Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "cugel-the-clever"
A little Krunzle in your ear
I don't have much to post about here lately because I'm generally beavering away on my historical novel -- 146,000 words now and should have the first draft done in a week or so. But I had an email from James Sutter, my editor at Paizo, to tell me that Song of the Serpent will be out as an Amazon Audible audio book in January.
That gives me an opportunity to mention the book to those of you who have started coming by since its release in May 2012. You won't find it listed under my usual fantasy-author name, Matthew Hughes, because it was a media tie-in. That means it was a for-hire job where I was hired to write a novel set in somebody else's trademarked universe. I write those kinds of books under the pen name Hugh Matthews.
The universe in this instance was that of the Pathfinder role-playing game, which has created a world called Golarion. Paizo Books publisher Erik Mona, a major Jack Vance fan who reprinted my stand-alone Vancean space opera, Template, asked me if I could do a Cugel the Clever-type story set in Golarion for their Pathfinder Tales imprint. I said, I'd be delighted, and out came Song of the Serpent.
I'm mentioning all of this because there might be amongst you some people who say to themselves, "Gosh, I wish Hughes would write a Cugel the Clever novel."
Well, I have. The character is called Krunzle the Quick. Like Cugel, he's a thief. He makes the mistake of trying to rob a plutocrat whose goods are guarded by a magician and finds himself sent on a life-threatening quest he can't quit because the mage put a semi-sentient bronze snake around his neck, and it will choke him if he departs from the assignment.
Of course, there's more to it than that. The story has levels, and the deeper Krunzle delves into those levels the more desperate the situation becomes. Oh, and it also has an exceptional young troll named Skanderbrog, who now has his own action figure in the Pathfinder store.
Here's a link to Amazon for the title. And, by the way, I don't get anything from sales of the book beyond the initial writing fee. I just thought fans of Vance's and mine might enjoy it.
If you'd like a free sample, I did a short story as a prequel that was published on the web. It's called "Krunzle the Quick," and you can find links to all five segments on the Pathfinder wiki.
That gives me an opportunity to mention the book to those of you who have started coming by since its release in May 2012. You won't find it listed under my usual fantasy-author name, Matthew Hughes, because it was a media tie-in. That means it was a for-hire job where I was hired to write a novel set in somebody else's trademarked universe. I write those kinds of books under the pen name Hugh Matthews.
The universe in this instance was that of the Pathfinder role-playing game, which has created a world called Golarion. Paizo Books publisher Erik Mona, a major Jack Vance fan who reprinted my stand-alone Vancean space opera, Template, asked me if I could do a Cugel the Clever-type story set in Golarion for their Pathfinder Tales imprint. I said, I'd be delighted, and out came Song of the Serpent.
I'm mentioning all of this because there might be amongst you some people who say to themselves, "Gosh, I wish Hughes would write a Cugel the Clever novel."
Well, I have. The character is called Krunzle the Quick. Like Cugel, he's a thief. He makes the mistake of trying to rob a plutocrat whose goods are guarded by a magician and finds himself sent on a life-threatening quest he can't quit because the mage put a semi-sentient bronze snake around his neck, and it will choke him if he departs from the assignment.
Of course, there's more to it than that. The story has levels, and the deeper Krunzle delves into those levels the more desperate the situation becomes. Oh, and it also has an exceptional young troll named Skanderbrog, who now has his own action figure in the Pathfinder store.
Here's a link to Amazon for the title. And, by the way, I don't get anything from sales of the book beyond the initial writing fee. I just thought fans of Vance's and mine might enjoy it.
If you'd like a free sample, I did a short story as a prequel that was published on the web. It's called "Krunzle the Quick," and you can find links to all five segments on the Pathfinder wiki.
