Author Genre: Crime fiction and Fantasy
Website: The Broad Way
Twitter: @mattbroadway41
E-Mail: 45caliberpencil@gmail.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Amazon Author Profile
Author Description:
In April 2015, my wife Natalie graciously let me quit my job and pursue writing as a full time occupation. I have worked as a landscaper, a barista, a teacher, a land surveyor, a fork truck driver, a tutor, a sandwich artist, a dish washer, a security guard, a salesman, and a web designer; but now I find myself a spinner of tales. ?
I have a passion for writing crime fiction and fantasy, so that is what you will find in my stories.
SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author
Congratulations on your book: Narcotic Daydreams. What do you have on the drawing board next? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?
Thank you, Narcotic Daydreams took me a little over twenty years to finish, and I'm glad to finally have it out there on Amazon.
When I finished my crime novel, I decided that I wanted to tackle a fantasy novel. I have written several fantasy short stories over the past few years, and I began to see that they were all set in the same realm. When that realization struck me, I thought about a way that I could tie some of them together with a novel. I call the whole series Shifting World Tales. The novel is called The Crimson Serpent and I'm about four fifths of the way through it. I hope to start pitching it to agents and publishers this fall. If it doesn't interest any of them, I'll self publish it just shy of Christmas (hopefully). If I end up self publishing, I will also publish my collection of short stories in the same setting shortly afterwards.
Can I give you a little tease? I suppose. I am hesitant about releasing unedited rough draft, but here is the first bit of the first chapter of The Crimson Serpent:
When the canvas bag tightened around his neck, Narcisso immediately regretted that he slept in the nude. Being blinded by the sack didn’t prevent him from fighting back though. He threw elbows and knees at his kidnappers. Hands clawed at his arms and legs and pulled him off him off the bed. He hit hard on his left shoulder and a flash of pain shot down his arm. Unseen fingers crumpled up the canvas in front of Narcisso’s face, lifted his head up a couple feet, and then slammed it down on the wooden floor with a thud.
He let his body fall limp to the floor boards. Playing dead was a gamble, but he had the impression that these guys would haul him away, not bury him in a shallow grave. He let his head roll to the side and slowed his breathing to mimic that of an unconscious person. The sack smelled like a mix of moldy cheese and seasoned sausage.
“I thought this guy was supposed to be a hotshot, Trencher.” The voice had the hoarse whisper of somebody who inhaled his pipe smoke.
“Shut up Royce,” barked the other man. His voice, like a plucked bass string, had a deep sustain. “Tie his hands together and be quick about it.”
The accents were foreign, but that meant little. Plenty of mercenaries from neighboring strazas hired on to the local families. Based on their names, Narcisso figured that these two were from Straza Brannich.
Long, sinewy fingers wrapped around Narcisso’s wrists and pulled them together. The situation escalated quickly. Narcisso thought he could probably get out of any knots that this Royce fellow knew how to tie, but he didn’t want to have to bother with the task. He swung his foot across the floor and swept Royce’s legs out from under him. Then he rolled over, straddled his chest, and wailed on his face with his right fist. The whole time he struggled to get the bag off of his head with his left hand.
“You worthless rat’s ass,” thundered a voice behind Narcisso.
Meaty hands locked on to him at the shoulder and under his butt cheek, then he felt himself lift off of Royce and into the air. Trencher hurled him across the room and he slammed into the wall. Splinters from the rough-hewn wooden panels stuck into Narcisso’s back as he slid to the floor of his bedroom.
There was only so much punishment a body could take, and Narcisso’s reached its limit. As he drifted off into the void, he dreamed of sandwiches.
You have a good following on twitter. How important have your social media relationships been? How did you build your following in your niche?
I have met so many authors on twitter. It's pretty unbelievable. I try really hard to learn from the experiences of others, and people are fairly generous about sharing their experience on social media. Twitter lets me take it all in via bite sized pieces. Luckily for me, I live right down the road from Brian Rathbone, author of the Godsland series. He has been an immense help in all things concerning social media. I try to stick to a couple bits of advice that he gave me when I decided that I wanted to write for a living:
1. Post something on twitter once a day.
2. Follow back all the writers and readers that follow you. I go through periods where I can't get to the computer because of "reasons" but for the most part, I check twitter every morning.
