Archonate.com

Spiral Labyrinth Majestrum Black Brillion Fools Errant Fool Me Twice A Little Learning Hespira
News Reviews Bio Bibliography

The name I answer to is Matt Hughes. I write fantasy and suspense fiction. To keep the two genres separate, I now use my full name, Matthew Hughes, for fantasy, and the shorter form for the crime stuff. I am not Dr. Matthew Hughes who writes serious works of military history. Unfortunately, Amazon and other internet booksellers do not seem to be able to separate authors who have the same name.

I am also not Matt Hughes the mixed martial arts fighter, whose ghostwritten autobiog made the New York Times besatseller list in January 2008. And another Dr. Matthew Hughes, chief spiritual officer of the First Church of Golf, has asked me to mention that we are also not the same person.

I was born fifty-nine 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 -- since 1979 -- as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia. I am a former director of the Federation of British Columbia Writers and I used to belong to Mensa Canada, but these days I'm conserving my energies to write fiction.

I'm a university drop-out from a working poor background. Before getting into newspapers, I worked in a factory that made school desks, drove a grocery delivery truck, was night janitor in a GM dealership, and did a short stint as an orderly in a private mental hospital. As a teenager, I served a year as a volunteer with the Company of Young Canadians (something like VISTA in the US). I've been married to a very patient woman since the late 1960s, and I have three grown sons.

After living in Canada for fifty-three years, I have now relocated to Britain where I am taking up the occupation of housesitter, so I can afford to keep on writing fiction yet still eat every day.

My e-mail address is himself(-at-)archonate.com. I'm always interested to hear from people who've read my work.