Friday, December 20, 2013

Editing sure is fun, isn't it?

It's been a while since I posted an update, so I thought I'd jump back into the blog studio and explain some of what's been going on the last couple weeks. 

It's been something of a whirlwind, between editing manuscripts, working on query letters, crafting pitches, and narrowly avoiding the clutches of a cold, I feel like I'm only just starting to come up for air. 

It's a good problem to have, of course, since I had six agents and editors request sample chapters for my Pitchmas pitch, which was selected as one of the top 75 pitches to be featured on the blog.  I've also had a request for a full manuscript for an old vampire novel I've had kicking around for a while.  I recently did a full overhaul of it, cutting out a couple plot lines that dragged down the pacing, and adding a new chapter that I felt the book was missing.  It's always rather sad when you have to cut out one of your favorite chapters, but when you re-read the book and realize you didn't miss anything by losing the chapter...well, that pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Other than that, I've been working on some short stories (I've got a deadline I have to hit for a ghost story), and making slow progress on a new paranormal book.  With any luck, I'll manage to scrounge up a bit more time to write in the coming weeks. 




Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Christmas Deal on Vampire Anthology Wrapped in Red

Two versions for the price of one.  More like "Gift-Wrapped in Red", am I right?  Anyone? 

Well, terrible pun aside, from now until Christmas, you can pick up a copy of the Amazon paperback version of Wrapped in Red (featuring 13 vampire stories, including one by yours truly), and get the Kindle version for free. 




Monday, December 2, 2013

My Interview with Author Adam Oster


I'm pleased to bring you my interview with the hilarious and talented Wisconsin-based writer, Adam Oster.  He's the author of the newly released The Agora Files, as well as superhero novel The Legend of Buddy Hero.


Hi, Adam!  I’m so glad you could join us here in the blog studio.   Make yourself comfortable.  Would you like some tea?  Fresh-baked peach cobbler?  Help yourself.  This is a combined interview and game show, where prizes may be awarded for great answers. The grand prize, should you win all the questions, is a signed copy of my upcoming self-help book, “How to Blame Other People And Feel Better About Yourself.”

Awesome!  I’ve been looking for a book like that.  I’m really good at the blaming part, but something about my WASP upbringing just doesn’t allow me to feel better about myself about anything that doesn’t involve a lot of personal pain and suffering.

When did you start writing fiction?  Was there anything in particular that sparked your interest?

Perhaps my start came with my youth as a perpetual liar.  I did spend a lot of time trying to make myself not appear nearly as nerdy and uninformed as I truly was.  However, I think it really came with the territory of how I spent my time as a kid.  I used to read a ton.  When I was a young buck, I was either sitting in front of a computer screen or burying my nose into a paperback.

I would seriously read anything.  I think that’s what initially started my interest in writing because I quickly found that there are a lot of bad books out there.  I thought I could do better.

At that young age, I found I couldn’t, but the idea of telling good stories continued.I didn’t begin any serious attempts at writing fiction until about ten years ago, my first attempt at a novel started around six years ago.

Can you tell us a little about your latest book?

I certainly can!

The Agora Files is a young adult novel set in the not-too-distant future of the United States.  Except this U.S. never really recovered from the end of World War II.  A little bit of The Hunger Games and a little bit of 1984 puts the novel’s main character, Cyrus, into a world where he’s basically on his own.  Of course…now that I’ve started, I see that I’ll go well beyond the “little” part of the question.  Here’s the jacket info:“Cyrus must run for his life, but can he run from love?

When dying alone on the hot sands of the Mohave Desert, Cyrus has no regrets. He loves a challenge. Being tasked with running from San Francisco to Boston in fifteen days, while the United States government and a host of bounty hunters hunt for him, sounds like fun. Being at death's door only a day into his trip doesn't faze him either. It's when he's joined by fellow runner Eve, bringing new emotions to the surface, his confidence cracks.”

