Matt Wallace

Matt Wallace is the Hugo–winning author of Rencor: Life in Grudge City, the Sin du Jour series, the Savage Rebellion series, and BUMP. He’s also penned over one hundred short stories in addition to writing for film and television. In his youth he traveled the world as a professional wrestler, unarmed combat, and self-defense instructor before retiring to write full-time. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nikki.

Twitter: @MattFnWallace

Instagram: @MattFnWallace

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

I love listening to movie soundtracks and film scores while I write. Scores in particular are great because they play like one extended symphony, and that makes for perfect background-style writing music for me. Some of my favorites in recent years I’ve had on rotation a lot are the soundtracks and scores from Mad Max: Fury Road, the first John Wick, and Netflix’s Luke Cage series. All-time favorites include the original Bill & Ted soundtrack (one of the greatest guitar soundtracks ever) and because I love Queen, the soundtracks they did for Flash Gordon and Highlander.

Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?

Absolutely. I love movies, and I’m also a screenwriter, so for me all genres and mediums of storytelling influence each other. I was an 80’s kid, and I feel like you can see the direct influence of the movies I grew up watching on my middle-grade novel, BUMP, especially things like The Karate Kid (and more recently Cobra Kai, which is brilliant) and Lucas, films that dealt with kids being bullied and learning to overcome it and gain confidence and a sense of self and find acceptance.

What’s the oddest thing a reader has ever asked you?

I was slated on a panel at a convention once that was about futurism in science fiction and how/if it influences the actual future. I was completely unqualified to be on that panel, and it was a weirdly hostile, argumentative crowd with a lot of hard opinions on the subject. After it was over a gentleman came up to the panelist table and started asking me questions about the Chinese biotech industry as if I was obviously an expert on the subject despite the last hour of evidence to the total and complete contrary. Fortunately, he neither seemed to mind nor notice I wasn’t answering his questions. He must’ve gone on for ten minutes. I still have no idea what the heck he was talking about, but it clearly meant a lot to him.

Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?

I wrote a seven-novella adult urban fantasy series that was about chefs in New York City, so food definitely is a big inspiration for my writing. My wife and I both love to cook and eat and food is always a major part of our travel, back when people traveled. The creative process of cooking definitely appeals to the side of me that writes, and so much culture, history, and even politics are wrapped up in our food and how we eat it. My wife would tell you I crave more of the sweet, but I think I go through phases. But I am a big snacker. I’m also a hopeless soda fiend. I really need to kick my Diet Dr. Pepper habit.

Is there a work of art that you love? Why? Have you ever visited it in person?

I have a framed print of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Pollice Verso on the wall of my office that my wife gave me for my birthday the first year we were together. It means a lot to me on several levels. We saw the actual work together on one of our first dates at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. I was a professional wrestler for many years, so the theme of gladiators is obviously a close one. And the image of these bloodthirsty wealthy elites presiding over the life and death of human beings as entertainment seems pretty relevant to the world we’re living in now.