Ask the Author: Matt Witten
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Matt Witten
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Matt Witten
Good catch! Yes, Killer Story was originally named Clickbait. I changed the title when the Netflix series Clickbait came out, and I didn't want readers to get confused. Fortunately I like the title Killer Story even better!
Matt Witten
When I was nineteen, home from college for Christmas break, I got drunk and blacked out at a New Year's party. The next morning, I found a note in my shirt pocket from one of my two best friends from high school. The note read, "What you did last night was disgusting. I never want to see you or talk to you again."
I looked him up forty years later to apologize for whatever I had done. He couldn't even remember the incident! Leaving me to wonder whether I had dreamed it all up.
I told this story to the writers' room at Pretty Little Liars, and it became part of Season 2.
I looked him up forty years later to apologize for whatever I had done. He couldn't even remember the incident! Leaving me to wonder whether I had dreamed it all up.
I told this story to the writers' room at Pretty Little Liars, and it became part of Season 2.
Matt Witten
Go for long walks, swims, or bike rides.
Matt Witten
Listening to a lot of cold-case podcasts and watching true crime documentaries, and thinking about the tensions journalists face between telling the truth and getting the most possible clicks. Also, talking to young journalists about the stresses of their profession.
Matt Witten
The answer I gave above is for my WIP Clickbait. Here's my answer for The Necklace:
Nine years ago, I read an article in the Glens Falls Post-Star abou The answer I gave above is for my WIP Clickbait. Here's my answer for The Necklace:
Nine years ago, I read an article in the Glens Falls Post-Star about a woman from a small town in upstate New York who was holding a fundraising event at a local bar. She needed money to travel to the upcoming execution of the man who had raped and murdered her young daughter twenty-two years before.
Everything about this story stuck with me: not only the tragic death, but also the woman’s dire circumstances and her quest to find justice and closure two decades later.
For years I wanted to write a novel about this, but I didn’t know what the story would be. Then one day I was having coffee with a writer friend, John Henry Davis, and he suggested: “What if the guy who’s being executed maybe didn’t do it?”
And that’s how The Necklace was born.
After I wrote the novel, I discovered something amazing. There is a woman in Idaho named Carol Dodge who devoted her life to proving that Christopher Tapp, the man imprisoned for raping and killing her daughter Angie many years earlier, was innocent. Thanks to Carol’s relentless efforts, Tapp was finally set free and the real killer, Brian Leigh Dripps, was arrested.
Talk about life imitating art! ...more
May 17, 2021 06:49AM · flag
Nine years ago, I read an article in the Glens Falls Post-Star abou The answer I gave above is for my WIP Clickbait. Here's my answer for The Necklace:
Nine years ago, I read an article in the Glens Falls Post-Star about a woman from a small town in upstate New York who was holding a fundraising event at a local bar. She needed money to travel to the upcoming execution of the man who had raped and murdered her young daughter twenty-two years before.
Everything about this story stuck with me: not only the tragic death, but also the woman’s dire circumstances and her quest to find justice and closure two decades later.
For years I wanted to write a novel about this, but I didn’t know what the story would be. Then one day I was having coffee with a writer friend, John Henry Davis, and he suggested: “What if the guy who’s being executed maybe didn’t do it?”
And that’s how The Necklace was born.
After I wrote the novel, I discovered something amazing. There is a woman in Idaho named Carol Dodge who devoted her life to proving that Christopher Tapp, the man imprisoned for raping and killing her daughter Angie many years earlier, was innocent. Thanks to Carol’s relentless efforts, Tapp was finally set free and the real killer, Brian Leigh Dripps, was arrested.
Talk about life imitating art! ...more
May 17, 2021 06:49AM · flag
Matt Witten
A new novel called Clickbait, about a podcast reporter investigating a cold-case murder.
Matt Witten
Writin' is fightin'! (to quote Ishmael Reed)
Write what you're passionate about.
Write what you're passionate about.
Matt Witten
All the Edgar and Anthony Award best novel nominees that I haven't read yet, and Dark Tomorrows, by Reece Hirsch
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