I use Tweetdeck to follow the more interesting writers that I find on twitter, and I use Hootsuite and Crowdfire to manage my account. I have a facebook account, but it's mostly family, friends and acquaintances.
You have converted Narcotic Daydreams into an audio book. What has been the impact on your regular sales? Has the audio books gained a new audience for you?
The impact? More money. :) I haven't really figured out what the audiobook audience is, but if you can find a good producer/voice actor, I highly recommend ACX. I would say that it was very easy to get the audiobook made, but honestly Rhett Samuel Price did all the work. I would listen to far more audiobooks if he read them all. He is amazing.
You have written several short stories. (Torchlight Rendezvous - The Bungen-Strasse) Can you tell us if they had an impact on the sales of your novels? Are shorty’s one of your styles of writing or are they created to give readers a sample of your work?
I don't think they had much of an impact on the sales of Narcotic Daydreams. One thing that I've discovered since I started all this, is that there doesn't seem to be much crossover between readers of gritty crime fiction and readers of fantasy stories. I seem to be the odd man out, in that I enjoy reading and writing in both genres. I write the short stories when I want to take a quick break from writing in my novel.
When I quit surveying and began writing full time, I decided that I wanted to treat it like a business and write every day. Unfortunately, I get to points in the novel where I want to let it develop in my brain for a while. When that happens, I drop the novel and write a short story for a couple days. I prefer writing novels. I prefer to leave my short stories loose and open ended and I'm not fond of the "unexpected plot twist" "surprise ending." That many short story readers seem to expect. I prefer my characters to wander off into the distance after the end of the story. So, it frustrates me to write a traditional styled short story. One of the most common comments I get from my short stories is, "well, that would make an excellent novel."
You are one of the authors who contributed to M.R. Mathias’ The C.A.M. Charity Anthologies published recently. (100% of the profits from these anthologies go to charity) What a group of outstanding people. What is the main thing that you get out of this association? Why was the collection so successful, besides having outstanding authors? How can readers find you there?
CAM Fantasy Book 1 - CAM Horror and Science Fiction Book 1
Like Brian Rathbone, I am extremely lucky to know M.R. Mathias. He is a font of wisdom in the writing business and will drop most anything (except a fish) to help answer any questions that I can think up. When his mother passed, it was pretty obvious that it hit him hard, and when he came up with the anthology idea I immediately told him that I would write stories for it. It was the very least I could do for a friend during a very trying time in his life. I am a firm believer that the anthology was successful because Michael published it. He knows what he's doing and it shows.
What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?
I do not give any of my books away for free. I wrote the short stories for the CAM Anthology because I will pretty much do anything for a friend. However, when it comes to my novels, I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for, and my stories are better than free. This may be detrimental to my long term sales, but it is a decision that I made early on and I will be sticking to it.
What is your primary genre? What has been your best marketing approach to this group?
Crime fiction is easier to write (for me) than fantasy. However, I have more fun when I'm writing fantasy. I am a fan of word of mouth. My main goal is to keep plugging away, and keep writing, and maybe one of these days, tons and tons of people will hear about my books and buy them. We'll see how that works out. I am very lucky in that my wife supports me fully in this endeavor.
How do you manage your plots, characters and timelines to keep your stories going? Do you use any software to keep track of your books?
I write a very rough outline of the overall story arc. Then I break it up into smaller pieces. Then I'll take the first chunk (around a fifth of the story) and break it up into chapters. Then I write about three pages of notes per chapter. After I have all that fleshed out, I set my notes beside my keyboard and start typing. I keep a small notebook and a golf pencil in my back pocket at all times. I also have a voice to text notpad app on my phone for when I'm driving. I keep a notepad beside my bed, on my desk, downstairs in the kitchen, and another one by the couch in the living room. I literally have 15-20 notepads with random thoughts written in them. I write in black ink through the book, and then I turn it upside down and flip it, then I write in red ink in the spaces between the lines. It's a habit I picked up from when I was a crew chief surveying. I also have a horrible memory. Lately, I've started using Scrivener. I love the program.
