We caught up with Walsall based Matthew Cash, author of THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME, THE GLUT, PINPRICK and much, much more, on route to a steak bake and probed him relentlessly...
Something Wicked This Way Comes - When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Matthew Cash - I've loved reading and writing stories from the age I could first understand the concept of a story. Even before I could properly write as a child I would dictate to one of my parents.
The first story I remember writing outside of school, and I've often joked about revisiting it, was when I was about six. I wrote a story about someone stealing a black panther from London Zoo and setting it loose on the Underground. We would go for a day trip to London, as we only lived an hour or so away, in the summer holidays and it's always been a place that's seemed scarily huge, fascinating and full of possibilities.
SWTWC - Where are you from and where are you now? MC - I'm originally from a little village on the borders of Suffolk and Essex, called Brantham, it was everything a kid could want but simultaneously hate growing up. Rural, narrow-minded and lonely, but beautiful. I chose to immortalise it in my novel Pinprick. Since 2002 I've been living in Walsall. I came here for love, that ended badly and then I was a slut for a bit before settling back down with a better wife and having two awesome kids. SWTWC - What has your life been like so far? MC - A continuous battle against my arch-nemesis of being a fat bastard. It's the one demon I've not managed to kick fully because it's the one that's been with me the longest- since childhood. Being a piss-head was the only thing that temporarily killed the Fat Bastard demon but that was more unhealthy. For the last five years I've been sober and a gym freak, I'm still a Fat Bastard but I make sure that fucker has more of a challenge than he used to. Life has been a lot better since I stopped working with the public and being my wife and son's {they're NOT the same person!} carer. I get more time to write {or at least think about writing} SWTWC - What other jobs have you had? MC - I've worked in 40c glasshouses from January to December cultivating tomato plants and their produce, I've been a Baker at Butlins, worked in the sterilisation unit of a hospital and been the Assistant Manager of Rymans. SWTWC - Tell us about your personal favourite novel of yours. Brag a little. MC - Your Frightful Spirit Stayed is basically written in blood. I learnt a few years back that it's therapeutic to write through pain, well, through any emotion, write how you feel, even if you use it at a future date for fiction. There's nothing more hard-hitting than true emotion. SWTWC - Does writing energize or exhaust you? MC - It can do both. I can go long times without writing. I'll put it off for ages until the idea almost takes on human form and hunts me down. SWTWC - What are common traps for aspiring writers? MC - Starting scenes with waking up. Dream sequences. And arguing with their editors. SWTWC - What is your writing Kryptonite? MC - Anything political or procedural that involves *yawn* actual research. SWTWC - Have you ever gotten reader’s block? MC - All the time. Which is why I never stick to one genre. I just read what I want to read. Can't just stick to horror, same with writing, people never really know what they're going to get from me. SWTWC - Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? MC - Perhaps I have. SWTWC - What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? MC - Too many to name but my good mates like Jonathan Butcher, Em Dehaney and Linda Nagle are the ones who tend to help iron out any creases in the soiled laundry of my work. SWTWC - What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? MC - Clive Barker was hard. When I was a teenager. Dunno why, limited imagination maybe {me, not he} SWTWC - What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? MC - When I was seven I overheard one of my sisters {they were all at least twenty years older than me} call someone a cunt. I asked what it meant and she said something mundane in the hope that I would just forget it and carry on with my daily life of pushing grannies under buses etc. But no. At school I was like 'cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt!' Move on to my twin friends seventh birthday party, I was the only friend allowed as I was a good boy, the whole family was there, aunts, uncles, their Eddie Munson-esque older brother and their archaic old grandmother. One of the twins called their older brother a cunt in front of the whole lot of them and after the shocked silence, aside from their brother almost chewing the insides of his cheeks away trying not to laugh, their mother asked where they had heard such a word. They pointed at me. SWTWC - What’s your favourite under-appreciated novel? MC - By me? Your Frightful Spirit Stayed. SWTWC - As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? MC - A dachshund. SWTWC - How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? MC - Lots. SWTWC - What does literary success look like to you? MC - Being able to pay the bills every month off just book sales. SWTWC - What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? MC - I usually write what I know or if it's something specific I'll read a book about it or watch some films to see what not to write. SWTWC - What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex? MC - Wanting to get it right and not being the opposite sex. SWTWC - How do you select the names of your characters? MC - Just randomly think them up. SWTWC - Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones? MC - Yeah. I don't deal with either of the good or bad unless they involve helpful criticism. Then I'll just take it on board and try and remember it for next time around. SWTWC - Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find? MC - Dunno about secrets but definitely in-jokes. SWTWC - What was your hardest scene to write? MC - A scene in FUR had me need to have a several month break whilst I tried to decide if I could write what my brain was telling me to write. SWTWC - Do you Google yourself? MC - Is this a sexual reference that I've not heard about? Otherwise, no. SWTWC - What is your favorite childhood book? MC - Probably something by either Roald Dahl or Robin Jarvis. SWTWC - I am a huge horror fan. Mainly of the mid to late 80’s. Do you love horror movies and what is ‘your’ go-to horror era and fave movie? MC - I do but I don't watch half as many as I used to. My favourite franchises are the Halloween and Omen ones. Plus I'm a big Hammer Horror fan. I grew up watching that stuff. The Wickerman is probably my most watched horror film. SWTWC - Favourite cartoons as a kid? What shows made you happy? MC - I just used to like all the Looney Tunes stuff back when they were allowed to show mindless violence and get away with it. SWTWC - You are on death row. What do you choose for your last meal. Pick a starter, main and dessert + a drink? MC - Starter - late-90s Christina Ricci, Main - Gillian Anderson straight after THAT first FHM shoot, Dessert - a Crunchie. SWTWC - what three bands/singers are on the soundtrack of your life.
MC - Aurora Aksnes
Nick Cave
The Divine Comedy
SWTWC - Does your family support your career as a writer?
MC - Yeah, but none of them ever read my shit. The only one person who would have would have been my mum. She was the one who I got my horror kink off but she died a long time before I was published unfortunately.
SWTWC - How long on average does it take you to write a book?
MC - I did The Glut during Nanowrimo last year. Never thought I'd be able to do it. If I strike whilst the iron is hot I can write them in a few weeks/months, but sometimes these things have been going on for years and I just finish a few in the space of one year and people think I'm more prolific than I am.
SWTWC - Do you believe in writer’s block?
MC - Yes. If you don't then you've not had it yet. Writing is a muscle, they need regular exercise to keep functional but also rest. Writer's block is your writey muscle saying 'dude, switch to input for a while. Chill. Put on some choons, or a film, read. Feed your muse, it's hungry, bub.'
SWTWC - What are you planning next?
There's a steak bake in the kitchen.
SWTWC - Thank you
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matthew-Cash/e/B010MQTWKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
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