Today I’m talking to Matthew Graybosch. Best known for Starbreaker they recently released / they are about to release Without Bloodshed.
Hello Matthew. Thanks for agreeing to this short interview. Firstly, congratulations on the release of Without Bloodshed / I just want to say I’m looking forward to the release of Without Bloodshed.
Matt: Thanks, Mr. Healey. I’d be honored if you’d add a copy to your reading list.
Will do! Tell us a little bit about Without Bloodshed. To someone who doesn’t know your work, how would you best describe it?
Matt: Without Bloodshed works on two levels. On the first, you have a fairly straightforward thriller in which a government agent must deal in a coup in a futuristic city-state without killing anybody. On the second, you have a conspiracy among immortals to test the agent and determine whether he can be trusted to handle a weapon capable of destroying immortals.
You’re best known for Starbreaker. What’s on the horizon for you? A continuation of your recent work, or something new?
Matt: I’m working on the second Starbreaker novel, The Blackened Phoenix. Morgan Stormrider knows who’s behind the Liebenthal coup in Boston, but he can’t prove it yet. The truth won’t set him free; it will only bind him and his friends tighter.
If you were to talk to your readership in person, and you only had one shot at it, what would you say?
Matt: “Thank you for adding me and my work to your busy lives.”
There’s a lot of discussion, both online and in the press, about the ‘state of publishing,’ and the ‘rise of amateur writers.’ What do you think? Has the advent of independent publishing really just handed a loaded weapon into the hands of amateur hobbyists, or is it all about empowering authors more than ever? What are your thoughts?
Matt: Being published by a small press (Curiosity Quills), I think the advent of indie publishing is about Amazon cutting out the middlemen, which in this context means cutting out the traditional publishing industry. Amazon wants to sell more stuff, cheaper, and getting books directly from authors to readers is conducive to their mission. It’s strictly business, and just happens to be beneficial to independent authors who manage to gain a sufficiently large readership.
Getting away from books for a moment, what else are you up to at the moment?
Matt: If I’m not writing, I’m probably at my day job, coding. Either that, or I’m curled up with my wife, one of my cats (they work in shifts), and a good book. Sometimes I play violent Japanese video games like Dark Souls II, but contrary to what American yellow journalism would suggest, the games haven’t provoked in me an urge to kill.
For the other writers reading this, what advice do you have to offer them? What works for you when it comes to setting pen to paper?
Matt: Don’t be a precious princess who thinks they need long stretches of quiet time. You need a laptop (or a pen and notebook) with the wifi turned off, a smartphone in airplane mode with a good playlist, a decent set of headphones, and time enough to write 500 words a day. You can write a novel on your lunch hour. I managed two, and one is an unpublishable 300,000 monstrosity.
Lastly, I used to do something like this a few years ago in my interviews. I’ve adapted it for this latest batch.
I have five questions for you. Ready? Here we go. Give me your honest answers.
1. If there were to be a film of your life, who would play you in the lead role?
Matt: Right now, they’d have to find some poor desperate schmuck who doesn’t mind getting fat to get into character.
2. Following the same line of thought, if there were to be a film made of any of your work, who would you cast in the roles of the main characters?
Matt: I think Kevin Spacey would work as Isaac Magnin. Unfortunately, Ian Richardson of House of Cards, To Play the King, and The Final Cut died in 2007. I’m tempted to suggest Helena Bonham Carter as Elisabeth Bathory. I’m not sure who we’d get for Naomi Bradleigh; Hollywood doesn’t seem to have anyone who fits the role, Karl Urban might make a decent Morgan Stormrider as long as he doesn’t mistake the character for Judge Dredd.
3. What are you reading at the moment?
Matt: I’m taking a break from Glen Cook’s The Dragon Never Sleeps to read Fade and Fall by A. K. Morgen. They’re YA paranormal romance, so they’re not my usual fare, but I promised to read and review them for her because she’s a fellow Curiosity Quills Press novelist.
4. What are you listening to at the moment?
Matt: “The Hard Sell” by Coheed and Cambria. I’ve also been listening to Within Temptation’s new Hydra album, The Dream by In This Moment, Colours in the Dark by Tarja Turunen, and The Flag of Punishment by Galneryus. I’m a long-haired metalhead with a taste for female vocals and guitar-and-keyboard dueling that I blame on my father exposing me to 70s British prog acts like Renaissance, ELP, and Yes.
5. This is stolen directly from James Lipton, but what the heck. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Matt: “Shit. He clawed his way out of Hell after all.”
Lastly, where do you see yourself in twelve months time? What will you be doing? Where will you be in life? Where do you hope to be?
Matt: I hope to be gearing up for the release of The Blackened Phoenix while writing the first draft of the third Starbreaker novel, Proscribed Construct. I’d love it if I wasn’t also juggling a day job, but that depends on the readers.
Well, that’s the end of our little interview. Thanks for participating. I’m sure everyone will love Without Bloodshed.
Matthew Graybosch is a Romantic science fantasy novelist from New York who codes for a living. He’s also a gamer, a long-haired metalhead, and a geek who passes for normal by not talking about the nerdy stuff that excites him. He lives in central Pennsylvania with his wife, two cats, and a bicycle that nags him whenever he doesn’t meet his daily word count. He’s hard at work on the next Starbreaker novel.
A Day Job and a Dream: http://www.matthewgraybosch.com
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Matthew-Graybosch/e/B00FPJDDNC/
Tony Healey 
Thanks, Tony.