Awhile back we featured an article on “How to Lose a Fan.” Now, let me introduce you to the polar opposite, Matthew Warner and his book “Death Sentences”. This is the story of how to gain a fan and what great things happen can happen by doing so.
I had heard of the book “Death Sentences” prior to meeting Matthew Warner at the 2006 World Horror Convention in San Francisco. I had read a positive review of it in a magazine, but for some reason, still never got around to picking it up. Even after Matthew had called us over to his table at the convention and convinced Gary (Writer Horror Yearbook) to buy a copy, I for some reason ignored it.
It was surprising he even convinced us to purchase a copy. It was at the end of the day’s mass book signing, and we had already purchased a stack of books that I was sick of carrying. I guess it helped that we actually never paid to get into convention (shhhh) and had extra money to throw around. Not to mention that Matthew had a passion for his own book (a good sign), was personable , and had taken the time to call us over and talk to us.
Not long after the convention, “Death Sentences” managed to make it’s way to my desk’s graveyard, where it got buried in a sea of DVD screeners, other books, and random crap. It didn’t take long for me to start to ignore it again. Days passed, Matthew joined our My Space list, and we chatted about the next World Horror Con (Toronto, 2007). That’s when it happened again. This time , however, Matthew got buried and ignored, not the book.
As our My Space grew in popularity, armies of Bettie Page lookalikes and scary horror fans started to take over our page, burying poor Matthew. I would still see him from time to time, peering at me from his little box on our friends list. His arm out, holding himself up, surrounded by a bunch of other people all vying for my attention. I would even once and awhile think what happened to that little book, I should read it someday. Then it happened, “Death Sentences” came back from the dead. It crawled it’s way out of my desk’s graveyard and found it’s way into my hands, and I’m glad it did.
I just needed something to read. O.K. I really just had to go to the bathroom and dug it out of the pile but, it was the longest time I ever spent in there, and I was hooked. The first story, “Middle Passage,” sucked me right. I read the book from start to finish. When I was done, my legs were numb, and I couldn’t tell if it was from what I had just read, or because I’d been sitting on the bowl for so long. There are only five stories in “Death Sentences,” and I enjoyed every single one. Matthew hit me so hard in the stomach with “Middle Passage” that I couldn’t believe he went so soft on me with “Angel Wings”! But then he did it again to me with the end of that story. “The Cave” and “The Forgiving Type” seemed like they should be in their own book, but they turned out to be right at home in this collection as well. Then, Matthew punched me in the stomach one more time with “The Forgiving Type.” When I was finished, I had to immediately contact him. He would be ignored no more by me . I had learned my lesson.
When he told me he had a new book ,“Eyes Everywhere,” I couldn’t wait to read it. Little did I know we would get a chance to review the book, hold a contest for it, and have the great honor of interviewing Matthew for Horror Yearbook. We offer you this warning : don’t ignore him. Matthew Warner is never going away, and trust me when I tell you, you’ll regret it if you do. I did!
Horror Yearbook: Do you remember the first time we met? Tell me how great it was and make sure you say how great it was, because after you read what I wrote about you, you’ll feel bad for not doing so. I’ll give you a tip so you don’t mess up: Gary is the black guy, I’m the white guy.
Matthew Warner: I’ll never forget it. I was lying in that ditch, right after the van hit me. Jake, the kid I was traveling with, was dead, but for some reason I lived. It was on the 19th. The big R was going to be so disappointed in me; he probably wouldn’t let me touch his gun anymore. But then you, yes you, and Gary were standing over me. My saviors. You said, “Do you want to be interviewed by Horror Yearbook?” And I said, “Yes, oh yes!” Then a great, golden light spilled over me, and suddenly here I was, typing out this answer. My life would never be the same again. Perhaps you remember it differently.
HYB: We met you at the 2006 World Horror Convention in San Francisco. Was that your first World Horror Con? How did it go for you? Any great stories? I’m full of them.
