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, and Derringer Awards. I was born seventy 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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The Vindicator
Published Mar 6, 2020 · 14,187 words (52 minutes) · 1 like · 140 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 · 190 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 · 7,938 words (29 minutes) · 1 like · 642 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. 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 · 173 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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Ten Half-Pennies
Published Oct 1, 2019 · 7,499 words (28 minutes) · 5 likes · 493 views
Fantasy Baldemar wizard Dying Earth
Baldemar’s path to becoming a wizard’s henchman was not exactly linear, but it was inevitable from the day he hired a local tough to help fend off grammar school bullies. Luckily, Baldemar is a fast learner—and he never forgets his debts.
Matthew Hughes’s path as a writer has taken him from journalism to speechwriting to SFF and suspense fiction. Born in Liverpool, he’s been in Canada for sixty-five years, and has been shortlisted for the Nebula, Aurora, Philip K. Dick awards, and many others.
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A God in Chains (excerpt)
Published Aug 7, 2019 · 4,426 words (17 minutes) · 1 like · 730 views
This is the opening of A God in Chains (Edge SF and Fantasy Publishing, 2019) an adventure/mystery novel set in the fantasy milieu known as the Dying Earth.
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The Sword of Destiny
Published Aug 2, 2019 · 10,471 words (39 minutes) · 2 likes · 464 views
“The Sword of Destiny” was written at the invitation of Gardner Dozois for his 2017 anthology, The Book of Swords. This 10,000-word novelette introduced Baldemar, the wizard’s henchman, at the (probable) end of his career. I later wrote several more stories bringing him from childhood to maturity, all of which have run (or will run) in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
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Timmy, Come Home
Published May 5, 2019 · 4,507 words (17 minutes) · 3 likes · 608 views
“Timmy, Come Home” was written ten years ago at the invitation of Gordon Van Gelder for an anthology he was putting together called Is Anybody Out There? All the stories were themed around the Fermi Paradox, which asks the question, “If there are alien civilizations out there, why haven’t we been contacted by them?”
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Enemy of the Good
Published Mar 6, 2019 · 11,941 words (44 minutes) · 3 likes · 396 views
A little philosophical diversion featuring my corpulent master criminal of Old Earth in its penultimate age.
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The Devil You Don't
Published Feb 7, 2019 · 1,338 words (5 minutes) · 382 views
I was a successful speechwriter because I knew how to paint word pictures, and because I could write in the voice of the person who was going to give the speech. As I wrote, I could hear the speaker's voice in my head. Back in 2003, I decided to write a story in the inimitable voice of one of the 20th century's great speech-makers. I sold it to the late and undeniably great Gardner Dozois, who was then editing Asimov's SF Magazine.
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