Happy Holidays, Booklovers!
While you’re waiting for Santa or for another holiday event, kick off your shoes and pull up a chair. It’s time for another Coffee Chat interview! This week’s guest is mystery author Matthew Cost with his featured novel, Mainely Power.
Welcome, Matt! How do you take your coffee?
MC: I drink it with gourmet creamer. First cup to wake up and second at my desk writing. Then, we go from there.
While you’re waiting for Santa or for another holiday event, kick off your shoes and pull up a chair. It’s time for another Coffee Chat interview! This week’s guest is mystery author Matthew Cost with his featured novel, Mainely Power.
Welcome, Matt! How do you take your coffee?
MC: I drink it with gourmet creamer. First cup to wake up and second at my desk writing. Then, we go from there.
Bio:
Over the years, Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym. He has also taught history and coached just about every sport imaginable.
During those years, since age eight actually, the true passion has been writing. I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution (Encircle Publications, March 2020) was his first traditionally published novel.
Mainely Power is the first of the Mainely Mystery trilogy featuring private detective Goff Langdon. This will be followed by Mainely Fear (just released December 2020), and Mainely Money (to be released in March, 2021).
Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.
Ally: Tell me something that isn’t in your regular bio: “I mention it above, but I once owned a bookstore called the Coffee Dog Bookstore, named after my chocolate Lab, the Coffee Dog. This bookstore and dog were the inspiration for my Mainely Mystery series and are both present in the books. I fictionalize all the characters and places in my hometown of Brunswick other than that, except for a brief blurb in Matt & Dave’s Video Venture, which I also owned at the time. I figured I wouldn’t sue myself.”
Matt Cost can be reached at:
Email: matthew-cost@comcast.net
Website: https://mattcost.net
Twitter: @MattCost8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.cost.3/
Over the years, Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym. He has also taught history and coached just about every sport imaginable.
During those years, since age eight actually, the true passion has been writing. I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution (Encircle Publications, March 2020) was his first traditionally published novel.
Mainely Power is the first of the Mainely Mystery trilogy featuring private detective Goff Langdon. This will be followed by Mainely Fear (just released December 2020), and Mainely Money (to be released in March, 2021).
Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.
Ally: Tell me something that isn’t in your regular bio: “I mention it above, but I once owned a bookstore called the Coffee Dog Bookstore, named after my chocolate Lab, the Coffee Dog. This bookstore and dog were the inspiration for my Mainely Mystery series and are both present in the books. I fictionalize all the characters and places in my hometown of Brunswick other than that, except for a brief blurb in Matt & Dave’s Video Venture, which I also owned at the time. I figured I wouldn’t sue myself.”
Matt Cost can be reached at:
Email: matthew-cost@comcast.net
Website: https://mattcost.net
Twitter: @MattCost8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.cost.3/
INTERVIEW:
Ally: How did you get your first book or story published?
MC: My first published book was I am Cuba; Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, with Encircle Publications. Over the years I had tried to garner an agent and get to the big five of publishing giants. I had done that with various books, and ended up self-publishing one, Joshua Chamberlain and Civil War; At Every Hazard. Finally, I decided to back down and look at some of the smaller publishing houses. Cynthia Brackett-Vincent at Encircle Publications got back to me almost immediately, having loved the draft I sent to them. They are also publishing my Mainely Mystery series, which Mainely Power is the first. They are also publishing another historical next year and a new mystery series that I am two books deep into. I could not be happier.
Ally: Do you write with a theme or message in mind?
MC: I enjoy creating a story around fictional characters as well as sharing significant historical events and people from our past. In my historical work, there is most definitely a theme or message. For instance, my historical, Love in a Time of Hate; New Orleans During Reconstruction, coming out next September, depicts the struggle for social, economic, and political freedom that took place immediately after the Civil War.
I also weave messages into my mystery novels though. I have three mystery novels coming out next year. The first has do with powerful lobbyists and the influence they have, the second has to do with heroin being smuggled through lobster traps in Maine, and the third deals with the resurgence of cult and cult behavior in the US.
Ally: Do you know the book’s ending before you start writing? Does it ever change?
MC: In writing historical fiction, I generally have a pretty good idea of the end of the book. When it ends might fluctuate somewhat, and in my most recent work, I have a fictional theme woven in that was not decided until the very end. My mysteries usually start with an idea and sometimes that idea visualizes the end, not that it always makes it to that particular end. The mystery I am currently working on that involves genetic engineering was a quarter of the way done when I realized what would happen in the end. Now, I just have to get from point A to point D. And yes, certainly, the end could change by then.
Ally: What three books in your genre would you recommend to fans (after they’ve read your books, of course!).
MC:
1) The Perfect Daughter by Joseph Souza
2) Within Plain Sight; a Detective Byron Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin
3) In Solo Time by Richard Cass
Ally: What is your writing project for 2021? Anticipated release date?
MC: I have a full slate of works being published over the next year. The second Mainely Mystery book with Goff Langdon, Mainely Fear, was just released December 4, 2020. The third in the series, Mainely Money, comes out March 6, 2021. The first book in the new Clay Wolfe series, Wolfe Trap, comes out in June of 2021, and the second, The Reckoning, is slated for December of 2021. In between, I have a historical, Love in a Time of Hate; New Orleans During Reconstruction, coming out in September of 2021. I am currently working on the third in the Clay Wolfe Series.
Ally: Which of the short trivia questions did you choose to answer?
MC:
Ally: How did you get your first book or story published?
