Ten Questions with…Michael Matula
Please help me to welcome back Michael Matula to answer Ten Questions with Mia!
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Author Bio: Michael Matula is a novelist and story writer from Chicago, Illinois. He once dreamed of being a comic book artist, sketching pictures and caption bubbles in class when he really should have been studying. Unable to draw fast enough to keep up with all words and images tumbling in his head, he started writing stories based on his characters instead. He ended up falling in love with writing and never really looked back.
Author Site: http://michaelmatula.blogspot.com/
You can find Try Not to Burn at Amazon and Barnes & Noble!
About the Writer
1. What five words describe you?
Friendly. Reserved. Cynical. Hopeful. Regretful.
Some of those five words may contradict the other ones, but I guess that’s me in a nutshell.
2. What was the first story you ever wrote? I mean the really bad one we all have that you’re trying to hide in the back of closet now that you’re published?
I used to draw my own comics as a teenager, and the first real story I wrote was actually a side story for one of my characters. The comic took place in modern times, but the story was a throwback to his origins, taking place in a more fantastical world. I can only shudder to think about how many clichés and how much teenage angst I must have packed into the story.
3. What inspires you?
When I watch movies or listen to music, I can often latch onto a tiny detail, and I want to base an entire story around it. Oftentimes, it’s a throwaway thing in the background, or a minor character I get fascinated by, or an image dredged up by the song.
4. What distracts you?
When I’m struggling in my writing, and I’m not excited about the storyline I’m coming up with, then everything is a distraction. Movies, internet, driving around town, etc. But when the writing is going well, then I get a bit obsessed with it. There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. It’s kind of amazing to create something from scratch. To take an idea and mold it into something substantial, and something that can hopefully make other people feel what you felt when you were writing it.
5. What’s your favorite story? This can be specific, as in a particular book or even story-driven movie, or general, like “I’m a sucker for a hero looking for redemption story.”
I love confinement as a concept, like Alien or the Abyss. People who are in a vast world—space, the sea, the desert, the zombie apocalypse—but are stuck in one tiny part of it. There’s nothing but death outside, so they have to stay in one spot, with only themselves for comfort and support. But then…the outside starts to come inside, and there’s nowhere to go, and nothing to do but fight for survival. I love that as a concept.
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About the Writing
1. Tell us about your currently available titles.
My first novel is Try Not to Burn. It’s a thriller about Brandon Morales, a young man who did something in his life that he regrets. He tried to turn his life around, becoming a cop, dedicating his entire career to helping people, but he never actually atoned for his sins. So after he dies in the line of duty, he finds himself in the worst place imaginable: Hell. He’s taken in by a pair of women who are struggling to survive, each one haunted by their own sins, and together, they try to not only keep the fires of Hell at bay, but figure out a way to escape, and possibly find redemption along the way.
2. What’s your favorite part about writing these stories?
The characters, and telling their story. I feel like I’ve been through everything they’ve been through. When they cry, or when they find a glimmer of hope, I’m going through the emotions right along with them. I can’t help it. What takes the reader thirty seconds to read can take me thirty minutes or more to write, so I’m locked in that emotional state for long stretches of time. It can wear me out, but it’s also one of the things I love the most about writing. It’s not quite like anything else.
3. What would your characters say about you? Be honest!
I’m pretty sure it would involve quite a few four letter words. I tend to put my characters through their paces. They don’t have a very easy time of it, and most are still recovering from traumatic experiences from their pasts, which makes their current troubles all the more difficult for them to bear. I was especially tough on this group of characters, but in my defense, the story does take place in Hell, so it can’t be all fun and games.
4. Who would play your favorite character if they made a movie of their story?
For Brand, I’d probably say Edgar Ramirez. I thought he was great in Domino, and brought a lot to the role.
5. Do you have any projects currently in the works you want to talk about?
I recently finished writing the sequel to Try Not to Burn, so I’m hoping to be able to get that out before too long. Also, at the end of October, a short story I wrote was published in Wrapped in Red, a vampire anthology from Sekhmet Press.
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Thanks for joining us today, Michael, and good luck with your writing!
