Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond, page 22
January 8, 2014
Busy, busy
I haven't updated the news page for a while, mainly because I've been inundated with work. So here's what's been happening:
I've sold three new episodes of The Kaslo Chronicles, the serialized novel that's running in Lightspeed Magazine. This is the story of Erm Kaslo, a hardboiled far-future "confidential operative" who hires on with a would-be wizard just as the universe's fundamental operating principle is about to switch from rational cause-and-effect to "sympathetic association" -- i.e., magic.
The third episode of the Kaslo saga, "His Elbow, Unkissed," is now running in the January issue of Lightspeed. If you want to read it right now, you can buy the ebook version of the whole issue. Or you can wait until January 14, when it will be posted on the online version of the magazine.
Amazon Audible has produced audio-book versions of my 2005 short story collection, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, as well as the first two Hapthorn novels, Majestrum and The Spiral Labyrinth. Amazon bought the audio rights from Skyhorse Books, which acquired them when it bought the original publisher, Nightshade Books. The rights to the third volume, Hespira, reverted to me. My agent will be talking to Amazon about getting something done. And I really ought to get Hespira out as a POD paperback, because the only dead-tree edition was the original Nightshade hardcover.
I've written another Raffalon novelette, "Prisoner of Pandarius," and sent it off to Gordon Van Gelder at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I hope he buys it, because I get a real kick out of appearing in the magazine Stephen King called, "the gold standard of American short fiction."
I've written two drafts of a screenplay of Transplant, a medical thriller by my friend, John A Elefteriades, MD, one of the world's foremost heart surgeons. Fingers crossed that the project strikes a chord in L.A.
I've edited a new edition of The Shards of Excalibur: Song of the Sword, a YA fantasy by the excellent Edward Willett, which will be out from Coteau Books in the spring. Ed combines Arthurian lore with contemporary urban fantasy to produce a gripping tale.
Next up: I have to proof the galleys of Old Growth, a myster featuring my alter ego, Sid Rafferty. It's the long-delayed sequel to Downshift (1997) and is set against the background of British Columbhia's "The War in the Woods" when environmentalists and the forest industry went toe to toe on Vancouver Island. It will be published on March 1 by Five Rivers Publishing, (which reprinted Downshift in 2012.
I've sold three new episodes of The Kaslo Chronicles, the serialized novel that's running in Lightspeed Magazine. This is the story of Erm Kaslo, a hardboiled far-future "confidential operative" who hires on with a would-be wizard just as the universe's fundamental operating principle is about to switch from rational cause-and-effect to "sympathetic association" -- i.e., magic.
The third episode of the Kaslo saga, "His Elbow, Unkissed," is now running in the January issue of Lightspeed. If you want to read it right now, you can buy the ebook version of the whole issue. Or you can wait until January 14, when it will be posted on the online version of the magazine.
Amazon Audible has produced audio-book versions of my 2005 short story collection, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, as well as the first two Hapthorn novels, Majestrum and The Spiral Labyrinth. Amazon bought the audio rights from Skyhorse Books, which acquired them when it bought the original publisher, Nightshade Books. The rights to the third volume, Hespira, reverted to me. My agent will be talking to Amazon about getting something done. And I really ought to get Hespira out as a POD paperback, because the only dead-tree edition was the original Nightshade hardcover.
I've written another Raffalon novelette, "Prisoner of Pandarius," and sent it off to Gordon Van Gelder at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I hope he buys it, because I get a real kick out of appearing in the magazine Stephen King called, "the gold standard of American short fiction."
I've written two drafts of a screenplay of Transplant, a medical thriller by my friend, John A Elefteriades, MD, one of the world's foremost heart surgeons. Fingers crossed that the project strikes a chord in L.A.
I've edited a new edition of The Shards of Excalibur: Song of the Sword, a YA fantasy by the excellent Edward Willett, which will be out from Coteau Books in the spring. Ed combines Arthurian lore with contemporary urban fantasy to produce a gripping tale.
Next up: I have to proof the galleys of Old Growth, a myster featuring my alter ego, Sid Rafferty. It's the long-delayed sequel to Downshift (1997) and is set against the background of British Columbhia's "The War in the Woods" when environmentalists and the forest industry went toe to toe on Vancouver Island. It will be published on March 1 by Five Rivers Publishing, (which reprinted Downshift in 2012.
