Matthew Norman's Blog, page 6

Plus or Minus: A Brief Study in Fatherhood

Over the holidays, I got a chance to spend an unbelievable amount of time with my children. Like most working parents, non-stop family time is a rarity. While it was obviously something I enjoyed, I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few rough patches. I documented one of those rough patches here, self-loathing and all, in this short essay for my friends at The Weeklings.  

Hope everyone is having a nice 2014 so far.

Hurls of Love

My friends at The Good Men Project recently asked me to contribute to their cool series, 100 Words On Love.  I said yes, of course, because how hard could 100 words be to write...right?

Well, harder than you'd think.  At a bloated, meandering 426 words, my first draft went on and on like Moby Dick.  There was dialogue, a flashback, and even a paragraph break in there, if you can believe that.  My second draft was somewhere in the three-hundreds, I think.  I'd lost the...

Is Sexy Back?

Hello, Friends and Readers. Apologies on my recent radio silence. I took a break from working on my new novel the other day to write an essay for my friends at The Weeklings about my experience with the new Justin Timberlake album, The 20/20 Experience. Click here to check it out.

In other news...
The new novel is coming along very well. I'm tentatively calling it "We're All Damaged," which comes from a line of dialogue between two of the main characters. But, keep in mind, before "Domestic Vio...

Man On The Street

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What’s Your Return Policy?

When I was younger, each year about this time I’d come up with an elaborate list of my favorite things of the year.  Books, movies, albums, TV shows.  With virtually no responsibilities and an embarrassing amount of spare time, I was able to consume all of these things incessantly. 
Not so much anymore. Sadly, thanks to the two small time vampires living in my house, I now read, watch, and listen less than ever. And, to make matters worse, I now have the short-term memory of a...

Free Fiction. And It’s Free.

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A Bad Day For Book Nerds

To say that my novel, Domestic Violets, which came out last August, was eligible to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is a true statement.  Technically. Right? I mean it’s true in the same way that I was eligible to be named People’s Sexiest Man Alive.  After all, I am a man, and I am alive. Regardless, I think we can all agree that I can speak about this year’s lack of a winner with a healthy bit of objectivity. 
In failing to name a winner for fiction, the folks in charge of...

What They Don't Tell You

We’ve all seen movies where hapless, sensationally unprepared people are thrust suddenly into parenthood.  The filmmakers usually swing broadly here, giving us any number of comedic diaper malfunctions and projectile vomiting. 
I can’t help rolling my eyes because these things become so commonplace so quickly that they’re basically irrelevant. The other day, my five-month-old puked on me with such force that it nearly knocked me over.  Still, as warm formula and ground-up carr...

The Oddest Moment So Far

A few months ago, I found myself sitting alone in a bar in New York City.  As romantic as that might sound, I was actually anxious and, truth be told, a little hungover.  
The bartender asked me what I wanted, and so I ordered a vodka & soda, which was weird because I’d never in my entire life ordered one of those.  I have this strange glitch in my personality that causes me to panic order in bars when I’m nervous—I simply shout out the first drink that pops into my h...

Q FOLLOWED BY A

I recently went on this really great new Website called Facebook and asked some readers if they had any questions about my novel, Domestic Violets, or about writing in general.  Here are some of the questions that turned up, followed by the answers that my team of assistants and ghostwriters put together in response.
You’ll notice that some people asked more than one question—often as many as three. Well played, readers.  Well played indeed. 
If you haven’t "Liked Me" on Faceb...