Dragon Soul Press took a moment to interview Matt Spencer, an author in the Apocalypse anthology.

---

Pleased to meet you. My name’s Matt Spencer, and my heart and soul dwell in the spinning of yarns. In the lifelong process of seeking to better understand myself and others, getting to know multiple incarnations of myself, it’s one of the few things that’s
remained a constant: I love a good story, and I love telling stories…most of which to go straight for the darkest places of the human experience, revolving around things like danger, violence, duplicitousness, anxious uncertainty…the things we’re afraid of, both in the world around us and within ourselves. As both a reader and a writer, I find that characters just come alive best on the page, at their essence, when you throw them into
those darkest, most horrific of circumstances…whether that’s something you might encounter in real life, like if someone jumps you on the street, or you’re accused of a crime, or you actually are committing a crime out of desperation or whatever while scrambling not to get caught, or someone you love who you thought you could trust loses their shit and turns into someone who you don’t recognize anymore…or if it’s something out of a fantasy or horror story, like getting attacked by demons or vampires or a haunted forest (or being the demon, vampire, or haunted forest denizen), or getting in a swordfight or whatever. So long as the storyteller puts the audience there, makes you experience those sensations on some raw, primal, cathartic level, it’s all the same. Anyway, that’s the sweet spot I go for. That’s when you see characters at their most desperate and real, when they become the most interesting to watch. Also, what can I say, I just love a good swordfight.

