Spotlight on Author David Matthews
The best writers are natural observers, often taking in the collective energy. For the last two years, David Matthews has been, what he describes, as purely observing the world. The result is his undeniable creativity that poured into what is perhaps his best novel yet. We dive into his first book,TV series, and issues that are surfacing during this interesting time in the world.
Exclusive Interview
First, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I’ve been writing since about 1993 and it took nearly 24 years to get my first book out, Texas Heat. I’ve also been writing screenplays since I was 17 years old.
Did writing screenplays or novels come first?
Writing screenplays came first actually.
When did you know you wanted to write your first book, Texas Heat?
No one was going to Minute Maid park for the Astros around 2009, 2010. There were maybe 5,000 fans per game. They had a terrible team. I wrote Texas Heat to inspire the city of Houston. The story revolves around a fictional team and I truly believe fiction allows us to get that break from reality we so desperately need. Texas Heat offers romance, action with baseball, action with violence, and so much more. What we find out about our main character’s background and family will shock everyone. Texas Heat is one long soap-opera type story. It was actually written as a teleplay originally. However, I only recommend ages 17-18 and above to read it because of the content.
Will you pursue turning this into a TV series in the future?
I’d definitely like to revisit this idea in the future.
What did you learn writing your first book that you carried with you when writing your second book?
I learned that I need to have an outline and I need to have things planned out. I can leave room for plans to change, but I like having an outline to go back to. Without an outline, I don’t think it’s’ really possible to get that feel that you need to have in order to go from beginning to middle to end, in order to have a well conveyed story that’s not hard to follow.
Your second soon-to-be-released book is titled Elyria. Can you tell us about this novel and what inspired you to write it?
Elyria is different than any other vampire series I know. It’s really about the treatment of individuals on the planet. For the last two years I’ve been observing everything that’s been going on around me, everything from around the world: the famine, death, disease, etc. This book is action, adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, everything tied into one. The greater message is the citizens of the world need to unite and come together as one and explain that we’re tired of the way things are. Elyria is also very violent in content so again; I would recommend people ages 18-19 and above to read it.
Elyria is very timely considering what our world is going through with Covid-19. Do you think it will give people food for thought?
That’s my hope. When you really look at the underlying issues of the story and what everything leads up to, I think yes. If you’re paying attention to everything that’s going on in our world it will give people a lot of food for thought and will raise a lot of issues to think about.
Are there any other projects you are working on you'd like our readers to know about?
I’m working on the sequel to Texas Heat right now, as well as a TV series called, "The Normals", based on our family. I’m also getting ready to start a blog right now, so that’s exciting. This time of social distancing is a great time to read and if you sit down and read my books, they will take you to another world.
To read more about David and his next novel, head to his website: https://davidmatthewswriter.com