Thank you so much for joining in the fun!
I’m Matteson (pronounced Madison, in case you’re curious). Pleased to meet you! No really, I’m thrilled you’re here.
So this here is my website, my Internet home, where I share stuff that’s happening while I’m writing, editing, and generally faffing about doing stuff. I’d describe my writing style as Ilona Andrews meets Janet Evanovich with a little Charlaine Harris thrown in: strong female protagonist, plus magic, plus a side order of humor. I aim to make you laugh hard enough to spit milk out your nose/laugh out loud in public/emit a gigglesnort at least once a novel. Preferably once a chapter.
But why do I write urban fantasy of all things?
Because I want more magic in our world!
Life has too much broccoli in it—and I really hate broccoli. More magic, less broccoli, this is my quest.
Seriously, couldn’t we all use a little more magic in our days?
Speaking of which, wanna play “Pick a Magical Power” with me? If you could wield any kind of magic power, what would it be? Choose an answer from the poll, then leave me a comment below to let me know what you picked and why. If your magical choice isn’t on the list, I’m curious what you’d prefer, so let me know that, too.
Loading ...What did I choose? Right now, I kind of have a three-way tie going. I’d like to teleport—it’d make life so much easier and much more exciting. But I’d also love to talk to animals and plants. Although, I’m not sure I’d ever sleep soundly again if I knew what my Feline Overlords were really up to….
So, thanks again for coming by. Check out my blog to see what I’ve been up to lately. And please say hi in the comments or come by and visit me on social media.
Let’s have some fun, shall we?
32 comments
So there’s this comic book called Invincible where one of the main characters has the ability to manipulate atoms. This is amazing because not only can she turn anything into anything (I.e. can work on solving world hunger by turning dirt into food, and is never without something needed), she can manipulate densities allowing her to fly! So yeah, I was totally going to pick that power and then your poll offered up traveling to other dimensions. Screw solving world hunger. I’m going world hopping.
Your comment made me giggle! I thought about adding “transmutation” to the list of powers, but I wasn’t sure if it was too amorphous a power. But that power from “Invincible” sounds super cool—it reminds a bit of the way Antman manipulates molecules. Now I want to read “Invincible” 🙂
I would love to pick up an instrument – musical or technical – and connect with it, intuitively know how to bring out it’s best
Oh I love that! I’d love to be able to really talk with an instrument, too.
I picked teleport from the poll, because one of the trips I have to make every week takes about two hours on public transit each way (so I spend almost as much time getting there and back as I do working), or if I use Uber or Lyft I spend almost as much money on the commute as I earn for the day.
But running a close second is the ability to communicate with animals, so I can understand better my cats start talking.
I hear you about shortening the commute! And I’d love to talk to animals, too. We’ve got some strays I’m trying to make friends with, and it’d help a lot if I could just talk to them!
Just talk to the cats anyway. In normal times I do that with all the shelter cats I work with. They get used to it being you and they can tell from your engaging with them that you’re not to be feared. Just be sure there’s somebody visible to be talking to in case the neighbors see you!
I always wish for healing like in Dean Koontz’s Watchers. Powers spread from one person to another through healing. Eventually, everyone could be gifted! What a wonderful world that would be.
Okay, that’s awesome. What a fantastic idea. Now I’ve got to go read that book!
Oops! I got confused. Watchers is his book about an intelligent dog (another very good book!). Strangers is the one about powers. I very much recommend it.
Excellent. I’ll add both to my “To Read” list!
Healing also would be my pick. I would love to have saved my family and friends. Time travel would be cool too. One more day and all that. I was addicted to the TV show “Timeless”. What a fun way to teach history!
I picked reading minds because then a person could never deceive me.
I would love many of those options however, Travel in Time, is my selection given we can only choose one of them. Dimensional travel is the next best choice or telekinetic powers of any kind would be truly awesome! Flying – need I say more on that ability?! Psychic powers, reading thoughts, communicating with plants and animals would be exceptional as well. I suppose travelling through/in time might give me that option if I could go far enough into the future to discover the how to. (Greedy much?? HaHa!)
Oooh, as a Dr. Who fan, I totally get what you’re saying about time travel. I’d love to go back and visit ancient civilizations. Library of Alexandria? Yes please! Of course, I’d need some kind of TARDIS interface, Babel fish, or some other gizmo so I could read and speak all the languages.
It’s a hard decision. I’m already a Tarot reader and a Master Level Reiki Master Healer in 7 different Modalities, so I am really looking at Animal Communication. But also Teleporting because of the convenience. I have a bad back so walking is an issue. I love the idea above about sharing gifts through healing. I can and do teach Reiki but it would be wonderful to share it through a treatment!!
I know, it’s hard to just pick one. I keep changing my mind!
