Interview with Brian Katcher

1. What do you know now that you wish you knew when you wrote/published Playing with Matches? 
I wish that I had shown the slightest interest in writing before I was 25. Writing is like playing a sport or a musical instrument, you only get good with practice. Instead of working on honing my skills, I just kind of blundered into writing. 

 2. Your books have a strong beauty within message, why do you think this is such an underplayed message in media? 
Sadly, most cultures focus on what people look like before anything else. If you're beautiful, then life is easier for you, period. Why did people listen to Jenny McCarthy when she told people not to have their children vaccinated? Was she a doctor or a researcher? Nope, just really good looking (I still have that Playboy). Who on earth are the Kardashians? I mean, I know who they are, but why? Television changed the face of politics, Richard Nixon was the last truly ugly man elected to that office, and he previously lost to handsome John Kennedy. Sadly, I don't think people today would listen to Abraham Lincoln or Golda Meir because they look like Abraham Lincoln and Golda Meir. 

3. What is one of your favorite quotes in Playing with Matches?
"The next day I didn't wake up as a millionaire playboy secret agent, so I was forced to return to school." I thought that every day in high school. 

 4. Was Playing with Matches the first story you wrote? >or was there something else that didn't make the cut? 
'Matches' was my first serious attempt at writing and I was shocked when it was published. Sadly, after my first two successes, I now have three unpublished novels. 

5. Are you working on anything new? 
'Everyone Dies in the End, a Romantic Comedy.' See if I can't break into the horror genre. Hey, everyone loves a good mystery/romance/buried alive story. 


6. What book have you read recently that you recommend to everyone? 
'Thou Shalt Not Road Trip,' by my friend Antony John. Hilarious story about a boy whose church camp journal is published and suddenly finds himself as the new messiah. 

7. Anything else you'd like to say? 
If you ever have had the urge to write, do it now. Sometimes it pays off.