Rhys Hughes

rhysaurus

rhysaurus

Chymist
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My new novel has just been published. It's very rude; in fact it's the most obscene thing I've written, even more perverse than The Percolated Stars. I also happen to believe it's my funniest book to date. And it seems that a 10,000 word extract from Mister Gum has already been selected to appear in a 'Year's Best' anthology.

The book can be ordered direct from the publisher here:
Mister Gum

Thanks for listening!
 
LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD

An anthology for charity... edited by Jeff & Ann VanderMeer.

Ordering details here...

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Last Drink Bird Head is a variation on a surrealist writing game: the editors gave the phrase to over 70 writers and asked them “Who or what is Last Drink Bird Head?” The results run the gamut from the hilarious to the terrifying, with each writer bringing their signature style and voice to the enterprise. All proceeds on Last Drink go to ProLiteracy.org.

WHAT IS PROLITERACY?
Help promote worldwide literacy through the ProLiteracy organization. ProLiteracy “champions the power of literacy to improve the lives of adults and their families, communities, and societies. We envision a world in which everyone can read, write, compute, and use technology to lead healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives.” For more information, visit ProLiteracy.org.

Contributors:
Daniel Abraham, Michael Arnzen, Steve Aylett, KJ Bishop, Michael Bishop, Desirina Boskovich, Keith Brooke, Jesse Bullington, Richard Butner, Catherine Cheek, Matthew Cheney, Michael Cisco, Gio Clairval, Alan M. Clark, Brendan Connell, Paul Di Filippo, Stephen R. Donaldson, Rikki Ducornet, Clare Dudman, Hal Duncan, Scott Eagle, Brian Evenson, Eliot Fintushel, Jeffrey Ford, Richard Gehr, Felix Gilman, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Rhys Hughes, Paul Jessup, Antony Johnston, John Kaiine, Henry Kaiser, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tessa Kum, Ellen Kushner, Jay Lake, Tanith Lee, Stina Leicht, Therese Littleton, Beth Adele Long, Dustin Long, Nick Mamatas, JM McDermott, Sarah Monette, Kari O’Connor, Ben Peek, Holly Phillips, Louis Phillips, Tim Pratt, Cat Rambo, Mark Rich, Bruce Holland Rogers, Nicholas Royle, G Eric Schaller, Ekaterina Sedia, Ramsey Shehadeh, Peter Straub, Victoria Strauss, Michael Swanwick, Mark Swartz, Alan Swirsky, Rachel Swirsky, Sonya Taaffe, Justin Taylor, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeffrey Thomas, Scott Thomas, John Urbancik, Genevieve Valentine, Kim Westwood, Leslie What, Andrew Steiger White, Conrad Williams, Liz Williams, Neil Williamson, Caleb Wilson, Gene Wolfe, Jonathan Wood, Marly Youmans, Catherine Zeidler...
 
The first time I heard the word 'chapbook' I assumed it was a book for chaps, in other words full of pictures of naked women. I soon learned it wasn't. I think the writer D.F Lewis introduced me to the word: he was always bandying it about. The first time I heard the word 'bandy' I assumed it was a French alcoholic drink. No I didn't.
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Anyway, my latest chapbook has just been published. Madonna Park has a colour cover and comes courtesy of The Penny Dreadful Company and can be ordered here. The owner of the aforementioned company is the extremely hard working and approachable Neil Jackson. I have created two other chapbooks for him and I'm working on yet another. I will announce details of all these soon... Madonna Park contains six brief tales from various stages of my career. This is a limited edition chapbook and when all 250 are sold they are gone forever...

If any of you out there ever get fed up with me plugging my own works or think it's in bad taste, let me know, OK?

Thanks! Bye!
 
Re: The Fanny Fables chapbook

More self-promotion, I'm afraid... It's an unstylish thing to do, but it's clear I intend to do it anyway...
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The Fanny Fables are a set of flippant anti-fables. They utilise a technique I'm fond of, namely taking something that is already absurd but not perceived as such (in this case the moral fable) and applying merciless logic to it until it turns inside-out or crumbles away. It's just a form of deconstructionism, I suppose... I enjoy doing this. I've deconstructed vampires, zombies, invisible men, ghosts and many other illogical memes in my time -- with absolutely no general effect whatsoever. They still persist. Ah well!

The Fanny Fables can be ordered here, if you want it. Or if you don't want it, it can be not-ordered anywhere else...
 
The Moon Takes a Midnight Dip
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Every so often the moon likes to replenish its dry lunar seas with a dip in the Pacific Ocean.
 
