Talking about the writing biz at ArtSpace
Matthew Hughes is listed as one of Canada’s top fantasy writers. He is also ranked among Canada’s top science fiction writers. For added flavour, Hughes also won an Arthur Ellis Award for writing Canada’s best short story in the crime genre.
He will sit down with Prince George writers to talk about how he does it.
Hughes is a man of literary flexibility and internationally applauded skill. He was called “criminally underrated” by none other than Game of Thrones genesis writer George R.R. Martin.
Robert J. Sawyer, a favourite among local science fiction fans, called Hughes “a towering talent.”
In addition to winning the coveted Arthur Ellis, he has also been nominated for prominent trophies like the Aurora, Nebula and Endeavour Awards.
Hughes has 19 novels to his name, and an estimated 85 short stories. He has been a newspaper reporter, a political speech writer and other professions that involve communication. He and his wife live on a constant global adventure as mortgage-free serial house-sitters, bouncing from one arrangement to another allowing him to feed his mind (travel is always engaging and instructive, and they have now done this in 12 countries) and provide him ample time to write.
This is their second stint in Prince George in the past two years. He writes one or two hours per day and with some of the spare time he likes to conduct workshops for aspiring writers.
On Aug. 30 he will be in Artspace at 6 p.m. to talk shop and answer questions about the craft of writing genre fiction and some of the things to consider about the business.
“I enjoy it and it’s a good thing to do,” said Hughes about doing workshops. “A lot of people, especially in a town way up here, are not going to encounter an experienced professional in this business very often, especially someone who’s had as weird a career as I’ve I had. Every possible bad thing (in publishing) has happened to me.
“I’ve had publishers close down as the book was coming out. I’ve been ripped off by agents who took the money but didn’t do the work.
“I’ve had editors quit after winning a five-month argument with the marketing department so when the book came out they took their revenge by cutting my print run in half and taking away the promotion budget. Ugh. It happens. It is a hard, hard business.”
Like most writers, Hughes feels compelled to exercise the muscles of the craft. He doesn’t do it for the dream of fame and fortune, which is as unrealistic for authors as making the NHL is for hockey players.
Few get to that level, but that doesn’t mean their pursuit is unfulfilling. He greatly enjoys creating characters and the scenarios they live in, and he knows many others do as well.
“My advice to somebody who wants to try it is, first, learn to write,” he said, meaning either formal lessons in school or self-instruction, but deliberately seek out technique knowledge. “Then write the thing you really want to write. Don’t try to write to the market because you might connect, you may not connect, chances are, though, if there’s a big ‘squids in space’ story and you try to write another one like that, so are hundreds of others.
“Don’t try to estimate the market. If there’s something that really clicks with you and turns you on, write that. You may sell it, you may not, but you will not be like everybody else.”
Hughes has developed a reputation for emulating a couple of the masters of genre fiction. He employed the narration style of Jack Vance, most of all, and the literary world noticed. His efforts led Booklist (the American Library Association’s book review periodical) to name him the “heir-apparent to Jack Vance.”
According to Hughes, “Vance was an outlier. He had a unique voice. And I’m