MW: Oh, oh–that’s right. Never mind that story about being hit by the van. No, that wasn’t my first WHC. My first one was in 2000 in Denver. Dan Simmons was a guest of honor. He came to the opening ceremonies Hannibal Lector-style: in a straitjacket, wearing a muzzle, and riding on a dolly. I saw that and said, “I wanna be him someday.” Then Harlan Ellison came into the room and told everyone to go fuck themselves. And I said, “Do I wanna be him someday?” Then later–I think it was at another con, but I was too drunk to know the difference–I drank half a bottle of Absinthe and said, “Who am I today?”
HYB: We had no idea who you were when we met you, but you just yelled to us to come over and check out your book. Obviously, it worked with us. Does this work for you often, or are we just easy marks?
MW: Yes, my sales tactics are sometimes compared to being raped with a vacuum cleaner. It’s a living. Seriously, though, I’ve always thought that a writer should believe enough in his own work to yell out to passers-by to check him out. (It usually helps to be referring to a book when saying this.)
HYB: Did you attend any of the parties afterward? I don’t remember seeing you.
MW: Yes, I’m sure I did, but I don’t remember seeing me, either. (See comment about Absinthe, ibid.)
HYB: How tall are you?
MW: Five foot nine. Five foot ten-and-a-half once my hair dries.
HYB: You were also on the panel “Is Buffy Dead and Buried,” at the 2006 World Horror Convention. Are you a Buffy fan or did they just stick you on a random panel you knew nothing about like they sometimes do there?
MW: I got onto that panel by virtue of my April 2005 column at Horror World, “Addictive Plotting as Taught by Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” in which I unfairly compared the merits of Angel season 1 to the concurrent Buffy season 4. Summary: Angel that year blew chunks, and Buffy was great. Maurice Broaddus still gives me shit over that column. It was my most controversial editorial until the one about Edit Ink last March. You can still read the Buffy column (HERE).
HYB: If you are a fan, how big of a fan are you, because we are the biggest Buffy fans. Favorite Episode(s)?
MW: I’m a big fan, but I still weigh less than 200 pounds. “Hush” was pure genius, as was the entire season 5.
HYB: This is a good lead in to some dumb questions. What are some of your favorite movies?
MW: Omigod, you mean I’ve been answering highbrow questions so far? Some of my favorite movies include John Carpenter’s The Thing, Saw I, Saw II, and The Blues Brothers. I also saw the British version of The Descent recently and thought it rocked.
HYB: O.K that is all the dumb questions I have right now.
MW: Why don’t I believe you?
HYB: I have heard about your problems with “Print Google” and I don’t understand. I have no idea what it is and why it’s a bad thing. Do you mind explaining it again?
MW: Print Google, or the Print Library Project, is a program where Google is scanning the contents of books to make them searchable from their website. Until I asked them to take my first novel The Organ Donor out of their database, you could search for any snippet of text–say, the name “Paul,” the name of the novel’s protagonist–and be given search results that display every sentence in the book in which that word appears. Google says this is no different from creating searchable databases of websites. They say it actually increases book sales because they provide links to Amazon (a claim I have yet to see backed up by hard sales data). But I say they’re creating digital copies of copyright-protected properties without permission and that they’re profiting off of it because users are exposed to Google’s advertising. All of this is currently the focus of a series of lawsuits between the publishing industry and Google. I think the lawsuits are a valiant effort to fight the erosion of intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, though, I think this erosion is inevitable unless the publishing industry develops a different sales model, much in the way that the music industry is endeavoring to exploit the proliferation of digital downloading instead of fighting it. Ultimately, I think that although Google is technically in the moral wrong, in the long run it will be impossible to stop them and outfits like them. . . . Man, did we just change the tone of this interview, or what?
Hear Matthew’s interview about “Print Google” at Horror Reader podcast.
HYB: Would it be a bad time to tell you we didn’t care for the cover of “Eyes Everywhere” now?
MW: I didn’t draw the cover, so it doesn’t hurt my feelings much. Now, Death Sentences, that’s one awesome cover, isn’t it?
Deena Warner Matthew’s wife designed the cover of “Death Sentences” and we do agree it’s his best book cover.
