10 Questions with Brian Matthews
1. Where did you come up with the concept for Forever Man?
The idea came to me back in 2010. President Obama had just been elected to his first term, and the talking heads were making a big deal about his race, his nationality, all the crazy stuff that was going on back then. Well, I was driving to a haircut appointment one day, listening to news radio, and chuckled when I thought, “Wow, what would they do if one of the greatest forces for good in the world was a black man?” That how many of my ideas form: the “what if” scenario. Anyway, the genesis of Forever Man began with that lone thought. The rest consisted of fleshing out the story and the back story. It was tremendous fun.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
There have been many influences— Bradbury, King, Ellison, Donaldson—but the biggest influence was probably J. R. R. Tolkien. I cut my reading teeth on fantasy more than horror, and much of my writing has a fantasy basis. The Forever Man series is more urban fantasy than supernatural thriller or horror, though it contains elements of all three. For example, I shy away from using traditional monsters like vampires or zombies and prefer to create my own. That’s very Terry Brooks. Or Clive Barker, who I think of as a master of blending fantasy and horror.
3. Did you intend on Forever Man being a series when you first started writing it?
Yes. That was the plan from the start. I had been reading F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack series, where the books are loosely connected except for the main character, and thought Bart Owens would fit well into that scheme. Revelation, which is the follow-up novel to Forever Man, in not a sequel—it does not pick up where Forever Man left off—but another book in the series. There are threads connecting the two, and the other Forever Man novels that will eventually be written, but they will be stand alone works. You don’t necessarily have to read one to understand or enjoy the other, though reading them in order will help enhance the enjoyment.
4. What current writing projects are you working on?
I am working on my first non-Forever Man novel. Like most of my works, Emersville it is set in Michigan. It involves a child psychologist, Brad Jordan, who starts to experience weird phenomena. Together with his best friend, police detective Frank Swinicki, they investigate these bizarre occurrences and find themselves embroiled in a dangerous battle with…well, that would be a huge spoiler, wouldn’t it? I’ve had a great time writing it, and I’m looking forward to how readers feel about it.
5. You got off to a later start in your writing career. Why did you decide to start writing?
A good friend of mine, Jeff LaSala, asked me to contribute to an anthology he and a few others were putting together. He knew I liked to write, and that I had some skill. Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero was a cyberpunk anthology with a twist: it contained a music CD, and each story was paired with a soundtrack. My story, “Lament,” is about mob hit man who runs afoul of his past. Then later, when a writer had to bow out of the project, Jeff and I ended up co-authoring a story to replace that missing one. “Graveduggery” is, I feel, one of the best stories in the anthology, and contains some of my best writing to date. After Foreshadows had ended, I found I wanted to write more, and Forever Man was the result of that desire.
6. How do you use social media to promote your writing?
I’m pretty basic when it comes to social media. I have an Facebook author page, where I post updates and such, and I use Twitter on occasion, but that’s about it. I know other authors (Brett Talley comes to mind) who are savvy with social media and use it effectively, and I’m trying to pick up a few points from them.
7. If Forever Man was made into a movie and the producer asked you to cast the role of Bart Owens, who would you choose to play him?
When I was writing Forever Man, and later, Revelation, I kept seeing Don Cheadle’s face when I worked on Bart’s scenes. I think he would be great in the role. Morgan Freeman is too old now (which is ironic, when you think of Bart’s age). Denzel Washington is too well known, too established. I couldn’t see Cuba Gooding, Jr. or Terrence Howard in the role; they just don’t have the right gravitas for me. Yes, if I had a say in any casting, I’d pick Don Cheadle.
8. What books are in your to read list?
I just finished DarkNet by John R. Little. Now I’m deep into Revival by Stephen King. I’m looking forward to Red Equinox by Douglas Wynne. It’s a contemporary Lovecraftian tale, and Doug is a marvelous writer, so it should be excellent. But the one I’m really waiting for is Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell. It’s the follow-up to his outstanding Murder as a Fine Art. If you haven’t read that book, you need to. It blew me away.
9. In Forever Man, you only gave glimpses into the backstory and mythology in the world you created. Do you plan on diving further into this backstory in Revelation?
[Laughs] I certainly do! I received enough grief the first time around for being too cryptic that I felt some outright explanation might be needed. In my defense, though, there are enough hints in Forever Man that an inquisitive person should glean something of Bart’s mysterious past. And how will readers react to this, if I may say, revelation? Some may be surprised. Some may even be angry. Some may say, “I knew it was him!” It’s hard to tell. Reactions are as varied as the patterns on a snowflake. But the back story was formed from the very beginning, and I wasn’t about to change it now.
10. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
That’s easy, and shouldn’t come as much of a surprise: J. R. R. Tolkien. The man was brilliant. He created a myth so expansive, so compelling, and so heartwarming that it lingers decades after it was introduced. I remember crying at the end of Lord of the Rings, when Frodo sailed away with Bilbo and the elves. It felt like I was losing a family member! Professor Tolkien’s work established the role of fantasy in contemporary fiction, and to sit side-by-side with him and craft a story would be a dream come true.
