MC Author, in some worldly circles known as Matt (he/him), carefully balances horror, fantasy, dystopia…basically the darker side of human nature to ensure what is created is relevant, challenging, enriching and most importantly enjoyable to his readers.
He wants you to see in his books real people behaving in real ways whilst they battle very not-real-world demons, sometimes literally.
Author Links:
Threads: @mattcauthor
Instagram: @mattcauthor
Website in development!
Author page: Amazon Author – Matt Corton
What draws you to punk horror in general, and can you tell us more about this subgenre for those not familiar with it?
So it’s a subgenre that whilst I wouldn’t claim I have created, I hadn’t seen very much elsewhere. I love horror, and I love creeping people out with my writing, but the horror I was attempting wasn’t really working. The punk concept was born from forcing myself to write much more quickly, loosely and with more freedom – I found the best way to do that was to think about how to get the writing “in your face”, writing with attitude. Punk seemed to fit, particularly as I’m dealing very much with concepts like society’s underbelly, the things that lurk in all of us and rejecting what’s being fed. With that said, punk also pretty much always had a message and I like to think that what I write not only entertains, scares/creeps out and shocks, but that it has something to say as well.
What makes punk horror the best genre for your novel Cannibal Pete? E.g. punk often rages against consumerism, so does cannibalism as a central theme/element fit into this?
Not consumerism as much as the standards of society that everyone accepts and what happens when you don’t abide by them. It’s perfect for Pete, and the ones that will follow in the “universe”, that they find themselves apart from what everyone else believes, but also desperately want to make things better – Pete is just a little confused about the best way to do that, it would seem!
So it’s not very much about punk fashion, or even ’90s (the period it’s set) fashion or culture, as much as it’s about the attitude and ambition of it.
In addition to that, the short, punchy writing style I adopted – I was determined to keep it under 70k words – forced me to focus on moving things forward, creating and maintaining the energy. I think this came off as by far the most common compliment I’ve received is that it’s a “page-turner”, which is, to me, something created by that punchy energy.
What gave you the idea for Cannibal Pete’s main character, and how did you develop him from that first idea to the final version?
Pete started off like a lot of my novels start off – as a short story idea. I’d been toying with the idea of a cannibal having an apprentice, something which did carry over into the finished version, and once I’d started writing the short story I found there was a lot more there. (NB, this happens a lot and I very rarely finish writing short stories!). I had also been mired in constant edits (version 16 now) of a WIP called Ghosts, a horror novel set in a fictional future, as well as resurrecting another WIP called The Thirteenth, also set in the future and whilst I was desperate for something new, I realised that the recurring themes in those fitted very well with Pete, so I borrowed a few characters and themes from those WIPs and set to it.
It was by far the easiest book to write that I’ve written in part, I think, because I could see how it could fit into a universe of novels around the same concepts. I was excited, not just “trying to finish it”.
Pete himself grew from a caricature of a misguided do-gooder to what I think is a fleshed-out stark consideration of whether ends justify means, both from him and those who helped make him that way.
The main horror of the book is Pete himself, and I love the idea that I’m playing with that you can fight evil with a bigger evil, not because you want to but because you might have to.
What was the premise of your alternate 1990s UK, and how did you develop the worldbuilding for it?
A lot of this will be revealed in future books – but essentially, the world is the same as it was then, or at least so far as people can see. What’s different is what’s going on behind the scenes, the things that Joe Public doesn’t know about.
I very deliberately set it before the internet and mobile phones were commonplace, which instantly gives you more scope with the worldbuilding because characters aren’t just looking things up on a search engine and the idea that things could be occurring completely in the shadows seems much more believable in that time.
Part of that underbelly that I’ve expanded is what corporations, governments and other organisations are doing when they’re all working to make sure nobody is looking (Pete is, for instance, an assassin working to rid the world of criminals that can’t be caught the traditional way, with the full cooperation of senior police and politicians).
The occult also features as part of this underbelly – something that will definitely become a central point later in the universe. London is very familiar to me so I wanted to start there but the rest of the books will jump about a bit more, although staying focused in the UK. In short, I wanted a very real sense of “what lies beneath” the happy facades.
What inspired the idea of connected books, rather than a series?
I think this is more because that’s what I like to read! I’m a huge fan of the Dresden Files, for instance, which whilst it’s advantageous to read previous instalments, you can read each of individually and still enjoy the ride.
Same with Marvel movies, each one is a self-contained thing and can be watched in a variety of orders, but they all interlink in some way. That’s how I want the Punk Powerful series (I really need to stop changing the name of it) to be – books that people can read and they’re a standalone story.
They can be read out of order almost, but there’s themes, characters and the like that will swap about between them and by the time the universe expands, you won’t have to read 12 books to get the idea of number 13. I also liked the idea that it makes easier to bring other authors into the fold on the universe, making it easy for people to carry on the stories themselves, write other stories in the universe I’ve created and expand it – which is hard to do in a closed off series because everything else then becomes a prequel (no shades to prequels, just not my thing).
I like the idea of a universe of writers all writing in the same vein, in the same time, with the same characters and telling a vast array of different stories. Just too hard with a set order.
Do you have any future publication plans, anything we can look out for?
Cannibal Pete and Tara will be out in 2025. Next year will also see The Casebook of Dr Archie Lagoon (my stab at folk horror) and after that, a reworked Ghosts will see it brought back from the future to the ’90s and I’m sure you can guess the subject matter of that from the title! In all, I’ve got 10 books planned, hoping to release one a year.
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