The ARC of my Twisthorn Bellow novel arrived today. As the apocalyptic climax of this book is set in France, I thought I should do some French-themed photos to promote the book.

Here's a sample of them!

(1) ARC de Triomphe
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(2) Faux Penguin meets the faux penguin
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(3) An Eyeful of Eiffel
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One of the narrators of this book is the Eiffel Tower, so it seemed appropriate to show that iron structure taking a well-deserved break as a desktop item.

And for anyone who missed it the first time, an exclusive preview of part of Twisthorn Bellow can be viewed here:

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Thanks for your time and patience!

Rhys
 
hi rhys – just ordered madonna park and mister gum, but cant order the fanny fables as the link doesnt work on this site or your own. love your stuff – got almost all of it (no chance of getting worming the harpy – bring it out again why dont ya). and dont worry about the self-promotion thing – needs must.
bezzies,
damo
 
Hey, thanks Damo!

The situation with the chapbooks is a bit of a muddle right now, but the muddle will be resolved soon. The publisher has decided to issue only colour chapbooks from now on, and I think I'll have a total of five of those to my name. Also I'll be adding two stories to The Fanny Fables, so that one has gone back to the presses and won't be issued properly until the end of this year or beginning of next. The complete list of my chpbooks will therefore be:

* Madonna Park
* Plutonian Parodies
* To Err is Divine
* The Fanny Fables
* Flash in the Pantheon

As you've ordered Madonna Park, I'll send you a free copy of at least two of the above titles (if you want them). Just email me your address and I'll pop them in the mail when I get my own copies. My email is:
rhysaurus@yahoo.co.uk

As for Worming the Harpy, it may indeed be reissued next year or the year after. I'll be sure to broadcast the information when I know! It'll be the definitive version (with all the material that was originally removed by the publisher re-inserted). But if you want the first edition, then it's being sold on eBay at this very moment:

Worming the Harpy on eBay

Regards, R!
 
My chapbook Plutonian Parodies was published today. More information in a day or two -- after I've taken some photos of it... In the meantime, here's a nice blurb I had from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola concerning my forthcoming Twisthorn Bellow novel:

******blurb for TB******

Regards, R!
 
Competition Time!

If you want to win all five of my forthcoming colour chapbooks then pop over to my blog where I'm running a small competition:

My Blog Can Be Found Here

Basically, you have to study a photograph that contains thirteen references to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The person with the most correct references will be the winner!

Here's the photo:

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Best regards, R!
 
I've just finished proofreading my novel Twisthorn Bellow. So all is now set for publication next March, but in fact the electronic copy is out now... Details can be found on my latest blog entry.

Here's a photo of one of the monsters that can be found in my novel. Her name is Ruby dubDub. I took this photo yesterday morning. She may look like a magnifying mirror wrapped in a purple scarf, with two gloves supported by a concealed paintbrush for hands, and a brass sun held at the right distance to give her a bizarre reflected face; but all that's just an unlikely coincidence. Honest.

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By the looks of things, my book Nowhere Near Milkwood is available on Google Books for free here:

****** Nowhere Near Milkwood ******

Maybe some pages are missing, I'm not sure how this Google Books thing works...

First published in the year 2002, Nowhere Near Milkwood has been earning me diminishing sums of money ever since. My last royalty cheque for this book was: $11.50!
 
The latest issue of the e-zine Estronomicon is now available for download. It's a Christmas-themed issue and features three examples of my 'flash fiction'. I'm especially proud of my second story, 'The Precious Mundanity', as it utilises a conceit that is extremely simple and obvious and yet to my knowledge has never been thought of before...

Follow this link to access the e-zine:

******Estronomicon Xmas Special******
 
I've just blogged about my Favourite Books of 2009. None of them were actually published in 2009, though; I'm always 20 or 30 years behind the times! Here's my review:

******Best Books of 2009******

However, if you can't be bothered to read what I've written about each book, simply study the following photograph to discover my five favourites of the year!

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Mr. Hughes, it pleases me greatly that you have rediscovered the fiction of Robert Silverberg. I strongly recommend his novels Dying Inside, The Book of Skulls, A Time of Changes, The World Inside, and Tower of Glass. A couple of fine earlier novels are Thorns and The Time Hoppers. Two story collections worth seeking out are Unfamiliar Territory and Capricorn Games.
 
Thanks for those recommendations, Mr Spotbowserfido2. I shall definitely seek out Dying Inside and The Book of Skulls at the very least; and probably some of the others too! I already have Roma Eterna. What do you think? Is that one any good?

I've just finished writing my personal review of 2009. It can be found on my blog here, if you're interested:

******My Personal Review of 2009******

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