Matt Betts will be at the GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™ on Saturday, March 24, 2018, where he’ll talk to attendees about: What is a Media Kit and Why Do I Need One, Make History with Your Writing, The Rhyming Dead (Horror Poetry), and Steampunk – Where Everything Old is New Again.
Matt Betts was born and raised in Lima, Ohio and went to college in Toledo to study communications, specializing in broadcasting. He signed on with the campus radio station as a news anchor and reporter not long after he arrived at college – before he took his first communications class, in fact. After graduation, he worked for some radio stations as a DJ, a reporter, and anchor. More than any other format, Matt worked at Oldies stations, which fed his love of Elvis, the Beatles, and other great early rock icons.
Matt met and interviewed comedian and actor Larry Miller one night at the club. Larry gave some advice that stuck with Matt long after. Larry was a classically trained musician who still played regularly, and when asked if it was all too much, Larry suggested that creativity is creativity. You don’t have to do just one thing. Whether you’re writing a poem or a script, that creativity feeds the other things you do. It helps you be a better actor, musician, etc. It is advice Matt has applied to his writing career from the beginning, allowing his love of pop culture to infuse and inform all of his work, including poetry, short fiction, and his longer works.
Matt’s short and flash fiction has focused a lot on humor and horror. His work appears in Arkham Tales, Ethereal Tales, the Triangulation: Taking Flight anthology, Bizarro Fiction! The Journal of Experimental Fiction 37, A Thousand Faces and Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy.
Matt’s poem “Godzilla’s Better Half” was nominated for a Rhysling Award, the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s highest honor. His poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Escape Clause, The Book of Tentacles, Illumen, the 2010 Rhysling Anthology, Kaleidotrope, and others.
Matt’s book Odd Men Out is a steampunk-horror-historical-thriller crossbreed where giant lizards and zombies roam a desolate United Nations of America received acclaims from David Pitt, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal.
He currently lives in Columbus with his wife Mackenzie, and their two wonderful boys.
To read more on Matt:
- Home – http://www.mattbetts.com/
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/mattbetts
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Article by Dawn Sooy: Conference Chair for the 2018 GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™
Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group 