accomplishment

New Name, New Project, New Stage of Life

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Hey there friends and fans! The new name is a fresh start that I hope you all enjoy. If not, I ask for feedback in any way possible! So, with college behind me, marriage and my future ahead of me, and a plethora of books to read ( and write, of course!, things have taken a new turn in my life! First and foremost I have started a new and awesome thing that I am very excited about. I’ve started an online book club!It’s on Youtube, which is a new way to take it (I think), and gives people multiple ways to respond. I really love to read and talk to everyone around me about the things that I’m reading, so this opportunity excites me to no end. I really hope that each and every one of you will take part in the book club with me.

The plan goes as follows; I’ll post a video each Thursday, presenting a rundown of the book that I’ve chosen for that week and give everyone the opportunity to purchase, check out or otherwise get the book in some format or another and begin their reading. The following Tuesday I will post another with my own commentary and we’ll take the next couple of days to discuss the book and our opinions as well as give suggestions for the next selection.

I look really forward to diving into this wholeheartedly. I hope you will all take part in it with me and make this a great way for bibliophiles to join in something meaningful that isn’t just social media browsing. If any of you know someone else who would be interested in this I ask you to share this post or the channel itself (which I will link below) with them and encourage them to take part. If we really get this thing going it could be a worldwide way for people to connect with the awesomeness of literature! If we can get some good commentary and a running discussion on YouTube with the book club I may even try to make posts here to continue the conversations and take them to a deeper level. Here is the link to the page;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC57mZlzf3sIL_rayJsxbFZQ

For everyone interested, the first book we are reading in the book club is “The Scarlet Gospels” by Clive Barker. It is the long awaited end of the infamous Pinhead character from Barker’s Hellraiser series, the Cenobite who made his first appearance in “The Hellbound Heart”.

Another thing I’ve got coming up that I encourage all of you to keep your eyes on is UpLive. UpLive is another blog site that I am going to be working with that is meant to inspire and encourage others, much like this one. The site is launching this Sunday (5/24/15) and will feature posts from myself and at least 8 other writers. We all will be discussing a huge variety of things and will each be putting our own unique spin on the topics at hand. I can’t say much more about the page yet, since it hasn’t really gotten started, but once we get going and get the bugs worked out I’ll make sure you all hear more. I will be referencing both blogs from now on and will be encouraging people from each one to visit the other and interact in the best ways possible. Here is the link to UpLive;
http://www.uplivedaily.com/

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. How about you all? What sort of things have been taking place in your lives? I love hearing from you guys and I hope you’ll all start being more vocal! Enjoy the post, the book club and UpLive and I WILL be back soon!

Times are changing!

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Hey everyone. I know I have been absent again, but hopefully that will be changing soon. As some of you know, I’m finishing up my final year of Undergraduate education. I graduate from my good school in May, meaning I’ll no longer be a college author! This means I need a name change here for one, but it also means that I should have more time to post again, bringing the blog back to what I meant it to be! Anyway, just a heads up, friends and fans. If you have any suggestions for a new name let me know, and as always if you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see here, feel free to comment below or message me directly!!!

New Works, Benefits

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Hey there friends and fans! What’s happening in your world this year? So far things have been going well for me. As you all already know I have started vlogging and writing a few new ideas. Those things are going pretty well, although I’m getting almost no views on my vlogs. It’s a good way to keep my head straight though. It helps me organize ideas and rant and vent. In a way I suppose the benefits are almost the same as those of writing in a diary or journal. I have put the links to the vlog in previous posts, so if you want to check it out, I welcome you to. Also, I have begun working on Wattpad in order to find myself in a new genre and gaining a new audience. I am working on a Fanfiction piece there. It’s a sequel to the film “Near Dark”, which is an absolutely fantastic movie. I feel it really deserves a sequel, so I took it upon myself to work on one that I hope will do the original storyline justice while giving it a modern touch.

In my experience so far, I feel like both of these are very good ways for authors and artists of just about any kind to work on their craft. It’s good to be able to vlog and share some things on Youtube, because there are obviously millions of viewers out there leaping for new things. It’s similar with Wattpad. It’s a good way to work on branching out and trying your hand at new types of work or putting a couple of chapters out there for people to read for free so you can see how well it is liked. This all being said, you have to be very careful with exactly what you share, of course. You don’t want to publish an entire novel on Wattpad and then try to get it published. People won’t want to pay for what they don’t have to. After all “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” Also, you don’t want to give to many plot ideas or any huge details of any works you may talk about in a vlog. All of that, of course, is up to you. But both are helpful. I feel that, just in the last few weeks, the use of these two things has helped me to branch out more as an author, which is what you want to do. You want to gain as much of an audience as possible, which can be very hard in a world where literature and literacy are falling deep into the recesses of technological advancement. But that’s a rant I’ve had more than once, and -spoiler alert- will certainly do again in the future. Everyone, have a great night, a great week, and I’ll post my Wattpad link below. Please read, subscribe and rate. Also, remember that anyone who gives me a review online between now and April will win a free copy of my next published work!

http://www.wattpad.com/user/DameanMathews

New Project and Free Stuff!