MC: My first published book was I am Cuba; Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, with Encircle Publications. Over the years I had tried to garner an agent and get to the big five of publishing giants. I had done that with various books, and ended up self-publishing one, Joshua Chamberlain and Civil War; At Every Hazard. Finally, I decided to back down and look at some of the smaller publishing houses. Cynthia Brackett-Vincent at Encircle Publications got back to me almost immediately, having loved the draft I sent to them. They are also publishing my Mainely Mystery series, which Mainely Power is the first. They are also publishing another historical next year and a new mystery series that I am two books deep into. I could not be happier.
Ally: Do you write with a theme or message in mind?
MC: I enjoy creating a story around fictional characters as well as sharing significant historical events and people from our past. In my historical work, there is most definitely a theme or message. For instance, my historical, Love in a Time of Hate; New Orleans During Reconstruction, coming out next September, depicts the struggle for social, economic, and political freedom that took place immediately after the Civil War.
I also weave messages into my mystery novels though. I have three mystery novels coming out next year. The first has do with powerful lobbyists and the influence they have, the second has to do with heroin being smuggled through lobster traps in Maine, and the third deals with the resurgence of cult and cult behavior in the US.
Ally: Do you know the book’s ending before you start writing? Does it ever change?
MC: In writing historical fiction, I generally have a pretty good idea of the end of the book. When it ends might fluctuate somewhat, and in my most recent work, I have a fictional theme woven in that was not decided until the very end. My mysteries usually start with an idea and sometimes that idea visualizes the end, not that it always makes it to that particular end. The mystery I am currently working on that involves genetic engineering was a quarter of the way done when I realized what would happen in the end. Now, I just have to get from point A to point D. And yes, certainly, the end could change by then.
Ally: What three books in your genre would you recommend to fans (after they’ve read your books, of course!).
MC:
1) The Perfect Daughter by Joseph Souza
2) Within Plain Sight; a Detective Byron Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin
3) In Solo Time by Richard Cass
Ally: What is your writing project for 2021? Anticipated release date?
MC: I have a full slate of works being published over the next year. The second Mainely Mystery book with Goff Langdon, Mainely Fear, was just released December 4, 2020. The third in the series, Mainely Money, comes out March 6, 2021. The first book in the new Clay Wolfe series, Wolfe Trap, comes out in June of 2021, and the second, The Reckoning, is slated for December of 2021. In between, I have a historical, Love in a Time of Hate; New Orleans During Reconstruction, coming out in September of 2021. I am currently working on the third in the Clay Wolfe Series.
Ally: Which of the short trivia questions did you choose to answer?
MC:
- an author (living or dead) you'd love to take to lunch: Ernest Hemingway
- If you were a color, what would it be? Purple
- favorite quote: “They tell us sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?” Patrick Henry in “Give us Liberty or Give us Death”.
- the best thing a book fan has ever said to you: “I read this book in a day and bloody loved it.”
- Your pets: Chocolate Lab is Coffee Dog, basset hound is Whimzi, and Chihuahua is Peanut
Mainely Power (A Goff Langdon Mainely Mystery)
Genre: Traditional mystery
Rating: PG-13
Was Harold Dumphy killed to cover up something at the nuclear power plant he was the head of security at?
This is what the widow asks Goff Langdon, private detective, to find out.
Langdon is a laid back, slacker detective, happy with his work, friends, and way of life in the town of Brunswick, Maine. To compliment his income in small town Maine's scarce private detective market, Langdon also owns and operates a mystery bookstore named after his trusted companion, Coffee Dog.
Does Langdon stand a chance against corrupt cops, crooked politicians, greedy millionaires, radical environmentalists, and a deadly assassin named Shakespeare?
With the help of Bart, the bear of a cop, Jimmy 4 by Four the hippie lawyer, the immigrants Jewell and Richam, and his desire and employee, Chabal—he sets out to do just that. And then he is framed for not one, but two murders, and events become very complicated.
Follow Langdon and his band of friends as they attempt to untangle the web of intrigue and return Brunswick to 'the way life should be'.
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mainely-Power-Goff-Langdon-Mystery-ebook/dp/B08FMXQFNV/
Encircle Publications: http://encirclepub.com/product/mainely-power/
Genre: Traditional mystery
Rating: PG-13
Was Harold Dumphy killed to cover up something at the nuclear power plant he was the head of security at?
This is what the widow asks Goff Langdon, private detective, to find out.
Langdon is a laid back, slacker detective, happy with his work, friends, and way of life in the town of Brunswick, Maine. To compliment his income in small town Maine's scarce private detective market, Langdon also owns and operates a mystery bookstore named after his trusted companion, Coffee Dog.
Does Langdon stand a chance against corrupt cops, crooked politicians, greedy millionaires, radical environmentalists, and a deadly assassin named Shakespeare?
With the help of Bart, the bear of a cop, Jimmy 4 by Four the hippie lawyer, the immigrants Jewell and Richam, and his desire and employee, Chabal—he sets out to do just that. And then he is framed for not one, but two murders, and events become very complicated.
Follow Langdon and his band of friends as they attempt to untangle the web of intrigue and return Brunswick to 'the way life should be'.
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mainely-Power-Goff-Langdon-Mystery-ebook/dp/B08FMXQFNV/
Encircle Publications: http://encirclepub.com/product/mainely-power/
Mainely Fear, book #2 in the Goff Langdon trilogy is available now!
https://www.amazon.com/Mainely-Fear-Goff-Langdon-Mystery-ebook/dp/B08KY6KJG2
RSS Feed