Your previous novel, The Legend of Buddy Hero, is about superheroes.  Who is your favorite superhero of all time? (Besides Buddy, of course)  And for bonus points, do you have a favorite comic book movie?

Superman has always been my favorite.  I loved the character so much that I would read anything I could get my hands on about him.  Something about the fact that he’s not actually from this world, but would do anything to save it, just speaks worlds to me…even if most people write him off as just a boy scout in a flashier uniform.  Unfortunately, I’ve found that many folks who do the writing for the character see him more as the latter than I’d like.

Bonus points!  I probably have to come up with something obscure AND awesome to win this one, huh?

One of the biggest issues I see with comic book movies is that comic books tend to reflect our culture at the time.  The original Chris Reeve Superman film from back in 1978 was this epic sweeping film that is considered to be the template for many of the films to follow…you watch it today and it gets boring fast.  Films like Darkman, Tank Girl, the Tim Burton Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; they’re all a product of their generation and don’t always translate as well today.

I think that’s why I’m such a fan of the comedic superhero flick, Mystery Men, based on some of the most obscure comic book characters you can find.  It tends to be more of a reflection of the human condition in general and, in my opinion, holds up a ton better some of the others. I’ll be interested to see how the original X-Men trilogy looks in a couple decades once we’ve broken down a few more civil rights barriers.

Cliched question time: Being a dad, is it difficult to find time to write?  How do you manage to balance everything?

I don’t know that being a dad affects my ability to write any more than anything else.  I mean, my kids are both asleep by 8pm, meaning I’ve still got around four hours of awake time afterwards.  If anything, being a husband gets in the way more than being a father.  In fact, I wrote the majority of my first book immediately following the birth of my first child.  The second book came about shortly after the birth of my second.I personally find that the trouble with writing isn’t as much about finding the time to write as it is finding the will power to do so.  I spend way more time in front of a keyboard trying to find ways to procrastinate than anything else.The most important thing for me is to just set a daily writing goal.  I may not always reach it because things crop up, because those days are the exception.  Unfortunately, I do have to make that goal a much more reasonable number than I’d like to make it because life does have the tendency of getting in the way.  Right now it’s 1000 words/day.

I sometimes try to sneak in little inside jokes or references into my books which only a few people will actually catch (like the colors or mascot from my high school, or using birthdays in secret codes). Do you do this, too, and is there an in-joke or a secret you'd be willing to share with us about your books?

I find myself putting all sorts of references into my books, although not too many inside jokes that I can think of.  The one that comes to mind immediately is in THE LEGEND OF BUDDY HERO.  There’s two government agents that appear early on, whom I named Kent and Parker, referencing the two heroes whom I believe are the icons of the two largest comic book companies today.

In THE AGORA FILES, I took it a little bit further, including my home town as one of the many locations the main character visits.  I suppose the scene there could be considered somewhat of an inside joke, as it’s how I believe the city would respond to such a situation, but I don’t know that it’s all that sneaky.

I like to play with names a lot, though, but that’s mainly because I really hate coming up with them.  The main character in The Agora Files is Cyrus Rhodes…Rhodes being all too clear of a homonym to roads, the thing he runs on.

What’s the dumbest question you’ve ever been asked?  It doesn’t have to be about writing.

Perhaps the dumbest thing is how long I just spent trying to come up with a good answer to this question :).  I guess the dumbest thing I’ve ever been asked goes back a ways to when I used to work tech support.  Retail stores would call us whenever they had issues with their computer systems.  However, we also tended to be the number most likely to answer the phone, so we got calls about a whole host of other things, requiring us to know a lot about these business’s inner operations.

One time I got a call from an employee stating that their toilets had backed up and they were standing knee deep in sewage, who simply asked, “What do I do?”I gave him the only answer that seemed pertinent at the time, “Step out of the sewage.”

Living in Wisconsin, do you feel any pressure from the cheese lobby to promote dairy in any of your books?