HYB: Are there plans to change it for paperback or is it too early to be asking that?
MW: It’s too early to ask that. I’m still shopping the paperback rights around.
HYB: Can you tell us your inspiration for “Eyes Everywhere”?
MW: It was a variety of things, but mainly it came from my own experiences as an assistant at a large DC law firm and from some fascinating reading into the symptoms of schizophrenia. As many writers will tell you, a story often doesn’t just come from a single idea but from a confluence of ideas. They continue to come while you’re writing so that the story grows organically. All right, ask me a funny question now.
HYB: There are a number of references to 9/11 in the book. How much of an influence was it in the creation of this story?
MW: That’s your funny question? Oh, all right. Yeah, 9/11 had some bearing on the story, but that wasn’t what it was about. Eyes Everywhere takes place during those first couple of years after 9/11, when I felt that the paranoia and tension in DC was especially rampant. The law firm where I was an assistant–the basis of the Larson & Pack firm in the book–periodically held “containment” or “stay put” drills in which we were supposed to put on these useless painter’s masks and hide out in a room without any outside ventilation. This, and the red-white-and-blue pen lights they gave us, was supposed to protect us in the event of a chemical weapons attack. When the story begins, Charlie Fields is working in this environment, and the general paranoia of the area eventually rubs off on him personally.
HYB: How has the process of writing the novel changed your perspective of schizophrenia?
MW: The research of it was certainly educational. I have more sympathy now for people who suffer from it. To plug another Horror World column, my September 2006 installment answers precisely this question in more detail, (HERE).
HYB: What do you want readers to take away from “Eyes Everywhere”?
MW: A deep and abiding compulsion to buy more of my books. And a greater appreciation of one of life’s real-life horrors./font>
Buy All Matthew Warner’s Books HERE!
HYB: You have a trailer for “Eyes Everywhere”. Like a movie trailer. I could be an idiot but I have never seen a trailer for a book before. Is this a new thing in the literary world and how did you come up with yours? Did you have a hand in creating it or was it the publisher’s idea?
Watch the Eyes Everywhere Trailer
MW: Yeah, it’s kind of a new thing, but I’m not the first to do it. Doug Clegg and Nate Kenyon have also done movie-style trailers to advertise their books. A cool one for D. Harlan Wilson’s forthcoming Dr. Identity just went up at RawDogScreaming.com. My talented wife, Deena Warner (deenawarner.net) , surprised me with mine. I hope you liked it. ( We Did ) Book trailers are an example of how the accouterments of media can cross-pollinate. Another example would be the “movie poster” Deena composed (with my input) to advertise Eyes Everywhere: (View Poster Here)
HYB: Do you consider your books “Horror” books, or would you classify them under a different genre?
MW: Sure, I consider them to be horror, and I advertise them as such. I’m starting to believe, though, that “horror” may be a passé term in a few years. Chain bookstores rarely have separate sections for horror anymore, instead choosing to integrate horror titles into general fiction. Some people see this as a good thing–like we’re now more mainstream or something. I see this as a bad thing since it makes it more difficult for readers to locate titles that are similar to the ones they may have recently read and enjoyed.
HYB: Have you ever thought of writing anything outside the horror genre?
MW: Sure, and in fact I have! Science fiction is my other love, and I’ve had several short stories published in various places, mostly online. For example, “The Power Rolodex” at Quantum Barbarian, “The Cargo” at The Outer Rim, and “Death Scent” in various venues. If I ever write any novels outside of horror, I would probably attempt a science fiction one–or maybe a SF-horror hybrid.
HYB: You did a reading on September 22, 2006 at Marvin Ward Elementary School Winston-Salem, NC. I hope you didn’t read anything from “Death Sentences”. What did you read to them and what’s the benefit of reading to young children who won’t buy your book?