Do you maintain a reader list? What are the methods you use to find your readers and create the list and the relationship? Do you use social media, forums, newsletters and/or support groups to build your list?
I do not. I probably should. :) I've always thought that if somebody really liked my stories that they would keep up with what I was doing, not the other way around.
What is your method of getting reviews for your novels? Do you seek professional reviews, use social media or do you rely on your reading audience to supply them?
I rely on my reading audience to supply them. I encourage my friends to write them when I find out that they read my book, but that's about it. This is another aspect of the business that I should take more seriously.
Author's Book List
Narcotic Daydreams
Tom Marshall was never one of the good guys. Even back when he was a cop, he was just another member of an utterly corrupt force. He has spent the last five years working at a local towing company run by a small time mafia boss and drinking his life away in an ever downward spiral. When one of his buddies asks him to look for his missing girlfriend, Tom takes a chance and decides to try doing the right thing for a change. The trail this search leads him down makes him question whether he wants to be the kind of guy who finds lost girls, or the kind of guy who makes them disappear.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Audible
CAM Horror and Science Fiction Book 1
- The C.A.M. Charity AnthologyAll of the CAM Charity Anthologies are made up of donated short fiction stories. Some of these tales are written by well-known authors, others by ordinary people who just want to try and make a difference. 100% of the profits from these collections will go to charity as explained below.
Michael Robb Mathias Jr. aka M. R. Mathias, owner of Mathias Publishing, is producing the C.A.M anthologies in honor of his mother, Carol Ann Mathias, who passed away in 2017 after a grueling five year battle with cancer. The profits of these collections will be divided equally, each year, between three of her favorite charities.
https://www.smiletrain.org/
https://www.stjude.org/
https://www.petsmartcharities.org/
(Each of these three organizations has an A or A+ rating with www.charitywatch.org/charities
a "watch dog" group that rates these non-profits based on several criteria, the most important being percentage of donations that reach the intended ones in need.)
A collection of Fantasy stories is also available and we hope there are more volumes to come.
This Kindle download is: Horror & Science Fiction, Vol. 1
Featuring (In Order of Appearance)
Brian Barr
Ani Fox
Michael Robb
J.T. Arralle
Jeremy Hicks
Gary W. Olson
Michael Ender
Michael Pogach
Ed Faunce
Matt Broadway
With Interior Artwork by Gideon Deschain
Cover art by Jack Hoyle. See more of his fantastic artwork at http://www.t-rexstudios.com/
Order the Book From:
Amazon
CAM Fantasy Book 1
- The C.A.M. Charity AnthologyAll of the CAM Charity Anthologies are made up of donated short fiction stories. Some of these tales are written by well-known authors, others by ordinary people who just want to try and make a difference. 100% of the profits from these collections will go to charity as explained below.
Michael Robb Mathias Jr. aka M. R. Mathias, owner of Mathias Publishing, is producing the C.A.M anthologies in honor of his mother, Carol Ann Mathias, who passed away in 2017 after a grueling five year battle with cancer. The profits from these collections will be divided equally, each year, between three of her favorite charities.
https://www.smiletrain.org/
https://www.stjude.org/
https://www.petsmartcharities.org/
(Each of these three organizations has an A or A+ rating with www.charitywatch.org/charities a "watch dog" group that rates these non-profits based on several criteria, the most important being percentage of donations that reach the intended ones in need.)
A collection of Horror and Science Fiction stories is also available and we hope there are more volumes to come.
This Kindle download is: Fantasy, Vol. 1
Featuring (In Order of Appearance)
Lucas Pederson
Brian Barr
M. R. Mathias
R. F. Cisneros
Ani Fox
Matt Broadway
Jonathan Turley
With Poetry and Interior Artwork by Gideon Deschain
Cover art by Larry Elmore. To see more of his incomparable artwork visit his website http://larryelmore.com or pick up a copy of The Complete Elmore.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
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HBS Author's Spotlight
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Check out the index of other Spotlight authors. Spotlight Index.
I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the HBS Author's Spotlight.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chance to wax poetic on one of my favorite subjects (me).
~ Matt Broadway