Welcome to Meet The Author! Today Matt Posner has stopped by
to give us a little insight into his life and his books. So let’s get started.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I live and work in Queens, New York and I teach a city school in
Brooklyn. I'm originally from Miami, Florida and have an academic background in
fiction writing. I'm also a performing point in an avant-garde multimedia band
called The Exploration Project. I've been happily married to Julie since 1999.
What projects have been
published?
I am still working on the School
of the Ages series, set to constitute five novels and an indefinite number
of shorter books that are short story collections or novelettes featuring my
characters. I published three novels and two short books so far, and the fourth
novel is deep into the first draft now. Also, along with Jess C. Scott I am the
author of Teen Guide to Sex and Relationships, an advice book for
teenagers on the topics in the title.
The School of the Ages series is
about a magic school in New York City and the kids who are in it. My main
character is Simon, who with his friends grows up in the books with lots of
loss and adventures. The books feature a strong ensemble supporting cast of
both entertaining student magicians and really horrendous villains. The books
are multicultural, combining magical and mystic traditions of East and West,
and featuring a lot of real-world places and events. I don't like to mention
Harry Potter, but I keep getting asked, and no, except for the commonality of
the magic school setting, the books are nothing like Rowling's books. They are
darker, and they don't have any of that bother about fate and prophecy and dark
lords: I used to use the slogan for them
that I still like: GROWING UP MAGICAL IS
HARD. 
How did you select the title of
your novel?
The first book is The Ghost in
the Crystal. I chose the title because it features a ghost attached to a
crystal, and both ghost and crystal are strong nouns that properly suggest
adventure and magic.
The series title School of the
Ages came about because of my mistake. I wanted to name the series after the
painting by Raphael in the Vatican, with all the philosophers. I thought that
painting was called "The School of the Ages." But I made a mistake as
it is actually "School of Athens." My
mental mistake occurred because that painting is on the cover of Harold
Bloom's book The Western Canon: The
Books and School of the Ages. Harold
Bloom is to me as a lion to a jackrabbit; he couldn't care less if he tried
with both hands.
What
was your inspiration?
I love
to write about magicians and wizards. I've done it since my teenage years. I
was originally planning to write a series about one master wizard and three or
four teenage apprentices. Then I was working in a yeshiva high school in Long
Island, and became fascinated by the Mishnaic (Orthodox Jewish) subculture that
controlled life there, and wanted to write it into a novel. So I created a
school that was half Jews, studying Cabala, and half non-Jews, studying mostly
Hermetic magic (European/Middle Eastern tradition) with some Indian culture
mixed in.
Overall,
my inspiration is reading nonfiction, history and culture and science, which I
then incorporate in various ways into plotlines.
What are you currently working
on?
I am working on School of the
Ages 4: Simon Myth. So far, the
largest and the longest book because it encompasses a lot of characters and
settings and resolves many plotlines that have been ongoing for a long time. I
am sure the fifth book will be much shorter because it will be just a series of
adventures.
What are you reading at the
moment?
I read almost exclusively
independent authors, but it happens that I am reading Rowling's The Casual
Vacancy. I read about fifty pages and then had to take a break, and when I
returned to it I had forgotten who the dozen or more characters were, so I may
need to start all over again. The last time I had such a problem was when I
tried Anna Karenina, which I ultimately set aside.
Do you
have any advice for other authors?
It's
not a living for most people who do it. Don't try to make writing a profession
if you have any choice. If you want to be an independent author, learn
marketing (which I myself have had to learn in small bites and still have not
mastered). You can be published, you can have some readers, but big money and
success are very elusive.
Don't
trust large publishers. They specialize in screwing authors out of money and
rights, and they are in financial trouble and desperate.
And
finally, can you tell us some fun facts about yourself, such as crossed
skydiving off my bucket list.
I guess
I have an informal list in my mind of great paintings I want to see. Here in
New York I've seen "Persistence of Memory," "Les Demoiselles
d'Avignon." In Philadelphia I saw a Cezanne Large Bathers. In the Louvre I
saw -- well, who can list everything you see in the Louvre? In Amsterdam I saw
"The Night Watch." Most recently, I walked into a room in the Vienna
Museum of Art History and it was filled with Breughels. "Tower of
Babel," "Procession to Calvary," "Peasant Dance,"
"Hunters in Winter." OMFG! Standing in front of things I've admired
since childhood. This year or next we hope to see "The Scream" in
Copenhagen. Stuff in Italy will have to wait a few years, though.
Where can we find out more
about you, and where can we purchase your books?
I'm a
reader-friendly author, ready to hear from people who like my books or have
questions about them. Here's how to reach me.
http://www.facebook.com/schooloftheages
http://www.twitter.com/schooloftheages
http://www.pinterest.com/mattposner
I'm also a Goodreads author.
All my books are available for Amazon Kindle. All my novels
are available at the Nook store also. Teen Guide is available in every digital
format and in paperback at all online booksellers. In India, my first two
novels are exclusively in paperback from Times Group Books, available at online
booksellers like infibeam.com and flipkart.com and others.
great interview!
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