But…….but …….but I LIKE broccoli : stir fry with bacon bits and rice , or as a soup with truckloads of grated cheese
As for the super power : move objects with your mind…….do you know how heavy a sofa can be ?
While I’ll gladly eat the bacon, rice, soup, and the entire truckload of cheese, I will happily leave all the broccoli to you to enjoy 😉 Also, I LOL’d when I read that about the sofa. An excellent—and true—point!
I chose talking to animals, like a majority of your fans. I’m already known as the Cat Whisperer at the shelter where I volunteer socializing the neediest cats. It would be helpful to get a better hint on what those kids are thinking before I get my hands too close. Not that I’ve ever been hurt where it wasn’t my fault for going too fast, but still. But now that I’m getting older and stiffer, I have to agree with Nancy about moving objects, it would make vacuuming so much easier. I don’t agree about the broccoli though, so she can have mine too 😉
BTW, I loved A House for Keeping. What a wonderful new twist on the usual witch/paranormal cozy. I do hope you have a lot of ideas for more books and can get around to sending them our way.
Hi Rosalie! Thanks for taking such good care of our feline friends. I’d love to be an animal whisperer too, if only to communicate with the stray cats who visit us. Heck, I’d just love to know what my Feline Overlordess is thinking! And I’m so delighted you enjoyed A House for Keeping. Thank you for reading. There are more books in the series for you to read when you’re ready. A Pool for Company is book 2, and A Talent for Trouble is book 3, about to be released Sept. 25, 2020.
I’m halfway through A Pool for Company already and am doing a happy dance about book 3 coming so soon!
I picked Time Travelling – I love history and I’d love to travel back in time, visit my favorite time periods/civilizations and stay back in the one I fancied the most. I also pick Moving Objects With Your Mind – that’ll always come in handy regardless of what time period I live in !
Great combo! If I got to travel in time, I’d love to visit some of the great wonders of the world before they disappeared, like the Library of Alexandria.
Thank you for inviting me. I would love to teleport. I will teleport to Europe every day to see my parents, family friends. That would be awsome. We cannot travel since Covid. Teleport would be awsome to visit many places and meet people.
Teleporting sounds particularly awesome right now, given the Covid restrictions! I was in the UK this time last year and I’d love to be able to pop over and have Covid-safe, socially-distanced tea with my friends.
Thank you, thank you for the diversion from this mad, crazy world! I picked up “A House for the Keeping” on the “Free Kindle Books and Tips” blog I think. Thank you for letting it be there! Thank you for letting it be on KU! I read a book a day or so (and feel guilty about that as I know writers bust their butts to get book out, and it sure takes so, so, much longer than it takes for me to read.) Anyway, I loved it and started “A Pool” as soon as I finished “A House.” Of course the instant I finished that, I opened “A Talent.” What a joy! So much to take in in this series! The final bit of “A Talent” had me wondering how involved Wil had actually been in some of the adventures so I went back to Amazon and bought all three and started the first book all over again.
The quality of writing, inventiveness and the depth of the story line are amazing. Do you have a giant wall full of post-its, pins and strings? How do you do this!!!!! With your story line, I feel like you are Zo and I am a very thin shadow of Finn. To all my questions I hear you say “not yet” or “you’re not ready” and I sigh and REALLY don’t want to have to wait for answers.
So, thank you for a brilliant set of book! I was disappointed to find that book 3 came out 4 days before I started book one only because I’m totally greedy about brilliant books that draw me in so well. This is where a time machine would come in handy. I could pop forward 5 years from now and get 5 more books, ding, ding, ding, ding…….happy dance!
Since you are obviously also a reader of much, check out Carol Van Natta’s “Overload Flux.” Like you, a great writer with amazing world building skills and her characters are fascinating whole people. A wonderful rabbit hole to drop into.
Thank you again for being you!
Stay safe,
Lynn
Hi Lynn, Thanks so much for reading and for the glowing praise. I’m so happy my books give you a break from all the crazy! I’m already working on book 4, so there’s more to come. And thank you for the book rec. Like you, I’m an avid reader so I’m always delighted to get recommendations for goodies!
Hmmm… I just selected talking with animals but I’m thinking you should probably also include the ability to shut them up… not sure if I wanted a running commentary from cockroaches in the restaurant’s kitchen while I’m dining!
LOL!!!
As an animal lover I picking “talking to animals” was a no brainer. I am owned by a Senegal parrot, and there are many times I have wished to understand why he is doing what he is doing. And getting him to listen to what I am trying to say would be fantastic.
I’m SO with you on wishing I could up my “Dr. Dolittle” game. I laughed at the “I am owned by” because I am also owned by pets; Feline Overlords in my case. I can’t tell you how many times a week I’m like, “Dude, we need to work on our communication.” P.S. I just looked up “Senegal parrot” and they’re so pretty!