MW: Nope, I didn’t read from Death Sentences. I probably would have been in the newspaper the next day if I did, and not in a good way. I did read to them “Landini the Magnificent,” a short story I wrote about a lion tamer who receives his just desserts for being abusive towards a child. To the first-graders, I read stories like Dr. Seuss’s “What Was I Scared Of?” There are several benefits of reaching out to children–even if they’re too young to buy my books. I’m passing on my love of reading, which is a great thing for them. Becoming readers is going to enrich these kids’ lives immeasurably. And indirectly, it helps my career because I’m indoctrinating them early; people who love to read love to buy books. Mainly, though, I think I’m discovering that I’m a teacher at heart. I enjoy educating people, especially kids, because it helps make the world a better place.
HYB: How did the kids respond to you?
MW: They loved it, and I have an absence of scars to prove it! One child, a wheelchair-bound student with cerebral palsy, especially seemed to enjoy my talk because he was giggling and contributing to the discussion, especially when I mentioned his favorite movie, “Monster House.” I found out later that this was somewhat of a breakthrough for him and for the adults who’d been working with him. Hearing that really made the trip worthwhile.
HYB: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received about the publishing industry?
MW: Hmm. I’m not sure I’ve ever received advice about the publishing industry, per se. Everything I know about publishing I think I learned the hard way: by falling flat on my ass. I have received oodles of good advice about the writing craft, however. There are a lot of good teachers out there, both in person and in books about writing. But as for the ins and outs of the industry, everyone seems to have a different idea about the right and wrong way to do things. About the only thing I’ve heard anyone agree on is that manuscripts shouldn’t be written in crayon.
HYB: Can you think of any reason our book “The Ultimate Horror Movie Yearbook” has not been published yet?
MW: I probably could. But I would need to ask you about a dozen questions first about what you have and haven’t done so far.
HYB: Tell us about the publishing industry and how much bull crap is really involved in getting a book published. This is your chance to vent, don’t worry we’re your friends here, we won’t tell.
MW: Actually, there’s no bull crap. There’s dog crap and bird crap and occasionally cat crap, but no bull crap. On my keyboard, especially, there’s cat crap. Usually it has hair in it. Oh, and there’s ice. A lot of it. As in: glaciers, speed of. You write a book, and it takes you six months or more. Then you send it out and out and out for like, one or two years, waiting for another one or two years for someone to deign to send you a rejection slip. And then it’s accepted and you sign a contract and then you gotta wait, like, another year for it to come out. And then it’s out and you gotta promote it. A lot of crap–but a lot of fun, too.
HYB: Are there any lessons you’ve learned from the process of publishing/writing your first novel “The Organ Donor” you brought with you to “Eyes Everywhere”?
MW: Sure. There were lessons learned in writing, like how to keep the plot organized in your head when writing something so huge for such a long period of time. And there were lessons in publishing, like things to do and not do in contracts and in promotion. I learned, for instance, that it’s much better to ask your publisher to request a blurb from so-and-so than to do it yourself.
HYB: Are you part of the Horror Writers Association?
MW: Nope, not anymore. I was a member, twice, and didn’t have much fun either time. Let’s just leave it at that before I say something that will get me in trouble.
HYB: Tell me about the martial arts and what you know. Are you a black belt and could you kick my ass?
MW: Eh, things here and there about Tae Kwon Do. Yeah, I have a black belt, Be like Matthew & get your own J.C. Penney, men’s leather, $3.99 HERE. Scrub floor. Paint fence. Wax on, wax off.
HYB: I know “Eyes Everywhere” has just come out but do you have your next project planned?
MW: Sure. I’ve written another horror novel that I’m shopping around as we speak. I’ve also written a couple of other things, like a one-act horror stage play, and I’m fixing to start another novel soon.
HYB: O.K. Before this is becomes the worst interview you ever done do you have anything you like to add?
MW: I would like to add $1,000,000 to my checking account, please. Oh, did you mean to this interview?
Horror Yearbook would like to congratulate Craig C. of Hubbardston, MA for being the lucky winner of our Matthew Warner contest and hope he enjoys his free, autographed copy of “Eyes Everywhere” courtesy of Matthew Warner and Horror Yearbook!
We also like to thank Matthew for all his time and for being a good sport during the interview! You can visit Mattew Warner at:
Interview by Andrew Walsh & WIL Keiper
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