Category: News

ELEMENTS OF CHESS Coming soon!

Matthew Lowes

My beginner to intermediate level guide to chess will soon be out as a paperback.

It’s been a long time in the making. I wrote this book seven years ago while helping to coach a high school chess team. I was playing a lot of chess then, and studying it too, but in my survey of the available literature I felt there was something missing. Many of the books were either too basic, or too advanced for what I wanted.

I hope players, coaches, students, and anybody interested in one of the greatest games of all time, will check it out.

Stay tuned for release updates.

From the back cover:

“A great read, with lots of information for all levels of chess players.”

-Rex Henzie, State High School Chess Champion

Improve your game, your understanding, and your appreciation of chess with this complete, concise guide, specifically designed for beginning to intermediate players.

ELEMENTS OF CHESS is an ideal first chess book and a great reference for more serious students of the game. Chapters cover topics such as tactics, strategy, pieces, and pawns, as well as openings, endgames, and checkmates. Sections on the use of clocks, notation, and commonly misunderstood rules are also included. Every major component of the game is explained clearly and illustrated with carefully chosen diagrams.

Tabletop Fantasy Roleplaying Renewed

Matthew Lowes1 Comment

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing and reading up on roleplaying games. After a childhood spent playing D&D Basic/Expert, Gamma World, Top Secret, and Call of Cthulu, I left gaming for a long time once high school hit.

Since I largely missed all the editions of D&D after 1st, there’s been a lot to catch up on. And it’s an interesting time in the history of the game, with its current owners preparing to launch yet another edition, and various third parties launching their own versions and competing systems, massive tomes like Dungeon Crawl Classics and streamlined games like Swords and Wizardry, Basic Fantasy, and Labyrinth Lord that harken back to the orgins of the game. And Pathfinder, it seems, is the new industry juggernaut.

All of these systems, I think, can claim the same heritage and authenticy as the game that still bears the name Dungeons and Dragons. Enough of the classic game has been released and reworked under the Open Gaming License created by Wizards of the Coast to make the essense of the game, if not its name, legally accessable to any developer.

And that’s a great thing! Many people have their own opinions about how an ideal system might work, and what sort of world you would create with that game. Even as a kid I was always tweaking the rules. So as a writer, and somebody who loves stories, logic, and fantasy, it was almost inevitable that I started writing my own version of the game. No announcements yet, but its definitely grown into a full scale project. Stay tuned for more.

“Waking the Forest” receives Honorable Mention

Matthew Lowes

My short story “Waking the Forest” received an Honorable Mention in the 1st quarter of the 2012 Writers of the Future Contest. It feels a bit like a parting gift. K.D. Wentworth, fantasy and science fiction author, and the coordinating judge of the Writer’s of the Future Contest, passed away last week. I’m sorry I never had a chance to meet her. Thank you, K.D.. It’s a double honor to get this recognition.

Crypt at Maleistria now in progress…

Matthew Lowes

Crypt at Maleistria, the final book in The Three Earths trilogy is finally underway. I started writing a first draft just before the new year and am now several chapters in. I’m excited for this final installment and the conclusion of a story I’ve been working on for a long time.

I continue to polish bits of the first two books, Journey to Elara and Dark Mage of Midgard, and am looking forward to when I can put all three books together into one epic story!

Stay tuned for status updates as the writing progresses.

Email Subscription Now Available

Matthew Lowes

If you have an interest in following my work, you can now subscribe to my website by clicking the button at the top of the sidebar. You will then receive email notifications for new posts to the site. Want to know when I have a new story coming out, follow the progress on my latest book projects, or read my latest journal entries? Sign up. There’s no risk. You can choose the frequency of notifications and unsubscribe at any time.

Thanks to everyone who signs up. There will be more exciting changes soon and I look forward to bringing you some great stories in the coming months.

“Watching the Snow Fall” to be published

Matthew Lowes

“Watching the Snow Fall” will appear in the August issue of the print magazine Sounds of the Night.

Sounds of the Night, put out by Sam’s Dot Publishing, presents science fiction and fantasy tales “seasoned with sensuality.” Sam’s Dot Publishing’s other magazines include Aoife’s Kiss and The Martian Wave.

“Watching the Snow Fall” is in a series of stories about swordsmen on the island nation of Nara, a setting based on medeival Japan. Matsuo Hara lives a quiet life, until a cruel turn of events forces him to choose between his heart and his obedience to the feudal lord he has sworn to serve. This one’s a love story, but it ends in a bloodbath.

“The Menace of Dupere” meets The Fringe Magazine

Matthew Lowes

“The Menace of Dupere” will be published in an upcoming issue of The Fringe Magazine. Djibril Alayad, Editor of The Future Fire, described this tale as “a gripping, well-written, and intriguingly academic horror story in the best Lovecraftian tradition.”

This was the first in a series of horror stories set in, or with some connection to, the university town of Auxerre, Wisconsin. There are a handful of others, three of which can currently be read online: “The Music of Timothy Shean,” originally published in Dark Recesses Magazine, “Crawlspace,” originally published in SNM Horror Magazine, and “Old Growth,” originally published in AlienSkin Magazine.