Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "emphyrio"
Sold a crime story
Besides fantasy and science fiction, I've also written crime fiction -- even won an award from the Crime Writers of Canada some years ago. I had one little short story -- "Sealed with a Kiss" -- on my hard drive that I had never sold. I sent it out to Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen years ago and got no nibbles, and after that it just sat there. I would notice it every few months and think, "I ought to do something with that one."
Today I got an acceptance on it from an editor who is putting together an anthology of Canadian crime fiction. When I checked my emails I found out I'd submitted it in November of 2013. I'd completely forgotten. Now I can truthfully say that I've sold every crime short story I ever wrote, which is gratifying.
I'd sold all the sf stories, too, except for a 500-word flash fiction piece called "Ant Farm" that, as with "SWAK," I sent out to only a couple of places. I included it in the sf collection "Devil or Angel and Other Stories," so there's no place sending it anywhere else now.
The crime fiction antho will be out in the next few months. I'll announce it when I know the publication date.
John Vance, son of Jack, runs Spatterlight Press, which has been producing ebooks of his father's works, using the authoritative Vance Integral Edition texts which restored all the good bits cut by pulp magazine editors obsessed by page counts. I've mentioned that I've been writing and narrating the promotional copy for videos produced by Koen Vyverman for the Jack Vance YouTube channel.
Well, now Spatterlight is expanding into the publishing of print-on-demand paperbacks. The first title is Emphyrio which, by coincidence, is the Vance work I usually recommend for those who haven't read him yet. And I've just written the back-cover "About the Author" blurb and an enthusiastic preface which was a great pleasure to write.
Today I got an acceptance on it from an editor who is putting together an anthology of Canadian crime fiction. When I checked my emails I found out I'd submitted it in November of 2013. I'd completely forgotten. Now I can truthfully say that I've sold every crime short story I ever wrote, which is gratifying.
I'd sold all the sf stories, too, except for a 500-word flash fiction piece called "Ant Farm" that, as with "SWAK," I sent out to only a couple of places. I included it in the sf collection "Devil or Angel and Other Stories," so there's no place sending it anywhere else now.
The crime fiction antho will be out in the next few months. I'll announce it when I know the publication date.
~~~~~
John Vance, son of Jack, runs Spatterlight Press, which has been producing ebooks of his father's works, using the authoritative Vance Integral Edition texts which restored all the good bits cut by pulp magazine editors obsessed by page counts. I've mentioned that I've been writing and narrating the promotional copy for videos produced by Koen Vyverman for the Jack Vance YouTube channel.
Well, now Spatterlight is expanding into the publishing of print-on-demand paperbacks. The first title is Emphyrio which, by coincidence, is the Vance work I usually recommend for those who haven't read him yet. And I've just written the back-cover "About the Author" blurb and an enthusiastic preface which was a great pleasure to write.
~~~~~
For those keeping track, I'm 136,000 words into the historical novel. Two more chapters should see the first draft finished, then it will be time to pull it all together. Should be done by Christmas.
