Hello fellow book lovers,

Join me as I chat with Matt Stone about his book The Immortal Witness

Interview with Matt Stone
Author of The Immortal Witness

Hello Matt, great to have you here. Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

Hello! Good to be here. ☮️💚 I am a life-long Northern-Californian “free spirit” that has now settled down in a small town outside of Sacramento to raise my family. I have been writing ever since I was able, but, starting at 13 I took a 20-year hiatus due to alcoholism. I had turned to booze to deal with my father’s abusive ways, and it wouldn’t be until I was 33 that I began to see things clearly for the first time in my life.

Now, 11 years alcohol-free, I have finally been able to understand myself. I am an author and book-editor, just as artists are called to their brush or chisel. This is who I have always been, I was just hidden behind pain and self-destruction. The emergence has been wonderful 🥰 My inspiration was always a great love of language. We humans have been blessed with so many words and so many combinations to convey our feelings, that to be able to use those words to elicit deep feelings within others, even from all the way across the globe…is pure magic.

But my direct inspiration for my first novel was very different. While I had been attempting other works at the time (2020), I was struck to write something to address the US’s/world’s state of upheaval. Pandemic. Political mayhem. The entire Napa Valley was burning, blanketing our world in smoke for weeks on end. Peaceful protesters being slaughtered in the streets, and POC getting murdered like it was the 1950’s again… I HAD to write…

Wow, Matt. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot but emerged out the otherside stronger than ever. Well done. Can you tell me about your book?

~It began with short story about a young black girl getting racially targeted and then murdered on her birthday. I sobbed the entire time, and still do every time I read it. But it represented someone’s current reality, and perhaps millions of realities, historically. I couldn’t let her end in death, though. There had to be more. So, that little girl’s energy went back to the great pool of energy from which we all emerge. It welcomed her eagerly. But, it still needed more. SHE, needed more. It was then that I tapped into a belief of mine: that all organized religions are simply different branches of the same tree. Thus, in my book, all the world’s greatest teachers of peace… became one. One taco-loving pissed off ball of energy sent to save the humans from themselves. One eternal Being that has attempted to spread its understanding of balance and harmony, but it has constantly been foiled by humanity’s hubris. In fact, that little girl wasn’t even there anymore to suffer when she was murdered, it was the Being, and it can take it.

~This is how what would become the second chapter of ‘The Immortal Witness’ came to be. Its full length is now a complete finger-wagging at humanity. SHAME! “This story involves some of the greatest evils that humanity has created and still perpetuates. I am bringing them to light so that positive progress may forever continue.”, as my trigger warning states. Specifically, its chapters include: parental drug addiction, domestic abuse and home abortion, clergy SA, machismo, the apocalypse, and tacos with cilantro.

The theme is “Bad Humans! Knock it off, morons!”, “but very peacefully written” as one reader put it. Another just recently called it: “Breathtaking. Undeniably relatable to all walks of life. Every page inspires self-inflection and awe. Be ready to feel the entire spectrum of human emotion. Beautiful.”

I just published TIW in May of this year, a work of Speculative Fiction, and it has also already been compared to ‘Siddhartha’, something that this author takes as a personal high-five from life. Mindblown!

Sounds like an emotional rollercoaster. What else are you working on at the moment?

A few months ago, while looking at a commercial for the game Animal Crossing, my brain made a connection between the word “crossing” and “crucifixion”. Jesus was crossed…

I now have a full novel out to alpha readers, in the theme of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, called Animal Crossing - A Novel. AC is set in a post-apocalyptic waste were humans are gone and animals have taken their place, but are still clinging to human beliefs. Where Orwell focused upon political themes, AC has a focal point of the misuse of religion within organized society. It will hopefully be out by the end of the year.

Interesting! What have been the highs and lows of the author life for you?

I recently had a free promotion of both ebooks and I got my books into the hands of over 250 new readers over the course of three days. Pretty awesome feeling! Which is the opposite of my first book-signing, where only 3 people showed up, all close friends. I guess I haven’t quite overcome that low yet, as I have not done another signing.

Just keep swimming!

Yes, indeed! Keep swimming. Do you have any tips on marketing for indie authors? (I know we all seem to struggle with this one!)

I have really been enjoying Threads and the wonderful connections that I’ve been able to make there. On threads, one can just market by being themselves and showing interest in fellow humans. Its self-promotion in the best of ways.

If you could give your past self some advice, what would it be?

Not to spend 2 years attempting to be traditionally published, and to have just published The Immortal Witness myself right after it got back from the editors. I would have been so much further along. C'est la vie 🤷‍♂️

I think not getting hung up on trad publishing is a big one that many indie authors tell me. Trad isn’t the be all and end all it used to be! Do you have other things you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

I too enjoy gaming. Last year we got the family a Switch, and I have been forcing the kids to play all of the original Nintendo games before they get to move on to the more intricate ones. It’s been a blast! I also enjoy reading and the outdoors. Reading IN the outdoors. All combinations of the two.

Thanks so much for chatting. Is there anything else you’d like to add and where can readers pick up your books?

My second book is called My Valley, and it is inspired upon my own youthful adventure into the loving arms of mother nature, where I lived for a year in attempts to “find myself”. It is classified as YA, and it is meant to help teenagers find their own balance as they head towards adulthood.

Find Matt Stone on Facebook , Instagram @instamatt007, or LinkTree

Thank you for reading.

Lydia x