Seven questions... with Brian W. Matthews

1. Who are you and what do you do?
   My name is Brian Matthews, and by day I’m a financial planner.
2. What are you working on at the moment?
   The cute answer is responding to these questions. As it relates to writing, I am putting the finishing touches on my first novel.
3. Who inspires you?
1. Name an artist who has inspired you.
   There are many artists/writers who have inspired me, but one I normally do not mention is Robert McCammon. His writing is sheer beauty.
2. Name a place that has inspired you.
   The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My family has a cabin up there, in the middle of nowhere—no phone, no electricity, nada—and visiting it helps me relax.
3. Name some "thing" that has inspired you.
   My 1959 Fender Stratocaster. It was a wedding gift from my wife. While I’m not much of a guitarist, playing the Strat can be inspirational.
4. What drives you to do what you do?
   The sheer joy of creating. Despite the fact that writing is probably one of the loneliest and most frustrating efforts known to man.
5. What values do you wish your creativity to express?I try not to project any specific values in my stories. I value the story itself; any other “values” come from the story, not from me. If I were to be honest with myself, though, I’d have to admit my subconscious probably has a hand in this somewhere.
6. What role does community play in what you do?
   As a writer, community provides feedback to help me improve my craft. And being a human being (and hence having an ego), I’m also pleased when the community likes what I have written.
7. What is next for what you do?
   After I’ve finished my current novel, I’m going to start on my next one. A ghost story, I think.

My thanks go to Brian for completing my wee blog interview. For more on Foreshadows... go here > http://foreshadows.net/index.html