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.
1 – In spite of how my final drafts look, I am something of a mess as a writer. Wordiness is one of my biggest problems, and my first drafts seriously suffer for it. Easily, between first and final draft I usually wind up cutting about 30% of what I’ve written, and while I’m still proud of most of the work I have put into any piece of fiction, I’m usually quite embarrassed with how things look at the beginning. Editing is really where my works come together.
2 – Though it’s no surprise that I’m a huge horror geek, with the depth of my knowledge on the subject I could probably teach a fairly in depth college class on the cultural impact of the past 60 years of horror, and how it is one of the best reflections on a changing American culture. I actually wrote my senior thesis on this in high school and managed to get a B+ on it from a fairly skeptical teacher. I probably would’ve gotten an A, but, I forgot to cite most of my sources. Whoops. Nobody’s nerfect?
3 – Despite my love for horror, I am very, very easily scared. The first time I watch any movie with a fair hint of intensity to it, I will very likely be hiding behind my fingers or turning my head away for anticipated jump scares, and I have been known to scream in a theatre once or twice. While my wife and I are huge fans of Halloween events and haunted houses, whenever an actor springs out upon us for a jump scare, I have very little shame about throwing her in front of me as a human shield and screaming my head off. We have an understanding about this, and so far it hasn’t hurt the marriage too much!
4 – I will take part in unusual activities I normally wouldn’t have beforehand just for the sake of being able to write about similar things better in fiction. This has pretty much informed my decision to have gone bungee jumping, growing an apocalypse beard, firing guns (despite being quite the opposite of a gun person) and throwing axes, among other odd experiences. Some of these things I’d do again, some of them I wouldn’t, but I’m glad to know for the sake of being able to write them better.
5 – I pretty much owe Bennytown happening to what I jokingly call “a sign from Jeff Goldblum”. Let me back up a second to explain before I sound completely insane. Bennytown was out for submission to publishers for a very long time, and if I’m going to be honest, after a while I’d started to give up hope, thinking it would be yet another project I loved that wouldn’t go anywhere. As I was about to lose faith in it and consider shelving it, my wife and I attended a celebration to Jurassic Park at Universal Studios Hollywood (a place I’d worked as a teenager, and that informed some of the background of Bennytown). At one point in the night there was a trivia contest that I managed to get picked for, and out of the nearly twenty people on stage, I managed to win thanks to a misspent youth obsessing over a movie about a dinosaur theme park. I was feeling good, but when I saw that the prize I got for winning was a poster for the original movie, signed by Jeff Goldblum (one of my all time favorite actors), I was over the moon. Since I won a prize about one of my favorite movies, signed by one of my favorite actors, at the theme park that partially inspired the book, I took it as a sign, made some changes to the manuscript for Bennytown, and not long after it was picked up by my publisher. This is likely my favorite weird Bennytown story.
For nearly sixty years, Bennytown has been America’s most exciting family theme park destination. Under the watchful eye of cultural icon Benny the Bunny, the park has entertained generations of children with its friendly atmosphere and technologically innovative rides, acting as a beacon of joy and wonder, where magic is real and dreams come true.
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.
Read an Excerpt
Darkness is all I can see in any direction. I see shadowy, moving shapes I know to be buckets around me and maybe an outline of the escalators but nothing in complete detail.
I am abandoned.
No, no, no. I can NOT be abandoned. Somebody has to know I’m here. Somebody will look for me. Any second now. Any second…
I grip the railing and scream, “HEEEEEEEEEEEY! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!”
My cries are pitiful against the wind and the rain. I doubt anyone can hear me from thirty feet away, let alone from the distance of the station. Despite that, I’m too scared to stop screaming.
Someone has to hear.
I scream again.
This time there’s a scream back.
Not a person. Not an animal.
I don’t know what.
It’s low, mechanical and almost organic. Only something large can make a sound like that.
Briefly, I hope that it’s the motors starting up, ready to pull me to safety.
I’m not that lucky.
And maybe it’s a good thing I’m stuck here. There’s something about that scream I don’t like, something that reaches into the furthest, most primitive recesses of my brain and tells me that whatever made that noise is hungry.
The wind picks up, and the steel cables above me creak and groan in protest.
A bolt of lightning flashes close enough to light up the sky. It’s so bright it burns my eyes, and the thunder sounds like the whole world is exploding around me. With spots and stars in my eyes, I wonder if I’m going blind, as the electricity in my bucket turns on again. The light is dull and yellow, flickering, and the speaker briefly comes to life. The voice whispers right into my ear.
About the Author:
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/
https://www.facebook.com/mattcarterauthor/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6599726.Matt_Carter
https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor
Buy links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bennytown-Matt-Carter/dp/1945654538/
B&N: 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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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate hearing about your book, thanks and for the giveaway also. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt, sounds good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt and interview!
ReplyDeleteMatt Carter is a very talented author. My entire family enjoy his books.
ReplyDeleteA love of horror and being scared - worlds apart. Maybe it's the thrill. A great post.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the post.
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