This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Matt Carter will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
What is your favorite book today?
This is one of those questions that’s up there with “Which is your favorite child?”, a question I have a very difficult time picking only one answer to. Favorites depend on what mood I’m in, whether I’m up for something long or short, deep and engrossing or quick and pulpy. Still, of the titles that I keep coming back to when it comes to picking my favorite books, the three I generally choose from are The Stand by Stephen King, Animal Farm by George Orwell, or World War Z by Max Brooks. I guess I might have a thing for tales of society being broken down and reformed in differing levels of success.
Tell us about your current book in 10 words. America’s favorite theme park holds dark secrets for new employee.
What are you reading right now?
My wife got me a bunch of recent-ish horror novels that I’ve been burning through lately. I just finished Max Brooks’ Devolution (very, very scary), and have recently started reading through Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids, which I haven’t gotten through very much of yet, but is looking like an interesting read.
Do you have any bad book habits?
Terrible as it is to admit, not finishing books. If I don’t make the time to read, books have a bad habit of being started but not finished. I’ve got rather impressive piles of books that I’ve only made it through 70% of that I really do mean to finish, but then something shiny came along, or life threw me a curveball, and I just never got around to finishing. I’m doing my best to get better at this, honest!
E-Reader or print? and why?
Print. Because I’m old-fashioned. I love the texture and the smell of books, and watching a collection precariously build in my increasingly unsteady IKEA bookshelves.
Dog-ear or bookmark? (don't worry—Librarian Judith won't hold it against you—much)
Bookmark, I’m not a monster. Though I don’t use formal bookmarks, those disappear too quickly; any random scrap of paper will usually do. Chunks of bills and magazines, wrapping paper, random pieces of junk mail, I’ve used anything and everything that could be called a piece of paper to mark my place.
Favorite place to read?
Somewhere that’s well lit but not too hot, quiet but not entirely desolate, and that offers good lower back and neck support. I may only be 35, but I’m feeling my age with every passing day and will value comfort above all else when I want to sit down and read.
Favorite genre?
I can’t lie, I’m a horror fan through and through. I grew up as a kid terrified of my own shadow and all sorts of nasties that might hide within the dark, my overactive imagination taking me to terrible places and making the darkness an intimidating place to be feared and avoided. As I grew, however, I sought to confront my fears and started to explore the horror genre, and realized that I felt better facing and embracing these fears rather than running from them, and I have been a fan and sculptor of the dark and macabre ever since. It doesn’t mean I don’t get scared, far from it, but rather than being a paralyzing, nightmarish terror, it’s now the kind I embrace warmly, like getting on a fun if intense roller coaster. I know what I’m getting into, and as long as I’m along for the ride I know I’m in for some quality, controlled release of adrenaline.
Do you loan your books?
Only if I go into the loan never actually expecting to get the book I’ve loaned back. I’ll definitely loan stuff to friends and people I trust, but I’ve lost too many books to ever expect any loan to ever actually return to me. Still, if I want to share a book with people, that’s the risk I run.
Re-reader or not?
Big time. The first time I read a book I’m really into I tend to fly through it because I want to see what happens next and get through all the content. After that, however, if it’s an adventure I truly enjoyed I’ll go back so I can read more slowly, absorb more detail and drop myself into an enjoyable (or at least fascinating) universe once again.
Bennytown once saved sixteen-year-old Noel Hallstrom’s life, and to repay it, Noel has applied for a summer job. Though the work is messy and the hours are bad, Noel is happy to be a part of the Bennytown family, until he sees the darkness beneath the surface. Strange, mechanized mascots walk the park perimeter. Elegantly dressed cultists in wooden Benny masks lurk in the darkness. Spirits of the many who’ve died in the park roam freely, and every night the park transforms into a dark dimension where madness reigns and monsters prowl.
Noel is about to find out more about Bennytown than he ever wanted to know, and that its darkness might have designs on him.
The third escalator is the longest, looking like a black cut has opened in the earth before me. Carefully and quickly, I bound down the steps.
Halfway down, Benny starts laughing over the speakers with a mechanical, staticky roar. His voice mingles with what sounds like a man whistling. The steps shake beneath me as the escalator jolts downward, twisting me off balance. The dolly flies from my hands, tumbling end over end down the moving steps. My arms reach out wildly for purchase, and I grab one of the rubber handrails, slowing my fall, but not stopping it.
I land on my back, upside down with the wind knocked out of me. I try to ignore the stabbing pain from the steps while Benny interviews Flora Fox about her upcoming movie over the loudspeakers.
The voices are shrill and the pain rings in my ears so loudly that I don’t realize there’s a humming sound coming from the bottom of the escalator.
The dolly lies at the edge of the disappearing final steps, tumbled and with a gouge in one of its wheels and a yellow sticker I’ve never noticed on the bottom of its scoop. In front of the dolly, I’m staring straight at the escalator’s base with welcoming spikes ready to swallow my hat, my scalp, and my face. I can picture the flesh being peeled from my bones. I try to claw my way out of my sprawl, but my hands are slick from sweat and rain. My fingers can’t find anything to grip on the polished escalator sides. The motor is getting louder while the grinding vibrates the steps beneath me.
Wordlessly, I cry out, attempting to twist and fight my way free.
He is represented by Fran Black of Literary Counsel and lives in the usually sunny town of San Gabriel, CA with his wife, their pet king snake Mica, and the myriad of strange fictional characters and worlds that live in his head.
https://owlhollowpress.com/bennytown
http://mattcarterauthor.weebly.com/
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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6599726.Matt_Carter
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The book is on sale for $0.99.
Buy links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bennytown-Matt-Carter/dp/1945654538/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bennytown-matt-carter/1136895043
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bennytown
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781945654534
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Do you have any ideas for your next book?
ReplyDeleteYes! I am always working on my next project. I'm currently working on a gothic haunted house story, co-writing this one with my wife and frequent partner in crime, Fiona J.R. Titchenell.
DeleteHello! Thanks so much for sharing your book with us. Always fun reading about another book to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever suffer from writer’s block and, if so, how do you overcome it?
ReplyDeleteAll the time. I wish there were an easy answer, sometimes it involves stepping back, sometimes it involves staring at the page forever, sometimes it involves hours of video games, and if the project truly isn't working, sometimes it simply involves stepping away from the project and trying something new.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! Thanks for the fun questions! ��
ReplyDeleteThank you for having me on your blog! These were a lot of fun to answer.
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