If anything, it would be the tavern league that would do the pressuring around here, which is why the THE LEGEND OF BUDDY HERO series is rife with references to beer. Although I’m not originally from Wisconsin, I do feel that it’s my home, and I find myself wanting to include as much of my home within my writing.  So far it’s been on a rather small level (outside of my home town’s appearance in THE AGORA FILES), but I’m sure there’ll be some cheese appearing soon.

Okay, now what’s the dumbest question you’ve ever been asked?

Sorry…still the sewage one.

And the final question. This one's for one hundred points, and a chance to play for the grand prize. Remember that honesty is the best policy or whatever. On a scale of one to ten, where one is pretty awesome and ten is fully awesome, how awesome is Michael Matula?

I’m going to go with a 9.  Don’t want anyone to give up on improving themselves just because they’ve been rated at the highest awesomeness-level possible.  But seriously, with the sultry voice of a young Hunter S. Thompson, and the writer’s voice to match (you know, outside of the drug usage and whatnot), how can one not give you high marks.  Plus, if it weren’t for you and the rag tag group of independent authors you’ve managed to connect over the past few years, I can honestly admit that I’d still be working on building up the confidence to release my first novel, instead of marketing my second.


And now, please tell the folks at home about when and where they can find your books, and where you'd like them to look on the internet for your stuff.

THE LEGEND OF BUDDY HERO is available now in ebook format on Amazon.com and paperback is almost everywhere.

THE AGORA FILES will be in those exact same places as early as possible on Black Friday 2013, also known as 11/29/2013.

The handy-dandy author page at Amazon should help you get there:
http://www.amazon.com/Adam-Oster/e/B00C5RBJR4/

Also, I rant and ramble on a wide variety of topics almost daily at www.fatmogul.com

Thanks so very much for giving me the time and space!

You're very welcome, Adam!  And thank you very much for playing.  You were an excellent contestant.  Congrats on winning a copy of the book!

Wow.

It's not every day that I see a review which compares me to Stephen King.  I have to admit, I was rendered speechless when I read this review from Top 1000 Amazon reviewer Ursula K. Raphael. 

Not only is the title of the review “Best Non-Zombie Horror of 2013”, but she goes on to give me my most flattering compliment so far.  (I'm not saying I agree with the comparison, as I'm always just happy when people don't tell me I suck, but it was lovely of her to say, nonetheless). Here's a bit of what she wrote in her review:

"Even Stephen King wasn't this good, back when Stephen King WAS good.

The storyline is original: three residents of Hell City band together to try and survive long enough to redeem their souls. The characters are well-written: they are not the typical cliches you might expect, and I loved the way that their pasts are revealed through conversations over time, rather than having everything thrown at the reader as soon as the characters are introduced. The action is quite the mix of drama, horror and suspense, making me feel as if I was fighting through The Gauntlet with them.

Matula's storytelling reminded me of all the reasons I fell in love with the horror genre in the first place." 

As I said...Wow. 

Here's the link to the full review:


Monday, November 25, 2013

My Interview with Angelika Rust, Fantasy Author


Angelika Rust is the author of Ratpaths, a fantasy novel in a mafia setting.

She's currently writing the sequel, the odd short story and a stand-alone novel about the comical effects of depression.
Born in Vienna in 1977, she now lives in Germany, with her husband, two children, a grumpy old cat and a hyperactive dog.






Hi, Angelika! I'm so glad you could join us here in the blog studio. Make yourself comfortable. Would you like some hot chocolate?  Freshly made s'mores?  Help yourself.  And let me know when you're ready. This is a combined interview and game show, where prizes may be awarded for great answers. The grand prize, should you win all of the questions, is a signed copy of my brand new epic literary novel, “Whoops, Maybe I Shouldn't Have Shot That Guy.”

When did you start writing fiction? Was there anything in particular that sparked your interest?