December 9, 2013
Winnie and me
Fellow Canadian sf author Kristene Perron recently asked via the SF Canada listserver for guest blog posts for a regular feature on her Warpworld site. The feature is called The Truth Inside the Lie, and it asks us sf authors to talk about how something we've written as science fiction connects with the real world.
I thought about a time travel story I wrote a few years back, as told by Winston Churchill. Here's the post.
I thought about a time travel story I wrote a few years back, as told by Winston Churchill. Here's the post.
November 28, 2013
Hapthorn Tales #1 on Amazon (free Kindle download)
As of this morning, Italian time, my self-pubbed ebook, 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn, is ranked as the number-one Amazon free Kindle download in the sf category. In the past fifteen hours, the title has been downloaded 12,782 times. Plus another few hundred on Kobo and Smashwords.
It's as a result of giving BookBub US$80 for a promotion, emailed to their sf subscribers list (240,000 members, they say) as well as posted on their web page for the next week.
I'll now be interested to see what kind of result I get. How many of those free-takers will come back and buy a $2.99 ebook?
I will report as I get more info.
It's as a result of giving BookBub US$80 for a promotion, emailed to their sf subscribers list (240,000 members, they say) as well as posted on their web page for the next week.
I'll now be interested to see what kind of result I get. How many of those free-takers will come back and buy a $2.99 ebook?
I will report as I get more info.
November 27, 2013
Sleeper" -- 2nd episode of Kaslo Chronicles, now online
"Sleeper," the second episode in the serialized novel, The Kaslo Chronicles, is now available for free reading online at Lightspeed Magazine.
Erm Kaslo is a hardboiled confidential operative in the far-future civilization of The Ten Thousand Worlds. In the first episode, "And Then Some," he was hired to help wealthy magnate Diomedo Obron deal with a con man, and discovered that there might be some basis to Obron's belief that the operating principle of the universe will soon switch from rationalism to magic.
Now, returning from another assignment, he gets interested when the space liner he's traveling on stops to pick up an interstellar hitchhiker who turns out to be dying of an incurable disease. And, once more, magic slips into Kaslo's life.
Erm Kaslo is a hardboiled confidential operative in the far-future civilization of The Ten Thousand Worlds. In the first episode, "And Then Some," he was hired to help wealthy magnate Diomedo Obron deal with a con man, and discovered that there might be some basis to Obron's belief that the operating principle of the universe will soon switch from rationalism to magic.
Now, returning from another assignment, he gets interested when the space liner he's traveling on stops to pick up an interstellar hitchhiker who turns out to be dying of an incurable disease. And, once more, magic slips into Kaslo's life.
November 25, 2013
Paul DiFilippo reviews Old Mars
As an author of unabashedly old-fashioned science fantasy, I like Paul DiFilippo's take on Old Mars, the retro-anthology of stories set in the "Mars of the mind" that existed before the Mariner probe began the cold, hard factual exploration of the red planet.
He poses a good question: What is the relationship of the genre’s past to the present, actual and ideal? Should certain old-school tropes and themes be abandoned as false and inutile? Can we ever step in the same stream twice, and recapture glories and pleasures of old? Can postmodern approaches somehow lend a fresh aspect to the antique? Are attitudes toward such SF strictly determinable and predictable by membership in a given generation? Is the medium stagnating or advancing by continuing to create such stories?
Advancing, I'd say. The mileage of others may, however, vary.
He poses a good question: What is the relationship of the genre’s past to the present, actual and ideal? Should certain old-school tropes and themes be abandoned as false and inutile? Can we ever step in the same stream twice, and recapture glories and pleasures of old? Can postmodern approaches somehow lend a fresh aspect to the antique? Are attitudes toward such SF strictly determinable and predictable by membership in a given generation? Is the medium stagnating or advancing by continuing to create such stories?
Advancing, I'd say. The mileage of others may, however, vary.
