1. Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

I grew up in a lot of different places - my father retired when I was quite young, and we travelled around a lot. Spain, France and Panama are the three places where I've spent the most time.

Reading was always a part of my life. I was a very precocious reader; I was tackling 700-page books by the time I was 8, and I guess that was before I learned that when it comes to quality, size doesn't matter. Between the time I was 8 and 15, I read everything Stephen King had written up to that time, starting with "Christine". I read all of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels, John Jakes' "North and South" trilogy, and several of Jeffrey Archer's books as well. Then I slowly began drifting towards non-fiction, especially biographies, before settling on what I guess I read most now, literary fiction.

Writing was always my favorite part of going to school. When I was in fifth grade I thoroughly freaked out my entire class by writing a sci-fi story that began with the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding, 3 months before it actually did.

2. Why did you write your book?

While I was in college I worked as a political cartoonist and graphic designer. At the time I thought I'd like to write and draw Graphic Novels - you know, the kind of "serious" comic books popular in Europe. The idea for this book was a story I'd originally thought would make a great graphic novel. Over time my interests changed and I decided to keep the story but put it in writing.

3. Tell us about your book.

My book is about a young painter named Luis Mariano Malasaña who arrives in Madrid in 1851. He's kind of a mean guy with a bad temper, but he paints beautifully and he's sure that he's talented enough to become a successful portrait painter, at a time when Spain was pretty affluent and that was a good way to make a living. But things aren't working out, and he's drinking a lot, living in a shack. He gets drunk one night and accidentally kills his roommate. Shortly after that he finaally gets his big break, but he discovers - or at least believes - that everyone he paints dies immediately, through accidents, illness or the weather. But he's not about to let that stand in the way of his career.

4. At book signings, what do readers say to you about their interpretations of your book?

It's a very philosophical book, and the way the painter looks at things is a major part of the story, so my favorite comments have come from people who liked my handling of the painter's shifting attitudes. I worked hard to make him consistent...I hate it when I read a book whose character suddenly changes in an implausible, jarring way. Malasaña never becomes a softie or a nice guy. But the book follows him from age 24 to age 72, and of course his thoughts about people, life and love are bound to change with maturity even though his essential personality remains the same. Some readers have told me I showed that very well, and that means a lot to me.

5. What general advice do you have for writers who just completed their first book?

I hate to sound like a high school English teacher, but... There's no substitute for good grammar and correct spelling. Nothing will make a reader who's considering your book put it down faster than a lot of glaring spelling mistakes and incomplete sentences.

Of course much more than that goes into making a good book. I believe that by the time anyone becomes an advanced author, their handling of plot, pacing and character will show improvement over their earlier works. But spelling and grammar mistakes are the first ones that jump out at me in most beginners' works, and they're mistakes that you don't have to be an advanced author to spot and correct.

6. Tell me about your publishing experience-- Is it a difficult process to promote your own writing?

It is. Generally I'm happy with the service I've gotten from my publisher: iUniverse are easy to work with and they answer their e-mail promptly. But self-promotion is hard work and is not for the shy. I do all of my promotion over the internet, and trying to get attention on the net is like walking into a huge, crowded, noisy auditorium and yelling "Hey! Look at me!"

I set aside time for promotional activities at regular intervals, and have found some things that work better than others. The only times it kind of gets on my nerves is during weeks when real life eats into my schedule, and then I have to make a choice about what to do with my time - to write, or to promote?

7. Are you working on a follow up? Or something totally different?

My next book is going to be something totally different. It's a collection of 5 or 6 novellas about relationships that go wrong. Some of them are funny, some are deadly serious. I do have another historical novel in the planning stages right now, one that has a more complex plot than "Secrets of the Painter", and that is something of a thriller as well.

8. Have you written multiple books? Is it harder every time or does it get easier?

I don't really have enough experience to say for sure, but I think when I begin any writing project I already have ideas for specific events that need to be part of the story, and the hard part is tying them all together, shaping them into a consistent narrative and ultimately cutting out the parts I don't need. If I have a story and I start with points A and Z, and have really good ideas for what should happen at B, D and M - I still have to make sure the points in between are worth the reader's time and worth putting my name on.

9. What was the last book you read?

The last book I finished was Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan. I like all of his books that I've read, but my favorite of his is Amsterdam.

10. Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?

I grew up as an only child, so I had a lot of time to fill with hobbies. Reading is one, of course. I always make sure that I have a well-nourished TBR pile. I paint, I travel a lot and specialize in snapping pictures of interesting buildings with nobody around, pictures that look sort of like postcards. I collect old books, maps and letters. I write HTML and design web pages, too, which came in handy when time came to promote my book. The old books and letters will continue to be useful in my historical writing. When you think about it, people in 1887 who lived on a farm probably never saw or heard their elected officials, entertainers or authors. So if you take the time to learn about that world from authentic source documents like old magazines and letters, you can form your view of what that time was like with precisely the same tools that they did.

11. What advice do you have for those just starting out in their writing career?

First of all, don't give up! And read as much as possible. If you read something really bad, something that leaves you shaking your head - and there are a lot of throughly lousy bestsellers out there - ask yourself what's wrong with it, and make sure you don't make the same mistakes in your own work.

12. As a writer, what is the worst rejection letter you ever received?

I haven't gotten any really nasty ones, but I hate it when I hear nothing back at all. I'm left wondering if what I sent was just lost in the mail, or if the person who read it hated it so much they didn't even care to answer me!

13. Why do you write? 

I write because I love the process of craftsmanship that goes into selecting the right words to give a passage the precise shade of meaning I intend it to convey, and because I want to share my observations or my responses to others' observations concerning the subjects I write about.

14. Finally, please give our readers a brief synopsis of your book and a hyperlink to where they can purchase it. Be sure to include the price for each format.

Secrets of the Painter is a novel which explores the relationship between life, death, and art, through a painter's tumultuous life in 19th-century Madrid.

Orphaned, unknown, and destitute, Luís Mariano Malasaña arrives in Madrid in 1850 with nothing more than the dream of becoming his generation's Goya -- and the raw talent to actually make it happen. But as his portraits become popular and he paints his way into the class he portrays, he learns that his dream will have a terrible price: everyone he paints, dies. Convinced that he was born for no other profession, Malasaña will deal with harrowing questions both on and off the canvas, as his rise to fame brings him an ever more turbulent private life. His personal journey begins as a mere quest for success but becomes an odyssey which forces him to confront his own feelings about guilt and fatalism, death and life, and the true power of paint.

Price: $13.95, Trade Paperback

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595214355/

Barnes and Noble: http://bn.bfast.com/booklink/click?ISBN=0595214355

For Matthew's biography information, visit his website at: http://www.matthewhovious.com