Hello! My name is Katelina, and welcome to Weekend Character Interviews. Using state of the art-mumbo-jumbo author magic, Jo has temporarily bent the laws of fictional space and time to allow various literary universes to converge long enough for me to ask different characters a few questions. Since I spend a lot of time in the Amaranthine series quizzing vampires on what they’re doing, where they’re going and why, Jo thought I would be the perfect interviewer.
Today we have Matt Daly, the unequivocal hero of “Matt’s War” by Tony McFadden.
Matt's War
Katelina: Thanks for stopping in today, Matt! Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Matt: I’m a Canadian Engineer living in Singapore, trying very hard to make a buck helping wireless operators clean up their networks. I’d like to think my looks are average. Everyman. I’m just shy of 5’11”. Brown hair and eyes. I’m fit out of necessity. There’s no way I could survive the hours of flights I need to take to keep this business running if I didn’t hit the gym and jog on a regular basis.
K: Ah, the gym. You should try hanging out with vampires, you get a lot of exercise with all the running. *clears throat* okay, seriously, though, I imagine you have enough to deal with without adding vampires.
M: Yes. Prior to the start of this story my wife, twin kids and I were on vacation in Bali. They were killed in the bombing. I didn’t get a scratch. I am who I am because of that.
K: Oh. Yeah, that’s a lot worse, especially if you haven’t found someone new, yet.
M: No. Too busy. And I’m not really over the death of my wife, yet, so I think it’ll be some time.
K: I don’t blame you. Do you think that’s the hardest challenge you face in this story, or are there others?
M: Oh, that’s a toss up between staying alive and putting up with the terrible jokes tossed my way by my co-captor in the Malaysian jungle. I was stuck in a bunker for an interminable time with a Brit who goes by the name Peter Stevenson. British humor (or should I say humour) is strange, at best. And it wasn’t at it’s best.
K: Heh-heh. So British Bunker Humour is something to be avoided, is that what you’re saying?
M: In a nutshell, yes.
airport by Jo naylor
K: You said “staying alive”. Who’s after you?
M: A nebulous, difficult to pin down, loosely organized group of wing-nuts either intent on the destruction of the Western world, or so filled with sociopathic tendencies they just like blowing crap up. Either way, I’ve looked into their eyes, and I don’t like what I saw. I (and my buddy George) interrupted a hijacking they had planned on a flight from Singapore to Sydney. They were going to turn the flight around and torpedo a building on Orchard Road. I’m fit, George is huge, and we managed to stop it from happening. The planners of that exercise somehow found out who I was and, well, things went downhill from there.
K: Holy cow! Makes you wish you’d had a ticket to a different flight! Though, if you had I guess then no one would have stopped the hijacking and a lot of people would have gotten killed. That sort of makes you a hero, then! How does being all heroic change you?
M: Rapidly.
At the beginning of the book I was very much the ‘keep your head down and do your work’ kind of guy. Then, throughout the events that transpired after the attempted high jacking, I became more aware of the events in the world that had direct impacts on me, and what I could do to influence them for the greater good.
K: So what is it that you want the want the most in the world, then?
M: I don’t think I’ve figured that out yet.
K: I know one of the things on my list is a new author! Speaking of authors, if you could say one thing to yours, what would it be?
photo by Howard Dickins via Flickr
M: Do you have a sequel planned? Because I really don’t want to be in it. You super-glued my hands to a steering wheel, then made me rip the skin off my palms to escape.
Tony Mcfadden: I do. It’s more than a year away though, so you’ve got plenty of time to heal.
M: Really? I’ll pass.
TM: Too bad. The readers have spoken.
K: Look at it this way, at least you’re popular. But, it seems we’re running out of time, so one last question. If you could say anything to your readers, what would it be?
M: To quote Yogi Berra, ‘It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.’ You may think you have depleted all of your reserves, but trust me on this – there’s more. Dig a little deeper. It’s there.
K: Truer words have not been spoken! Thanks so much for taking the time to drop in and visit with us, matt!
And that’s all the time for today. You can find more of Matt in the novel Matt’s War by Tony McFadden, available at Smashwords ( http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/23682) and Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SYKY7S)
And a special thanks to Tony McFadden for playing along!
If you’re an author and would like your character(s) to be interviewed by me, then check out this very cool page that has all the details:
https://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/character-interviews/
Amaranthine by Joleene Naylor 
Tony McFadden
/ June 19, 2011Thanks for doing this Joleene. It was fun.
Joleene Naylor
/ June 20, 2011Thanks for playing along! It was a lot of fun! 😀
thejissilly
/ May 15, 2012Torpedo flights are very scary.