adding "the banter was delightful."
It's true. I do give good banter.
"Curse" is my twenty-sixth appearance in F&SF (twenty-seventh if you make allowances for my Neb-nominated Guth Bandar novella, "The Helper and his Hero) having been serialized over two issues). If you'd told me fifty years ago, when I was sixteen and dreaming of being an sf writer, that I'd become one the magazine's regulars, I would have been over the moon. Hell, even at the fully ripened age of sixty-six, I'm still pretty chuffed.
June 9, 2015
Fourth Imbry novella in October/November
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.
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.
