About Matt Abraham:
I was born in Metropolis and raised on a diet of Mickey Spillane, and I spit hot PI palaver like Raymond Chandler if he worked for DC comics. My current series, Dane Curse, follows a former super villain turned PI as he navigates the treacherous powered underbelly of Gold Coast City.

What inspires you to write?
I’ve always liked stories. They’re the way that humans touch the world beyond them, and pass on their own experiences to others. Story telling has been around as long as language, and it’s one thing that bonds us all transcending time, borders, gender, and religion. You can tell a lot about a person or a culture by the stories they tell, and I’ve known for a very long time I wanted to be a part of that lineage.

Tell us about your writing process.
I’m a grip it and rip it kind of a scribe. I sit down with a general idea of how the story is starting, you know; the characters, their goals, the obstacles they’ll face, and the stakes if they fail. Then I toss them into a bag and hit that bag with a stick. Once I dump them back out they show me what happens, and I just take notes. Though having said that I just started working with Scrivener and man alive that stuff’s sweeter than honey coated sugar.

For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Nope. Neither. I just watch them. If you fully form your characters, and know their history and futures beyond the confines of the book, they’ll act out their motivations without much discussion. Besides, compared to the lives they lead it would probably be a very boring conversation from their point of view.

What advice would you give other writers?
Learn the craft. Your voice is unique and it may even be beautiful, but without knowledge of MRUs, proactive/reactive scenes, the three act story structure, and pinch vs plot points you won’t be able to articulate what you want effectively. Sure, I hear a lot of young writers talk about freedom and how they don’t want their stories to be boxed in and blah blah blah. Nobody picks up a violin and says, “No lessons for me, I’ll play free form.” Nobody goes to the ballet and says, “I don’t need lessons, I’ll just wing it.” But everyone thinks they can hack away on a keyboard and make it work. Learn your structure. Learn the rules. Then master the rules. Then you can go nuts breaking them.

How did you decide how to publish your books?
After one hundred rejections (101 actually) I went the KDP route. Though I really had to make sure that my work was good enough for people to pay 2.99 and not feel cheated, and frankly I think I did that.

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
The printed word is dead. Ereaders are so obviously the future it’s amazing. As of now the big publishing companies constantly go with what’s safe, what can definitely turn a profit, and I get it. That makes sense. After all, it costs nothing to make a crappy ebook, but if you print 10,000 crappy books you lose a lot of cash. So we see garbage getting pumped out because it’s safe a guaranteed to at least cover costs. This is moving the really interesting writers into the self publishing world. Things like the kindle and the nook have made it easier than ever for really solid writers to find their audiences, and it’s the death toll for the old printers.

What do you use?: Professional Editor

What genres do you write?: I write soft sci-fi detective novels.

What formats are your books in?: eBook

Website(s)
Link To Matt Abraham Page On Amazon

Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Twitter

All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.