matt doyle addict

Matt Doyle has done plenty of things in his life, and I think the leap from professional wrestler to published author could be one of the biggest. I thoroughly enjoyed Addict, a sci-fi mystery and cautionary talk about the tech age we live in. I got to chat with Matt and ask a few questions about life as a writer and his latest book release.

Cass, the main character in Addict, conjures up images of a young Lori Petty (coincidentally another character name!) for me. What was your inspiration for the character of Cass, and did you have the story or her as a character mapped out first?

Excellent! I like that comparison. I thought that Lori Petty did a great job as Tank Girl and couldn’t help but smile when she turned up in an episode of Gotham too. As for Cassie though, there wasn’t a specific character that she was inspired by, more a particular character type. When I wrote the book, I’d been watching both Blade Runner and The Maltese Falcon. Cassie was designed to be a homage to the vintage hardboiled detectives of pulp noir novels but thrown into a near future world. I wanted to explore how someone that worked and thought in that old school kinda way would fit with a more futuristic setting.

Technology moves so fast and our world leaders are up to some crazy sh*t. Does the future worry you? Should we be embracing it and do you think that technology is moving faster than the controls needed to be in place to protect us? 

I think that technology, and the way we’re developing it, has the potential to be a bit of a double-edged sword. Should we embrace it? Absolutely. We’re doing some wonderful things in everything from entertainment to transport and beyond, and those involved with the projects definitely deserve all the credit they get.

At the same time though, there are some potential problems. I’m not sure it’s that we’re moving too fast for controls to be put in place so much as it is that the people responsible for doing so don’t always have the best understanding of how the technology can be applied. Most things have very logical rules with regards to how they work, so it stands to reason that finding ways to control their use should be relatively workable. When you have people in charge with a lack of understanding of how regular users are applying the tech, that’s when problems arise.

Honestly, I do worry about how we’ll end up using some tech moving forward though. In that regard, Addict is a bit of a cautionary tale.

Wrestler to Writer – How, why, and are you enjoying the move?

I actually did both for a while. You see, I loved wrestling growing up and was desperate to get involved. When I hit my late teens, I found a local school and ended up sticking in the business for ten years. Over that time, I wrestled, I ran shows, I trained people, and I acted as a road agent. I even got to work with some people that have ended up in WWE and NJPW, so I had a good run overall.

Towards the end, I was busy submitting short stories to different magazines and anthologies with zero success. I ended up focussing on that when I made the decision to retire from the ring; injuries had piled up and it was beginning to worry my kids, so I called it a day. There are crossovers though. When it’s done well, wrestling is based on storytelling. Matches are built to evoke specific emotions, just like book chapters are.

I am enjoying the move though. Writing is a lot less painful!

What would be the top three things you’ve learned on the road to becoming a published author?

  1. There’s a lot of advice out there, and a lot of it contradicts other advice that you’ll come across. That can be pretty confusing when you start out, but you just need to remember one thing: the reason that there’s so much conflicting advice is that there’s not a right or wrong way to write in most cases. What works for one person or project won’t necessarily for another.
  2. Learn what works for you. Writing every day is great if you can do it, but that won’t work as a routine for everyone. Write when you can, but don’t beat yourself up if it just doesn’t happen once in a while.
  3. Keep at it! It can be a long road to travel, especially if you’re looking to go for traditional publishing rather than self-publishing, but if you keep moving forward, you’ll get there in the end!

Where in time and space are you off to next?

I’m working on a couple of things, actually. There are some ideas for a number of different titles in my head (and various loose sheets of paper in folder-of-unordered-stuff), but for the time being, my focus is on The Cassie Tam Files. The third book, LV-48, was signed by NineStar Press and is currently in editing. I’m hoping that will be out this year, but we shall see how it goes. I’ve just finished the plan for the untitled fourth book and will be beginning work on that soon, and then it’s on to planning the fifth and final book. With luck, books four and five will both appear next year, but I don’t want to rush them.

Grab yourself a copy of Addict here!

addict by matt doyle
Click the image to find out more about Addict

About Addict By Matt Doyle

New Hopeland was built to be the centre of the technological age, but like everywhere else, it has its dark side. Assassins, drug dealers and crooked businessmen form a vital part of the city’s make-up, and sometimes, the police are in too deep themselves to be effective. But hey, there are always other options …

For P.I. Cassie Tam, business has been slow. So, when she’s hired to investigate the death of a local VR addict named Eddie Redwood, she thinks it’ll be easy money. All she has to do is prove to the deceased’s sister Lori that the local P.D. were right to call it an accidental overdose. The more she digs though, the more things don’t seem to sit right, and soon, Cassie finds herself knee deep in a murder investigation. But that’s just the start of her problems.

When the case forces Cassie to make contact with her drug-dealing ex-girlfriend, Charlie Goldman, she’s left with a whole lot of long-buried personal issues to deal with. Then there’s her client. Lori Redwood is a Tech Shifter, someone who uses a metal exoskeleton to roleplay as an animal. Cassie isn’t one to judge, but the Tech Shifting community has always left her a bit nervous. That wouldn’t be a problem if Lori wasn’t fast becoming the first person that she’s been genuinely attracted to since splitting with Charlie. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the police wanting her to back off the case.

Easy money, huh? Yeah, right.

Who Is Matt Doyle?

Matt Doyle lives in the South East of England and shares his home with a wide variety of people and animals, as well as a fine selection of teas. He has spent his life chasing dreams, a habit which has seen him gain success in a great number of fields. To date, this has included spending ten years as a professional wrestler, completing a range of cosplay projects, and publishing multiple works of fiction.

These days, Matt can be found working on far too many novels at once, blogging about anime, comics, and games, and plotting and planning what other things he’ll be doing to take up what little free time he has.

Website: www.mattdoylemedia.com

Author Matt Doyle
Author of Addict – Matt Doyle