Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a TV writer, novelist, playwright and screenwriter who has been writing for television for the past twenty years, including such shows as House, Pretty Little Liars, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Medium, JAG, The Glades, Homicide, Judging Amy, and Women’s Murder Club. I’ve written four mystery novels that were published by Signet: Breakfast at Madeline’s, Grand Delusion, Strange Bedfellows, and The Killing Bee. My latest novel, The Necklace, has been optioned for film by Appian Way and Cartel Pictures, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached as producer.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest novel, The Necklace, comes out in September from Oceanview Publishing.
Nine years ago, I read an article in the Glens Falls Post-Star about a woman from a small town in upstate New York who was holding a fundraising event at a local bar. She needed money to travel to the upcoming execution of the man who had raped and murdered her young daughter twenty-two years before.
Everything about this story stuck with me: not only the tragic death, but also the woman’s dire circumstances and her quest to find justice and closure two decades later.
For years I wanted to write a novel about this, but I didn’t know what the story would be. Then one day I was having coffee with a writer friend, John Henry Davis, and he suggested: “What if the guy who’s being executed maybe didn’t do it?”
And that’s how The Necklace was born.
After I wrote the novel, I discovered something amazing. There is a woman in Idaho named Carol Dodge who devoted her life to proving that Christopher Tapp, the man imprisoned for raping and killing her daughter Angie many years earlier, was innocent. Thanks to Carol’s relentless efforts, Tapp was finally set free and the real killer, Brian Leigh Dripps, was arrested.
Talk about life imitating art!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to ride my bike to a coffee shop in the morning, chat with the other writers there, and then get down to two or three hours of writing. That way I get to start my day with three of my favorite things: exercise, socializing, and writing.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Throughout my life, two writers have inspired me the most: Dr. Seuss and Elmore Leonard. Dr. Seuss wrote with such freedom and wealth of imagination, and I believe has had a tremendous, underappreciated impact on so many writers who came after him. Elmore Leonard wrote with such economy of language, and such wonderful realistic dialogue, that I still marvel when I reread his work today.
In the past five or ten years, when I’ve been gobbling down psychological thrillers like candy, there are so many writers who have inspired me. Here’s a partial list: Gillian Flynn; Harlan Coben; Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen; Laura Lippman; Jessica Knoll; A.J. Finn; Paula Hawkins; Shari Lapena; Karin Slaughter; Mary Kubica; Lisa Lutz; Ruth Ware; Linwood Barclay; Fiona Barton; Lisa Jewell; JP Delany; and Hollie Overton.
What are you working on now?
A new novel called Clickbait, about a podcast reporter investigating a cold case.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do my best to connect with bloggers who have reviewed and enjoyed novels similar to The Necklace.
My website is mattwittenwriter.com.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write!
What are you reading now?
The Thursday Murder Club.
What’s next for you as a writer?
After I finish Clickbait, I’m writing a TV pilot called Brainstorm, about a young neuroscientist who gets kidnapped with her blind date and thrown into a high-stakes intrigue about a weapon of mass destruction that she herself accidentally created
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Good question! A Jeeves novel by PG Wodehouse, and I’m not sure about the other two.
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