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Here we go guys, first promo of the year; I’m offering my bestselling work “The Reaper and Other Tales” absolutely free! The deal starts Sunday morning at 8 A.M. and runs through Tuesday morning at this link; http://www.amazon.com/Reaper-other-tales-Damean-Mathews-ebook/dp/B00FSJX8DE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1420832406&sr=1-2

But there’s more!! Anyone who reviews my work online will receive a free copy of my next published work as well! I know, it changes the contest I was running before, but I think this is better. Every single person who gives a review on my work will receive a copy of my next work absolutely free of charge!

In addition to this deal, I have started working on a couple of things (one of which is available for free). I made a Wattpad account and I’m using it to write a piece of Fanfiction to explore a new genre and present a sequel to one of my favorite movies. The movie, Near Dark, is one that everyone should watch and my sequel “Near Dawn” picks up ten years later and it is free to read on Wattpad;http://www.wattpad.com/story/30168510-near-dawn

Two more things for this post; A) there’s a new vlog up, so check it out!! and B) I updated my website today, so check that out, too! mathewsbooks.wix.com/dameanmathews

Have a great day, I hope you enjoy all of my work. Feedback is always welcome!!

Networking is Key

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Greetings people! It has been a while since I made an honest to goodness blog post that wasn’t just an update on myself. This one, long overdo, is going to be moderately short unless I run into a rant, which many of you know is very possible for me. I want to talk a little bit about networking, though.

Networking is incredibly important for any author, from the newcomer that was just published an hour ago to the man who has had 50 books published over 20 years. Without networking hundreds, if not thousands, of books (and authors) can go unnoticed, fall through the cracks and be left by the wayside. This is the last thing any of us want to happen to ourselves- and the last thing I want for any of you, faithful friends and fans! So what do we do to combat it? Network. Network. Network.

What is networking,some of you may ask. It is, quite simply, spreading your name and work as far and wide as you can, especially to those people whom you know are interested in your particular style or genre.Networking might sound like an easy thing to do, but believe me, that isn’t always the case. There are 7 billion some odd people in the world, and while the chances of anyone else writing your exact same piece are fairly slim, there are countless others who are writing in a genre or style comparable to yours, don’t kid yourself for a second to think otherwise. That’s not to say your work isn’t important, don’t get me wrong. Like I’ve said before; if there is a work inside you that wants out, it is for a reason and you owe it to yourself, the world and the work itself to get it out there to the best of your ability.

Networking can help with that. One way to do this, of course, is to blog about your work to others who may be interested. Another, and very important way, is social media. Social Media can be a huge help, or a huge dud for authors. There are hundreds and hundreds of pages of people trying to promote their own work, or the work of someone else (and I’m a part of a number of them for this very reason) but there are going to be people on there who will want to hear what you have to say. This is one thing that can be your saving grace. If you can find the right circle of people to market to on social media, a good portion of your networking is kind of done for you.

LinkedIn and other sites of the like are sometimes helpful, particularly if you can find other authors who are in your boat. Building relationships with other authors and readers is another way that you can be exceedingly successful. If your audience knows you on even the most superficial of personal levels, they’ll be more interested in hearing what you have to say and reading your work. One way to build this relationship and allow others in for interaction is by making a website. It gives you a way to show everything you do and allows others to comment directly to you in any way they’d like. Being a part of chats, symposiums and anything that allows authors and readers to interact can be hugely helpful. Really, anything that allows your potential audience to see the human side of you and make you more than just a name on a piece of paper. This is what is going to help.

I’m preparing to begin taking the symposium route this summer, as I have been asked to present at the Appalachian Heritage Writer’s Symposium at Southwest Virginia Community College in June. I made a post about that late last year, but as a recap I’m doing a presentation on a topic that, right now, is roughly titled; “Zombies and the Undead in Appalachian Literature”. All of the information about the symposium can be found here; https://appheritagewritersym.wordpress.com/ The site will be updated with specifics on each presenter and their workshops soon, so check back on it often. Hopefully some of you will attend, because I’d love for you all to have the experience- because I can attest to how enriching it truly is- and because I’d LOVE to meet you all.

