Matthew Wagner
Novelist / Literary Fiction
Wrought by a Furious God
Historical / Dark Western
In the aftermath of a traumatizing betrayal, a young woman cries out for divine vengeance. The response comes in the form of two flawed men and a mysterious relic.
Complete at 90,000 words. Unpublished.
The View at Devil's Bowl
Mystery / Southern Gothic
In 1980 Alabama, a wily and irreverent sprint car driver investigates the murder of his car sponsor. He finds more rot than anyone in the small town could have imagined.
Complete at 74,000 words. Unpublished.
Split Horizon
Fantasy / Alternate History
A crew of pirates sailing for Nassau are transported to a different world. In their pursuit of either riches or a way home, they discover the biggest secret in the history of mankind.
In editing at 98,000 words. Part 1 of a series.
The hope is to create stories the way photojournalists capture moments, bringing to light something important and fascinating. To write at the human level. To be both fresh and timeless. Sometimes that means a deep philosophical musing, but more often it's simply telling what interesting thing happened and what an interesting character felt about it."The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always rises above falsehood, as oil rises above water. A good story is the vessel of that truth." (Cervantes, from Don Quixote, on how fictional tales can protect deeper realities.)It's funny. Anytime someone learns that I write novels, one of the first things they ask is: "What genre?" And what can I say? I like to bounce around. I attended a writing seminar once and we were asked to identify our biggest writing fear. Many of us stood to answer. Mine was that I had no genre. Although I've worked past being scared about that, the fact remains: I don't really have a genre. And I have no desire to settle on one.Maybe that's for the better. The great film directors we adore didn't corner themselves into genre, but blended and shifted and simply told great stories. I do love to explore a genre that I haven't written before, honoring the tropes and tendencies those readers enjoy, but staying true to my own style, and presenting whatever theme has my attention. Is that an approach that can deliver greater literary value? I don't know, its just how I go about picking my next project.I live in Texas with my lovely wife and three kiddos. If I'm not writing, I'm probably coaching youth soccer, camping, traveling, or smoking a brisket. If I must pick a favorite author, a few obvious answers come to mind–Hemingway, McCarthy, Fitzgerald. But let me go with an unexpected one. Give me Jack Schaefer, who wrote an outstanding literary western called Shane. Schaefer believed that even within a genre that was rife with formulaic slop (old pulp fiction westerns), an author could write novels of lasting literary quality. Shane proved exactly that. And if I can follow those footsteps, I'll be glad with wherever the path takes me.
Contact
Don't hesitate reach out and say hello. All of my work is available for beta reading. I'm not on social media often, so email is the most likely to be seen.