From the moment I discovered fantasy for me, I all but stopped reading anything else. For years, I read all that was available in the fantasy genre, right up to the moment I got heartily sick of almighty wizards and divine intervention. You know, deus-ex-machina solutions. I wanted to read a book with no magic at all, one in which the characters would need to rely on their own wits, luck, friends, whatever, to help them out of whatever they've gotten themselves into. That's when I started writing the story which had occupied parts of my brain for quite some time already. It probably sounds hopelessly arrogant, but I wrote the book I wanted to read.

It doesn't sound arrogant to me.  A lot of people say "Write what you know," but I've always thought "Write what you love" works better.  

For people who haven't checked it out yet, what's your novel about?

My book, Ratpaths, is about a young thief who gets caught between the machinations of the rightful regent of the city and the resident crime lord. It's a story of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and of how a person's past will shape his character, and thus his future.

Which character of yours is the most fun for you to write? 

Nivvo, my main character, fortunately. People tell me that it's hard to tell whether he's simply very brave, or actually a bit mad. He probably teeters on the edge. After all, it's running in the family. I call him 'one spark short of a bonfire'. He's one of the bad guys, obviously, since he's a thief, but he's good people, too, and willing to sacrifice a lot if he considers it necessary. I especially enjoy it when he's sparring with his best friend, Fedoro.

What's your favorite (or favourite, if you prefer) fantasy book or movie of all time?  

My favorite fantasy book would be The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch. I've read it thrice already. It's one of those rare books you can read again and again without them ever getting boring. Great sense of humor.
My favorite fantasy movie would be Pirates of the Caribbean. Only the first part, mind. The others can't compete.

Cliched question time: Being a mom, is it difficult to find time to write? How do you manage to balance everything?

On the one hand, yes, it is. Especially if you're a working mom. On the other hand, I'm in the lucky position to work only two days a week, so I have three mornings to myself, with relative peace and quiet, until the kids come home at noon. And there's always the evenings. Spare time suffers, of course. I hardly ever just lean back and relax with a book anymore. Any spare time I have, I use for either writing, editing other people's books, or desperately trying to promote my novel (and I really suck at the latter).

If you could be any fantasy character, like a thief, a warrior, or a magician (or even a wood elf), what would you like to be?

That question made me smile. A thief, of course. I am. Not in real life, mind. I do Live Action Role Playing. I used to play healers, but a thief is just more fun.

Is there any advice you would you give to writers who are just starting out?

Don't let anyone stop you. Even if you never sell a single book, the experience alone is worth the effort. You'll meet a whole lot of wonderful people. Amazingly nice things will happen to you. And you'll be forever proud of yourself for the achievement.

Can you tell us a little about your current writing project(s)? 

I'm currently writing the sequel. The bones are there, but I'm not yet pleased with it, so I've put it aside for a few weeks to get a little distance and get back to it with a fresh mind. In the meantime, I'm writing a novella about the more or less amusing side effects of depression.

And the final question. This one's for one hundred points, and a chance to play for the grand prize. Remember that honesty is the best policy or whatever. On a scale of one to ten, where one is pretty awesome and ten is fully awesome, how awesome is Michael Matula?

Abso-friggin'-positively-lutely awesome. Oh, wait, I was supposed to rate you on a scale of one to ten. Then let's make it a nine. You never wear sunglasses on any of your pics, or I'd give you a ten.

And now, please tell the folks at home about when and where they can find your books, and where you'd like them to look on the internet for your stuff.

My novel is on Amazon, both as an e-book and as a paperback edition. If anyone wants to find out more, you can find me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, The Indie View, and my very own blog. I have a book trailer on YouTube, too. Here are the links:


Thanks so much for playing, Angelika.  It was an absolute pleasure to have you in the studio.  And congratulations on winning the interview! 




Friday, November 22, 2013

The Express Aisle (100 Words or less) - One Bullet


It only takes one bullet to end an entire world.  A world full of thought, promise, and wonder. 