November 21, 2013
A couple of short story reviews
Lois Tilton reviews a couple of my short stories for Locus online. About "The Ugly Duckling," a Bradburyesque tale in
Old Mars
, the retro-anthology edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, she says,"The descriptions of the Martian ruins and the recordings of Martian life they hold are truly wondrous neat."
And then she looks at "Sleeper," the second episode in The Kaslo Chronicles, the science-fantasy novel I'm serializing in Lightspeed Magazine . She says, "The combination of character, setting, narrative voice and twisty plot make for the sort of entertaining tale that readers familiar with the author will expect . . ."
And then she looks at "Sleeper," the second episode in The Kaslo Chronicles, the science-fantasy novel I'm serializing in Lightspeed Magazine . She says, "The combination of character, setting, narrative voice and twisty plot make for the sort of entertaining tale that readers familiar with the author will expect . . ."
November 3, 2013
Hapthorn books back in the webstore, Kobo, Smashwords
After a month-long experiment of only selling my ebooks through Amazon's Kindle program, I've decided it's not a useful approach. So I've put the four Henghis Hapthorn books -- three novels and a short story collection -- back on sale via Kobo, Smashwords, and the Archonate bookstore.
The novels, Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, and Hespira, are $2.99 each, but the collection 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn is free on Kobo and Smashwords, and only a penny on my own site (because Paypal won't carry a zero-price transaction).
I may put the other books back into the other venues before the month is out. First, I want to try a paid promotion to see if it draws new readers.
The novels, Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, and Hespira, are $2.99 each, but the collection 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn is free on Kobo and Smashwords, and only a penny on my own site (because Paypal won't carry a zero-price transaction).
I may put the other books back into the other venues before the month is out. First, I want to try a paid promotion to see if it draws new readers.
November 2, 2013
"Sleeper" now in Lightspeed's November issue
"Sleeper," the second episode in the serialized novel The Kaslo Chronicles, is now appearing in
Lightspeed Magazine
. Hardboiled confidential operative Erm Kaslo is drawn deeper into the machinations of a clutch of proto-wizards murderously competing with each other in anticipation of the universe's impending sudden shift from rational cause and effect to sympathetic association (i.e., magic).
The mag is donwloadable now as a $3.99 ebook, wherever epubs and mobis are sold. Or you can wait until late in the month and read "Sleeper" for free on-line.
The mag is donwloadable now as a $3.99 ebook, wherever epubs and mobis are sold. Or you can wait until late in the month and read "Sleeper" for free on-line.
October 30, 2013
I won't be at World Fantasy
If anyone's looking for me at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, I'm afraid I won't be there. I broke an ankle in two places in late September and that makes international travel just impossible.
October 9, 2013
Reviews of "Ugly Duckling' (Old Mars) and "Stones and Glass" (F&SF)
At Tor.com, Robert H. Bedford has reviewed Old Mars, the George R.R. Martin/Gardner Dozois-edited retro-antho of stories set in the Mars sf authors used to imagine before robot probes and explorers revealed the hard, cold facts. Of my story, he says:
“The Ugly Duckling” by Matthew Hughes finds an archaeologist exploring the ruins of the Martian past in a place from which few have returned. Hughes plays with identity, past, and personality in this tale of obsession driving a man to discover what might be best left unexplored. Hughes conjured up a deep past for Mars in this story, and in some ways, a civilization that isn’t too dissimilar to our own.
Actually, Ray Bradbury did the conjuring. I borrowed the background from The Martian Chronicles.
And over at Tangent Online, Collen Chen reviews "Stones and Glass," my story in the November/December issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, now just out. She says the story is "engaging and tension-filled, with a solid fantasy world behind three-dimensional characters."
“The Ugly Duckling” by Matthew Hughes finds an archaeologist exploring the ruins of the Martian past in a place from which few have returned. Hughes plays with identity, past, and personality in this tale of obsession driving a man to discover what might be best left unexplored. Hughes conjured up a deep past for Mars in this story, and in some ways, a civilization that isn’t too dissimilar to our own.
Actually, Ray Bradbury did the conjuring. I borrowed the background from The Martian Chronicles.
And over at Tangent Online, Collen Chen reviews "Stones and Glass," my story in the November/December issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, now just out. She says the story is "engaging and tension-filled, with a solid fantasy world behind three-dimensional characters."
