Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Zee Introduction

It's kind of fitting that I'd be posting this on Saint Patrick's Day. Fitting because I adore the Irish above practically every other culture (my other half is primarily an Irish/French-Canadian blend; she's got some interesting stories about her Irish grandfather, but that's neither here nor there). But it's also fitting because I like to imagine that if I'd lived in an earlier time (and on the Emerald Isle), I'd be one of the Irish bards. That and I'm just eccentric enough to make it work.

And on to my introduction. I'm going to eschew doing the interview in L.T.'s head (it's awfully crowded in there already), and just give you some general background like I'm profiling one of my characters. So here goes.

Name: Matthew D. Delman
Age: 26
Height: 6 foot
Weight: Average (what you thought I was going with actual pounds?)
Hair color: Brown
Eye color: Hazel
Favorite book: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Favorite author: Terry Pratchett
Style of writing: Fantasy/sci-fi/horror blend with a focus on steampunk
Brief biography: A native of Upstate N.Y., Matthew moved to Eastern Massachusetts with his parents in 2004. He transferred colleges (again) to Salem State College, from where he received his Communications degree in 2006. The youngest of three children, Matthew took a job first as a newspaper reporter in Gardner, Mass., and then shortly moved to a large regional publication in North Andover. He worked for that company for two years before taking a job with the press-release distribution company he now works for.

In 2009, Matthew was married to a fellow Salem State alum who also studied Communications. Their "love story," if it can be called that, has an interesting turn in that when Matthew and his wife began dating, they discovered that roughly half of their friends were mutual and they had the same professors (different class times), and knew many of the same people.

Matthew has been telling stories since the age of 5, and wrote them down intermittently until high school when he began work on his first "drawer novel." Now he's serious about publication. Watch out world!
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So yeah -- that's me in a nutshell. Well, no I'm not actually IN a nutshell. Though that would be kind of cool. Hmm ... writing a story about a guy in a nutshell.

12 comments:

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Wow. It was awesome getting to know more about you, Matt! Great bio. :-)

P.S. The blog looks fabulous!

Stephanie Thornton said...

Awww... I didn't know that about your love story. Very cool!

Joshua McCune said...

Ah, to be 26 again -- pre-head surgery... pre-head crowding... pre-Twilight ;)

L. T. Host said...

WF and I have a similar story-- we discovered after we'd started dating that we'd worked at the same place at the same time for at least a year but never met, and that we shared quite a few mutual friends. Apparently, we were destined to meet-- the same for you and yours, too!

Jemi Fraser said...

I read a ton of Terry Pratchett's stuff in high school - I might just have to pick up one of his books for old time's sake :)

Amalia Dillin said...

My husband started taking all the classes I was in when I wouldn't date him, and then started insinuating himself into my group of friends.

He'll tell you that he only took the classes because he thought they were interesting, but mostly he was just stalking me.

I didn't realize you were a New Englander! I was raised in upstate New York, myself, too.

Rick Daley said...

Young people...

Matthew Delman said...

Shannon and Stephanie --

Thank you, ladies.

L.T. --

Yes, that particular discovery was accompanied by me asking a mutual friend why the hell she didn't take it upon herself to introduce me to my wife years ago.

Bane --

Oh how I wish we were pre-Twilight.

Jemi --

I adore Pratchett, but know I could never hope to write like him. So I just enjoy a master.

Amalia --

I "slightly" stalked my wife before we started dating. On the day she gave me her phone number, I drove down to the bookstore she worked at with the intention of "running into her." Lo and behold, she ends up getting into the checkout line right in front of me.

So of course I did what any semi-sane person would do: got out of line and called her cell to make sure it was her, then hung up quickly, checked out and waited for her in the parking lot. Oh wait, I said it was semi-sane. Oops.

Rick --

*grin*

That is all.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

Rick stole my line!

And I am so using that "call her cell phone to make sure it's her in line, then hang up" scene in a future YA story I'm going to write!

BTW, what color is hazel, exactly?

Matthew Delman said...

Susan --

Feel free to use that line. I actually told my wife that story after we'd been dating almost a year. Her reaction was priceless (along the lines of "What? You were stalking me?"). I still maintain I was only slightly stalking her.

My eyes are a blend of tan around the iris, a ring of blue, and a ring of green. From a distance it looks like a tawny brown, which is what I always assumed hazel was.

That and hazel is easier to say than give the full description (yes I have looked at my own eyes in detail. I'm a writer. I need to know these things).

Harley May said...

You're so young! Great beginning, Matt. Thanks for sharing a bit of yourself. Look forward to future blogs. :)

dolorah said...

Ah, how sweet. The violins are playing in my head for you and your wife.

I have enjoyed your blog, and am looking forward to your posts here Matt. Thanks for sharing some of yourself with us.

........dhole