Ask the Author: Matthew R. Landis
Answered Questions (10)
Matthew R. Landis
I had a relative that was deeply religious. This person help conduct exorcism, which I witnessed as a child. The story of that persons life would be interesting to explore from the perspective of a young lead character.
Matthew R. Landis
No. I can barely fit my writing into my three book series. Brevity is not my strong suit.
Great short stories are an art form all its own. The structure is so tight in a short story. The clarity of a characters and the space within which to achieve that clarity is a very refined thing. The twists or reveals are so precise and artfully done. There is no room for anything else. An art all its own.
Great short stories are an art form all its own. The structure is so tight in a short story. The clarity of a characters and the space within which to achieve that clarity is a very refined thing. The twists or reveals are so precise and artfully done. There is no room for anything else. An art all its own.
Matthew R. Landis
Probably Middle-earth where I would have a small family farm. A large draw to Tolkien's work was the history of the world and how it formed the cultures in that world. So living in that fictitious world as a common person, living the way they did, would be interesting to me. I guess it would be a kind of fictional cultural archaeology.
Matthew R. Landis
I've finally gotten around to reading John Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, a Pulitzer Prize comedy. After that, Blake Crouch's Dark Matter is on the list. Um... after those I'll need to hunt up some more books.
Matthew R. Landis
Writers block is a myth.
If you sit and write, even tripe, the creative juices will begin to flow. Even if you hate what you write at the time, when you return and read your own work, you'll usually find that it was your mood that was to blame, not your writing.
If you sit and write, even tripe, the creative juices will begin to flow. Even if you hate what you write at the time, when you return and read your own work, you'll usually find that it was your mood that was to blame, not your writing.
Matthew R. Landis
Shade. No matter how much or how well you write, you will always find better writers casting their shadow over you, inspiring you to work harder. If you are bore or unmotivated as a write it is because you are asleep.
(Quippy answer, I know, but also true)
(Quippy answer, I know, but also true)
Matthew R. Landis
If you can force yourself not to write as a profession, do so.
If you must write, you'll need only to do the work.
If you must write, you'll need only to do the work.
Matthew R. Landis
Currently I am working on the second book of the Incarnation Cycle.
I've messed around in a lot of genres and in a lot of different styles, but am now dedicated to a single world in which the rest of my solo works will exist.
To some that might sound confining but to me it is liberating beyond words.
I've messed around in a lot of genres and in a lot of different styles, but am now dedicated to a single world in which the rest of my solo works will exist.
To some that might sound confining but to me it is liberating beyond words.
Matthew R. Landis
As Neil Gaiman says, if you wait to be inspired you may become a decent poet, but never a successful novelist.
I simply sit down, a cool drink at hand, as write. Sometimes I write trash, some times I write decent work. Luckily the trash and be thrown out and the decent work can be polished.
I simply sit down, a cool drink at hand, as write. Sometimes I write trash, some times I write decent work. Luckily the trash and be thrown out and the decent work can be polished.
Matthew R. Landis
Under the Street Lights was a wild evolution. In the beginning it was (I cringe as I admit this) a story about a dating service for professional women that had neglected their romantic live for the prosperity of their professional live. Luckily, Tim Wall, the co-author, and I batted the idea around until it was unintelligible.
We threw out character sketches and modern issues until side characters and side plots took over the story and formed it into the suspense/crime thriller it is today.
We threw out character sketches and modern issues until side characters and side plots took over the story and formed it into the suspense/crime thriller it is today.
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