1. What prompted you to begin writing?
   • When I was in the seventh grade, I think it was, an English teacher assigned the class
     an assignment to write a short story. When I put my hand to it, I found my calling, and I
     just knew. There was no going back. It’s one of the main things I’m here to do.
2. Do you have a favorite story you’ve written? What’s it about?
   • At the moment, my latest novel, They Kill Us For Their Sport, feels like about the most
     accomplished thing I’ve ever written. As of this interview, it hasn’t yet been published. It’s
     a fantasy adventure set in my secondary world of Deschemb. A young man, the oldest
     son of the village chief from a mountain tribal culture, follows his two childhood heroes
     into danger for the first time. A simple stagecoach robbery turns out to be cover for a
     political abduction, of a girl who’s half-god, half-humanoid. Various political and religious
     factions have been fighting over her, seeking to use her for their own power-plays. He’s
     assigned to be her captor/protector. The more they get to know each other, the more he
     realizes the world isn’t what he thought it was, and it changes him in ways that there’s no
     going back from. Meanwhile, she’s little by little discovering her own identity and agency
     by trial and error, and she turns out to be full of her own surprises. Along the way, they
     forge…well, it’s a strong, unbreakable connection that binds them for life, whether they
     like it or not, though I wouldn’t exactly call it a romance. They’re surrounded by an
     ensemble cast with many conflicting motivations and perspectives, whose stories also
     shape the tale in unpredictable, volatile ways.
3. How many projects do you have planned over the next few years?
   • I just got back the rights to my novel Changing of the Guards from a deadbeat former
     publisher, and I’m currently looking to find a new, better-vetted publisher home for the
     revised edition of that book. Fingers crossed, wish me luck, all that shit. TKUFTS
     unexpectedly turned out to be a more or less direct sequel to COTG, albeit with a
     younger generation now the primary focus, where the events of the first book are now
     that world’s recent game-changing history, and everyone’s still dealing with the fallout. I
     did my best to write TKUFTS so it stands on its own, with or without one having read
     COTG, but it would be nice to have both available to readers at the same time. To my
     further surprise, I found myself roughly drafting two back-to-back sequels to TKUFTS in
     fairly short order. One follows three of the surviving main characters after TKUFTS, while
     the other follows another character, elsewhere on his own standalone adventure. I have
     the broad sketch in my head for a fifth novel in that cycle, where everyone’s paths
     reconverge for a Giant Damn Epic Blowout. In the meantime, soon as I rack up enough
     fresh short story sales, I’ll assemble the next short fiction volume. I still work mainly
     through traditional publishers for my novels, but I self-publish my collections (of works
     previously published in various markets). So far this year, I ain’t off to a bad start at filling
     that quota.
4. What is your writing process like?
   • When I say, “I’m gonna go write, so all y’all leave me the fuck alone,” I mean exactly
     that, until I say otherwise.
5. Where do you draw inspiration from?
   • The short answer is everywhere. What I observe unfolding in the world around me, be
     that globally, or in my community and personal life. Getting cranky as I see history
     repeating itself…or perhaps more accurately, rhyming with itself. Reading about history
     and mythology and folklore. That random, kinda weird encounter with someone at the
     local bar the other day that later leaves me reflecting, “But what if…?” My adopted home
     state of Vermont is a constant source of creative nourishment, with its gorgeous natural
     landscape, local culture, and rich, folkloric history. Books I’ve read or movies I’ve seen or
     music I’m listening to that resonate with me, that fire up my imagination, make me want
     to try my own hand at putting my own stamp on whatever fresh headspace they lead me
     into. Reflecting back on life, seeing things differently than I used to, still feeling
     conflicted, still figuring a lot of shit out, as we all are. Plenty of veiled autobiography slips
     in there, which, let’s face it, is par for the course for most fiction writers. With short-
     stories, it’s more and more often a matter of scouring the open markets and thinking,
     “Hmmm, let’s see what I could do with that.” Basically, whatever sticks in my craw that I
     find a way to give to the page.
6. Who is your favorite author?
   • My favorite living author is Joe R Lansdale. His narrative voice had a crucial impact on
     helping me find and embrace my own voice, around when I first started getting short
     story acceptance letters. He’s the author whose body of work I find myself going back to
     the most, whenever I need to recharge myself. Caitlin R Kiernan and Poppy Z Brite also
     deserve strong mention, in terms of “Writers whose work blew the door off and broke all
     the rules and opened my eyes to new possibilities.” Dead authors…too many to list,
     though Robert E Howard, Emily Bronte, Gaston Leroux, Anne Rice, Arthur Conan Doyle,
     Hunter S Thompson, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and Mary Shelley certainly come to
     mind.
7. What is your favorite book?
   • My favorite novel of all time is probably Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. For me, it’s
     the embodiment of the saying, “A classic is a story that never runs out of what it has to
     say.” Every time I’ve revisited it, at different stages of my life, I see it through different
     eyes and find new insights into what Miss Bronte had to say, consciously and otherwise,
     about the human condition. Also, the gloomy, Gothic, morbidly romantic fatalism and
     sweep of the whole thing still just gets me every time. I’m fortunately a very different
     person now than that traumatized, angry young man who so intensely identified with
     Heathcliff. For all my own mistakes, I’ve grown up to be a far better man, done more
     worthwhile things with my life, and have certainly known far healthier relationships with
     women, romantic and otherwise, than that vengeance-fixated asshole ever managed. All
     the same, he’s still one of my favorite literary characters, and in a lot of ways, that angry,
     traumatized, mean-spirited wee bastard is still never far away. I’ve just gotten better at
     keeping him on a leash. Shades of “that guy” still pop out in my own rogue’s gallery of
     complicated, conflicted heroes, antiheroes, and villains.
8. What is one goal you have for your writing future?
   • At the end of the day, just to leave behind some damn good stories. Still, if I’m being
     honest…It’d also be awesome to see some of them get made into movies/TV-shows
     within my lifetime. Ain’t that the dream, right? I can visualize some pretty epic, badass
     cinematic realizations of some of my novels/short-story series. On that note…Dear Miss
     Jenna Ortega, if some twist of fate finds you reading this interview, please grab yourself
     a copy of my book The Renegade God, know that as of this interview, you’d be my ideal
     Tia, and should you feel so inclined, don’t hesitate to put the idea of a Tia & Ketz TV
     show before your production company. Dear Mister Vin Diesel, that also goes for you
     and Jesse Karne in the Deschembine Trilogy. Jus’ sayin’, motherfuckers.
9. What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
   • The relentless, twisty plotting, the raw, visceral action, and above all the
     characters…their interpersonal tribulations, how what they go through resonates on
     some strong, personal level that’s different for everyone…Love or hate any of these
     fuckers, or whatever in between, I want you to experience your own strong reactions
     while I put you through it with them. I want you to learn that when you pick up one of my
     books, “One way t’other, this thing will be an experience, a live wire that’s the opposite of
     anodyne.”
10. Where can readers learn more about you?
    • On my Facebook profile, Facebook page, Twitter, and my website.