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

Old Mars , the retro-sf themed anthology edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, has won the Locus Award for best anthology of 2013.

The fifteen stories in the book are each set in one of the "Mars of the minds" that used to exist in science fiction before real-life probes and rovers revealed the true state of our nearest planetary neighbor. There are tales drawn from the Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the warlike source of H.G. Wells's tripod-riding invaders of Earth, and Ray Bradbury's moody The Martian Chronicles.

My own contribution, "The Ugly Duckling," was conceived as a "discarded chapter" of Bradbury's work, set during the early years of humanity's occupation of the red planet and the destruction of the remnants of the Martian civilization.

I can't say I'm a big name in the sff business -- known, certainly, but not a name to conjure with -- but every now and then I get a little validation, like being written up in The New York Review of Science Fiction or being shortlisted for a juried award.

Over the weekend, I received another one of those affirmations: super-editor Gardner Dozois invited me to send him a story for an upcoming theme anthology to be called The Book of Swords. Assuming Gardner likes what I'll send him, I'll be joining K.J. Parker, Scott Lynch, Robin Hobb, Garth Nix, C.J. Cherryh, Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Kushner, Ken Liu, Danial Abraham, Cecelia Holland, and Peter S. Beagle in the table of contents. And probably more big names who have yet to commit.

Over the past several years, I've been in several invitation-only anthos, including the megaseller and World Fantasy Ward-shortlisted Rogues, for which I've actually received royalty payments over and above the generous advance. I've also been in Old Mars and Old Venus and Songs of the Dying Earth.

And while those appearances haven't made me a household name in fandom, they've brought me new readers, many of whom have stuck around. As I often say to fans who email me with kind words, I appreciate the encouragement.

 

With the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology, The Book of Swords, due out in less than three weeks, Gardner has picked my story, "The Sword of Destiny," to use in a promotional excerpt.

You can check it out here:

On Thursday, this week, I’m going to be participating in an Ask Me Anything event on the reddit.com/r/fantasy discussion group to promote The Book of Swords.

In case you’ve missed my several mentions of it, The Book of Swords, is a new anthology edited by Gardner Dozois that was officially published today and is already ranked number nine in fantasy anthologies on Amazon. The consensus of critics is that it’s going to be one of the top sff anthos of the year.

The AMA launches late morning, Central Time. I’m right now on UK time (about six hours later) so I’ll probably connect about then and be available for a few hours, if anyone wants to ask me anything. If you’re not already a member of reddit.com/r/fantasy, it takes only seconds to join the group.

In other news, my Patreon page has attracted more than two dozen Heroes of the Archonate since I launched it five days ago. If you’d like to join the ranks of heroes, here’s where to go:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4687520

Came across this on George R.R. Martin's Not a Blog.

"Today is. . . publication day for THE BOOK OF SWORDS . . . There's an impressive table of contents, including brand new stories by giants of the genre like Robin Hobb, Ken Liu, the criminally underrated Matthew Hughes, Scott Lynch, Daniel Abraham, Cecelia Holland, Lavie Tidhar, and many more."

So I'm one of the "giants of the genre," and "criminally underrated," according to George. From his lips to the readers' ears.

Patreon says I should keep reminding people that I now have a Patreon account. So consider yourself reminded. Here's a link:

 

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.

I hang around on a website called SFF World, handing out advice on writing and publishing, because the site draws a number of aspiring specfic authors.

Every now and then, the members get together and do a theme anthology, the latest of which is Welcome to Pacific City, a collection of stories all set in a fictional Oregon coast metropolis whose name I'm sure you can infer. The theme of the antho is superheroes.

I contributed the origin tale, borrowing liberally from the true-life history of how Vancouver was founded by a man who paddled up from New Westminster with a barrel of whisky and talked the workers at a sawmill into building him a saloon.

The ebook version of the anthology is now available for pre-order, dirt cheap at an introductory price. Down the road there will be a paperback, and I'll draw attention to that when it comes.

But for now you can pre-orderW2PC from Amazon as a bargain. Here's where to go.