In addition to this, I have created a vlog channel in order to attempt to let you all and fans of my other work see a bit into my life and see who I really am. The vlog channel will also include advice and talks of my works, and will see much more regular entries than this site does. That’s not because I favor it or anything, but because it’s much easier to pull out my phone and film a few minutes of me talking than it is for me to rush to a computer (or just an area with good phone signal) and pull up a website or an app and type everything out. The link to that channel is here; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EU_YW9qBDfFWAB01Nc6wA It’s very new, but I hope you’ll all watch and subscribe.

Anyway, I’ll cut this off for tonight. Anyone with comments, questions or any concerns is always welcome to contact me in any way possible. I look very forward to hearing from everyone! Good luck, Good year, and Happy Writing!!

Big Things!

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Greetings friends and fans! I know, I know, absences of late have been dreadful, but what can I say? School and work have been taking a great deal of my free time, and what they haven’t consumed I’ve been spending working on a number of things ranging from my three jobs, NaNoWriMo, and life in general.

Number two in the list of awesome things I have to tell you guys is the most recent and the one that may not excite any of you (although I sincerely hope you’ll all check it out). I have started my very own vlog series, to give everyone a glimpse inside the life of a college author (don’t you just love it when they use the title in the work itself…) and to show my friends and fans who I really am. Too long have I remained just a voice in the black and white, a light in the darkness (at least to me), now I want people to really see me for me!! So here’s your chance;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EU_YW9qBDfFWAB01Nc6wA
Finally, the very exciting and next to oldest news; I have been asked to be a presenter at the 2015 Appalachian Heritage Writer’s Symposium at SWCC! The Appalachian Heritage Writers Guild reached out to me and asked me to do a presentation relating zombie, the undead and horror fiction to the Appalachian region. They literally told me that they feel I am successful enough in my genre that I am fully ready and capable to teach it to others! The feelings that gave me! I couldn’t describe if I tried! I was elated and honored and touched and moved and excited and scared…and so many other things! Anyway, more information on all of these things is to come, but in the meantime you have the link to my Youtube channel so please subscribe and view and interact all you wish! In case anyone might be interested in attending the symposium this summer, here is the link to that information; https://appheritagewritersym.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading and being a part of this, guys. I really hope you all participate and stay in touch!

Halloween Collection!!!

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Just as a reminder on this most epic of holidays, I have been featured in a very awesome Halloween collection of shorts and I would love for everyone to get it and let me know what you think. Below are links for both a paid and free version of the collection (the free one is in PDF format) and I would love it if everyone would get it, share it and read at least my story (because I want you all to love it) and let everyone know about it. There are a lot of authors in here who really deserve the recognition, so let’s help them out!!!

http://writersanarchy.com/press-releases/fwg-presents-halloween-drabbles-free-fiction

Completing my first novel

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Today I think it would actually be beneficial to explain a bit about my biggest work; Maverip and its subsequent series. The work itself is one thing that I am most proud of in my life. It took three years to write the first novel in the series, and at the end of those three years I felt like I had finally accomplished something I could really be proud of. I spent three years on this work, not just writing and thinking, but researching. That was one of the most important parts of the novel. I had to look into the vast depth of vampire lore and rip it apart to find what I felt I needed. I have spent the last five years of my life immersed in a literal plethora of everything vampire, and I couldn’t be happier. I am one of the biggest vampire fans you will ever meet, and now I am basically an expert on nearly all things vampire too. But I’m not trying to brag here, that is farthest from my purpose. I’m just trying to really share the depth of my experience.

I spent three years with almost nothing but Maverip on the mind. I did and still do eat, drink and breathe vampire, and I wouldn’t accept anything less with my life. I love it. That is one reason I tell you all that you have to write about something that you are passionate about. It is the reason I became a writer of fiction, especially horror fiction with a specialty in vampires. It’s something I’ve always been nuts about.  That’s what makes it so easy to just dive in. Writing about it is just about the most natural thing in the world and the research has given me so much more added knowledge on something that I absolutely love.

In a manner writing this series has basically been less than work in any way and more of an immensely fun and incredibly life-changing event for me. When I ponder the work, its history and it future, I feel like it is something that will change the world. That is a feeling you just can’t help but love. I think about these novels and they make me realize how blessed and lucky I am to have the gift of being able to write as I do, and I am eternally thankful and grateful to God for giving me this gift and allowing me to attempt to share this series with the world.

Thus far the hardest part of this has been trying to find a publisher who will give me a good deal. Granted many people look at my subject matter and think that it will fall short of the expectations of some, I must assert that one of the biggest things I have attempted to do with this series is return to the true origins and roots of vampire tales. But that will come later, especially once the work has actually been picked up. Basically the point of this post has been to give an insight into my experience and to help you guys get to know a bit about me personally. I hope it has been interesting at least. My next post will include something that’s actually helpful, I promise. Thanks guys.