Matt L. Holmes Talks About Writing and No Brother of Mine

So far, I only know Matt Holmes through No Brother of Mine, his second novel, but I feel I know him very well. From his amazing wife, Vicki, I bought a copy of Matt’s book and so began my initiation into his writing and his attitude towards his work. Because of the long, well thought out answers Matt has written to my questions, I am dividing this instructive interview into two parts. The concluding segment will be posted next week.

Part I

1. No Brother of Mine, your second book, among other things tells the story of two brothers who have an abusive father. How did you keep from letting this plot become mundane and ordinary?

What a great question to lead off with, Elaine!  Unwinding the plot of No Brother of Mine a bit, I needed a reason for the two brothers to be estranged, and for it to be dramatic enough that the reader would feel it was both realistic and credible as a catalyst for such a significant rift between brothers.  That led me to the idea that the boys had decided to kill their father

 

7 Ways for Writers to Keep Motivated

Do you ever think it isn’t going to happen? That your dream to be published is just that, a dream? Does the list of necessary steps to holding your own brass ring just keep getting longer and more fraught with disaster?

Or are you totally focused, never frustrated, always sure of yourself, with nary a misstep to cause you to doubt?

If that last is you, go to the comments section and tell the rest of us how you do it. Please.

But if not, if hard work and teeth-gritting determination sometimes need help, read on.

Here are 7 things I do when doubt and lethargy come hand in hand to edge me away from my goals.

 

A Sad Anniversary

My brother many years ago.

December 12th is the 4th anniversary of my brother, Roger’s, death. I wrote this memory piece for him some time ago but am publishing it here as a remembrance of my wonderful brother. While this is personal, I have discovered on LinkedIn and other social media sites that writers are nothing if not a mix of people with thousands of very personal, very thought-provoking stories. And from the personal we draw the life-blood of our stories. If Roger were still here, he would be cheering me on with my writing.  This, then, is for him.

His Smiling Eyes

by Elaine Cougler

Roger died. At only fifty-four his heart gave out, his smiling eyes closed, and he left us. Left us all. His children and grandchildren, his wife, his brothers and sisters, and brothers and sisters-in-law, his many friends and many more acquaintances—he just up and died away, from us all.

He died on December 12, 2008 in the evening, at the hospital, after an ambulance ride during which he infuriated the paramedics with his humorous quips. They wanted straight answers from him to assess his situation but he just made jokes and they didn’t know if that was normal or not. Well, Roger was never in his life ‘normal’.

When he was born I was almost eight but he soon caught up to us older children. He mastered adding and subtracting before ever going to school and so quickly that Mom moved on to multiplication and division. Yes, he could do all that before he made his school debut. And he could read just about anything. I seem to remember him with the local newspaper, reading out stories to us at our large family dinner table.

He was a bit of a problem in school because he was