Matthew Hughes
I'm writing fantasy and science fiction, often in a Jack Vance mode.
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The name I answer to is Matt Hughes. I write science fiction, fantasy and suspense fiction. To keep the genres separate, I now use my full name, Matthew Hughes, for sff, and the shorter form for the crime stuff. I also write media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews. I've won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, and have been shortlisted for the Aurora, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Endeavour (twice), A.E. Van Vogt, Neffy, and Derringer Awards. I was born seventy-one years ago in Liverpool, England, but my family moved to Canada when I was five. I've made my living as a writer all of my adult life, first as a journalist, then as a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment, and -- from 1979 until a few years back- as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia.
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Fiction
Falberoth's Ruin
Published Nov 30, 2020 · 3,648 words (14 minutes) · 163 views
Fantasy Science Fiction far-future SF Old Earth Henghis Hapthorn
This is one of the early Henghis Hapthorn stories that ran in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction sixteen years ago. I was taking poor Henghis through his time of uncertainty, as the moment of the great change from rationalism to magic was about to upend his world.
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The Immersion
Published Nov 4, 2020 · 10,975 words (40 minutes) · 200 views
Science Fiction Old Earth Henghis Hapthorn the Archoonate
A tale of Henghis Hapthorn, a prequel to the trilogy of novels.
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Song of the Serpent
Published Oct 5, 2020 · 5,318 words (20 minutes) · 184 views
Fantasy Cugel the Clever picaresque fantasy Golarion Pathfinder
This is the opening of Song of the Serpent, a Cugel-type novel I was hired to write as a media tie-in for Paizo Press, set in the RPG gaming world of Golarion. The publisher has given permission for this excerpt.
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Go Tell the Phoenicians
Published Apr 29, 2020 · 8,597 words (32 minutes) · 1 like · 455 views
This is a bit of old-fashioned space-opera science fiction, the kind written in the 1940s and 1950s that I used to read in the 1960s. Consider it a case of my working a little nostalgia out of my system.
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Mastermindless
Published Mar 30, 2020 · 7,633 words (28 minutes) · 526 views
Fantasy Mystery Archonate Hapthorn
The story that introduced Henghis Hapthorn, foremost freelance discriminator of Old Earth in its penultimate age.
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The Vindicator
Published Mar 6, 2020 · 14,187 words (52 minutes) · 1 like · 533 views
Fantasy Mystery Dying Earth Cascor Raffalon Matthew Hughes
This is a tale of Raffalon, a thief of the Dying Earth. But it also features his sometime associate, Cascor, a former provostman become freelance discriminator (ex-cop, private eye). I'm about to start a new series of stories featuring Cascor and a couple of other characters who come into this story. So I thought it was a good time to bring him back into view.
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Grolion of Almery
Published Feb 8, 2020 · 10,812 words (40 minutes) · 1 like · 567 views
Fantasy Dying Earth Cugel the Clever Jack Vance Songs of the Dying Earth
In 2008 I had an email from Gardner Dozois asking me if I wanted to contribute to an anthology of stories set in the Dying Earth in homage to Jack Vance. My reply: "Try and stop me!" Grolion is the main character but that's not the name by which he is known to Vance aficionados.
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What the Wind Brings
Published Dec 1, 2019 · 7,937 words (29 minutes) · 1 like · 1980 views
Fantasy Historical Conquistadors Magical Realism historical novel slave revolt Zambos Castaways
This is an excerpt from a historical/magical realism novel, released in paperback and ebook editions December 17, that recently won the Endeavour Award. It tells the story of African slaves, shipwrecked on the jungle coast of 16th-century Ecuador, who allied with local indigenous people. Together, they outfought and out-thought Spanish conquistadors to preserve their freedom.
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Sealed with a Kiss
Published Oct 31, 2019 · 2,242 words (9 minutes) · 1 like · 432 views
“Sealed with a Kiss,” a little police procedural that was originally written for an anthology sponsored by a Canadian regional magazine. The story was accepted but the anthology never appeared, because the town in which the editor was based, Fort McMurray, was partly destroyed by a forest fire, which disrupted a lot of people’s plans. I’ve sent it here and there, but haven’t been able to place it, so I’ve decided to put it up on Curious Fictions as a free read.
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