A lifetime of experiences and knowledge dribbles away across the weather-scarred pavement, slipping between chewed up bubblegum and castaway cigarettes. 

Long ago, I might have felt sorry for the poor sap.  But as I thumb the safety back on, all I can think is, There are so many worlds left to conquer.



Saturday, November 16, 2013

New Character Interview is up!

Mia Darien just posted an interview with my character Samantha "Sam" Reiss over on her blog.  Here's a link:

http://www.miadarien.com/a-chat-with-michael-matula-sam-from-try-not-to-burn/

What is Sam's opinion about me as an author? (Hint: she has a bit of an axe to grind with yours truly, after all the things I put her through in the book.)  What kind of story would she like to appear in next?  Check out the interview to see what she has to say for herself. 


Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Express Aisle: 100 Words Or Less


 


The wandering eye.

Restless. Reckless. Tilting with curiosity, lingering on a flash of skin and a spark of flame. Lover of the shiny and the slippery, of the horrific and the grim. A ravishing woman and a smoldering wreck. Both will draw your fickle gaze like an insect to a spider's web.


The sweet, the sour, it doesn't matter...It all serves as candy to the wandering eye. 



 Photo Credits: "eyes" by Ahmed Sinan, Aka Scinern on Flickr

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Character Interview with Samantha Reiss

My first Character Interview has just gone live on Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews.

The character, Sam, mentions who her favorite author is (it's not me?), tries to figure out what an iPod is (she died in 1993), and talks about the scariest moment of her life.

http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com/2013/11/try-not-to-burn-by-michael-matula.html

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Stories of the Week for November 5, 2013

This week, I've been invited to submit a story for Wrapped in White, Sekhmet Press' follow-up to the newly-published Wrapped in Red.  This time, instead of vampires, the anthology will focus on ghost stories. 

The deadline to get the story in is mid-January, so I have plenty of time, but I'm still a bit nervous about living up to the story I did for Wrapped in Red, titled "My Boss is a Vampire."  That one was quite fun and quirky, focusing on a young woman named Cameron Bailor, who gets a job interview for a reclusive Southern gentleman, and starts to realize that this might not be the dream job she'd been hoping for. 

In other news, I've gotten two great new reviews for Try Not to Burn, one from Knightmist's blog, and one from a top 500 reviewer on Amazon

I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing people say such positive things about my stories, as I'm constantly doubting myself (every time I get stuck in a book for five minutes, I think, "Well, there goes my ability to string two sentences together"), but it's incredibly encouraging to see how much people have been enjoying the book and the characters. 



Photo Credits: "PUPPY!" by _jennieMarie on Flickr. 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Stories of the Week for October 29, 2013

Wrapped in Red is out today, so I thought I'd post this week's SOTW one day in advance. 

Here are some purchase links, in case you'd like to check it out:



The anthology just came out, and it's already starting to get some wonderful reviews in.  It's also up to #5 on the Hot New Releases list on Amazon.  :)

I'm very excited to see how well it's been doing, and Sekhmet Press has been an absolute pleasure to work with.  I couldn't have asked for a more supportive group. 


Oh, and I should have more news about another anthology before long.  A sci-fi story of mine was selected for the first edition of NovoPulp (by a publisher in Denmark, no less), and I signed and sent off the contract yesterday. 

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

My first "5 Fireballs" Review!

After seeing another perfect review come in, I decided to create a new page on the site, called "Critics Corner."

I've been sending out Try Not to Burn to as many book reviewers as I can find, hoping to get honest feedback and spread the word about the book. 

In the last couple days, two brand new reviews have come in, and they're really encouraging.  Both reviewers loved the book, with Tome Tender Reviews giving it 5 out of 5 Stars, and Boom Baby Reviews giving it 5 out of 5 Fireballs.  (Definitely my favorite review scale, given the theme of the book.)

Mia at Boom Baby is not an easy critic to please, either.  Check her page on her site to see how she approaches reviews, and how much of a warning she gives to authors. 