The idea came to me back in 2010. President Obama had just been elected to his first term, and the talking heads were making a big deal about his race, his nationality, all the crazy stuff that was going on back then. Well, I was driving to a haircut appointment one day, listening to news radio, and chuckled when I thought, “Wow, what would they do if one of the greatest forces for good in the world was a black man?” That how many of my ideas form: the “what if” scenario. Anyway, the genesis of Forever Man began with that lone thought. The rest consisted of fleshing out the story and the back story. It was tremendous fun.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
There have been many influences— Bradbury, King, Ellison, Donaldson—but the biggest influence was probably J. R. R. Tolkien. I cut my reading teeth on fantasy more than horror, and much of my writing has a fantasy basis. The Forever Man series is more urban fantasy than supernatural thriller or horror, though it contains elements of all three. For example, I shy away from using traditional monsters like vampires or zombies and prefer to create my own. That’s very Terry Brooks. Or Clive Barker, who I think of as a master of blending fantasy and horror.
3. Did you intend on Forever Man being a series when you first started writing it?
Yes. That was the plan from the start. I had been reading F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack series, where the books are loosely connected except for the main character, and thought Bart Owens would fit well into that scheme. Revelation, which is the follow-up novel to Forever Man, in not a sequel—it does not pick up where Forever Man left off—but another book in the series. There are threads connecting the two, and the other Forever Man novels that will eventually be written, but they will be stand alone works. You don’t necessarily have to read one to understand or enjoy the other, though reading them in order will help enhance the enjoyment.
4. What current writing projects are you working on?
I am working on my first non-Forever Man novel. Like most of my works, Emersville it is set in Michigan. It involves a child psychologist, Brad Jordan, who starts to experience weird phenomena. Together with his best friend, police detective Frank Swinicki, they investigate these bizarre occurrences and find themselves embroiled in a dangerous battle with…well, that would be a huge spoiler, wouldn’t it? I’ve had a great time writing it, and I’m looking forward to how readers feel about it.
5. You got off to a later start in your writing career. Why did you decide to start writing?
A good friend of mine, Jeff LaSala, asked me to contribute to an anthology he and a few others were putting together. He knew I liked to write, and that I had some skill. Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero was a cyberpunk anthology with a twist: it contained a music CD, and each story was paired with a soundtrack. My story, “Lament,” is about mob hit man who runs afoul of his past. Then later, when a writer had to bow out of the project, Jeff and I ended up co-authoring a story to replace that missing one. “Graveduggery” is, I feel, one of the best stories in the anthology, and contains some of my best writing to date. After Foreshadows had ended, I found I wanted to write more, and Forever Man was the result of that desire.
6. How do you use social media to promote your writing?
I’m pretty basic when it comes to social media. I have an Facebook author page, where I post updates and such, and I use Twitter on occasion, but that’s about it. I know other authors (Brett Talley comes to mind) who are savvy with social media and use it effectively, and I’m trying to pick up a few points from them.
7. If Forever Man was made into a movie and the producer asked you to cast the role of Bart Owens, who would you choose to play him?
When I was writing Forever Man, and later, Revelation, I kept seeing Don Cheadle’s face when I worked on Bart’s scenes. I think he would be great in the role. Morgan Freeman is too old now (which is ironic, when you think of Bart’s age). Denzel Washington is too well known, too established. I couldn’t see Cuba Gooding, Jr. or Terrence Howard in the role; they just don’t have the right gravitas for me. Yes, if I had a say in any casting, I’d pick Don Cheadle.
8. What books are in your to read list?
I just finished DarkNet by John R. Little. Now I’m deep into Revival by Stephen King. I’m looking forward to Red Equinox by Douglas Wynne. It’s a contemporary Lovecraftian tale, and Doug is a marvelous writer, so it should be excellent. But the one I’m really waiting for is Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell. It’s the follow-up to his outstanding Murder as a Fine Art. If you haven’t read that book, you need to. It blew me away.
9. In Forever Man, you only gave glimpses into the backstory and mythology in the world you created. Do you plan on diving further into this backstory in Revelation?
[Laughs] I certainly do! I received enough grief the first time around for being too cryptic that I felt some outright explanation might be needed. In my defense, though, there are enough hints in Forever Man that an inquisitive person should glean something of Bart’s mysterious past. And how will readers react to this, if I may say, revelation? Some may be surprised. Some may even be angry. Some may say, “I knew it was him!” It’s hard to tell. Reactions are as varied as the patterns on a snowflake. But the back story was formed from the very beginning, and I wasn’t about to change it now.
10. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
That’s easy, and shouldn’t come as much of a surprise: J. R. R. Tolkien. The man was brilliant. He created a myth so expansive, so compelling, and so heartwarming that it lingers decades after it was introduced. I remember crying at the end of Lord of the Rings, when Frodo sailed away with Bilbo and the elves. It felt like I was losing a family member! Professor Tolkien’s work established the role of fantasy in contemporary fiction, and to sit side-by-side with him and craft a story would be a dream come true.
No comments have been added yet.