If you check out the book, I'd love to know what you think of it.  Do you agree with the critics? 

Stories of the Week for October 23, 2013



Hey, there. Welcome back to the blog studio. Oh, and watch your step, there are a whole bunch of flaming pumpkins lying around. 

This week has been another busy one, and not always in a good way. I lost a ton of time trying to fix my laptop after it started to have issues (after an issue with windows update, it refused to start any programs, or even open any documents, saying that a single file was missing). The fix turned out to be quite easy, but finding it involved dual-wielding computers, since the current one was practically useless. In the end, I had to use the scannow function, which thankfully was still working, and it scanned through the core components and fixed the one that went wonky.

But before all the computer headaches—where I was scrambling to back up every file I had on my laptop, searching in vain for elusive Windows product keys, and muttering every curse word imaginable—I was still deep in promotion, both for my free ebook, my thriller novel, and an anthology I'll be appearing in soon. I did a Character Interview for the wonderful Laurie at lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com, which was surprisingly fun to do. (The character I chose was Sam from TNTB, who's a female bank robber, and a rather colorful character). The interview should go up sometime in November. I also did an author interview for another site to promote my story in Wrapped in Red, the vampire anthology from Sekhmet Press, which is due to release on October 29, 2013.

And I'm happy to say I did also manage to squeeze in some writing time. The first draft of the spooky Middle Grade novel has been completed. I've also written up a query letter for it, which I really like, so I'm a couple steps closer to being able to submit it. The dreaded synopsis is still lurking ahead, as is another round or three of edits, but I'm really excited about this book. We'll see if the excitement fades as the editing and submission process starts—it usually does—but for now, I have a very good feeling about this one.



(Photo:“Halloween, 2012” by George Alexander, garussell11 on Flickr)

Monday, October 21, 2013

New 5-star review on Tome Tender & Amazon



Try Not to Burn just got a wonderful new 5-star review from Dii on Tome Tender.  She's also a Top 1000 reviewer on Amazon.  It was so great to see what she thought of the book.  Check out the full review on her site or on Amazon

Here are a couple quick snippets:


"Many of us assume that when the end of our life comes, the good we have done will far outweigh the bad and there won’t be a need to wonder the results of our judgment day. What if that isn’t exactly true? What if your soul teeters on the edge of getting “burned” before you have a chance to redeem yourself? Three souls find themselves running for their eternal lives in Hell City, chased by the demons of the underworld."

"Try Not to Burn by Michael David Matula opens the gates to hell with his dark fantasy, giving us a frightening look at the unknown. The “burning” hurdles he creates for his three main characters, a policeman, a bank robber and a broken-hearted teen would test the mettle of a saint." 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Results from the first day of the free promotion on Amazon.

Here's a picture I snapped on my computer screen an hour or so ago. After a very, very slow start (when I woke up this morning, I still didn't have a single download in the free store, as Amazon wasn't even showing a ranking for my e-book), it seems like things have started to pick up a little bit. 

I still haven't checked the actual units that have been downloaded (I'm almost afraid to look, as I tend to obsess over numbers), but I do love the fact that my little e-book is now in the top 100 in both "Hard-boiled mystery" (#23) and in "Single author short stories" (#89).  Of course, I'm still all the way back at #4,462 overall, but this is already much better than I was expecting, considering how inauspicious my start was, and how little time I've had for promotion today. 

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Upcoming Sale - Free book on Amazon

This Friday through Sunday (October 18th to the 20th), my new mystery story, Cheating Hearts & Cigarettes, will be free to pick up on Amazon.  It's regularly only 99 cents (which is almost free) so if you miss out on the sale, you can still pick it up for super cheap.  And you'll get the warm and fuzzy feeling of supporting an indie author, which is always a nice added bonus.

Oh, and if you enjoy the e-book, leaving a positive review can be a great way to spread the word, and it would be very much appreciated.