MattRees.net

(Blurbworld! is a crime/romance/sci-fi/satirical novel to be serialized here and on my blog in coming months. A blurb is a comment highlighted on the cover of a book, usually provided by another author or culled from a review. They’re often misleading and typically repeat a somewhat tired comparative trope: eg. “Jonathan Safran Foer is the [...]

I was asked to participate in an art project called Ffresh: the Student Moving Image Festival of Wales, which rotates from town to town in Wales. This year it’s in my hometown, Newport. The brief was to write a 50 word factual story about some aspect of the town. My story and those by others [...]

No matter how many profiles and reviews an author gets, the first time in his hometown newspaper is a special one. So I’m delighted to have been profiled this week in the South Wales Argus, which is published in Newport. It’s a fine article by Alison Sanders, an Argus reporter, and it includes my liking [...]

One of the great pleasures of novel-writing is the research which, for almost every book, ought to bring the writer to investigate different areas of inquiry. To become a swift expert in something others might spend all their lives studying. That’s why I’ve taken up my sword.

Welsh Icons (“an Encyclopedia and Gazetteer of Wales and all Things Welsh – A Cymrupedia if you like.”…uh, “Cymru” being the Welsh word for Wales.) lists me among the “iconic” writers on its site. That puts me in the company of thriller king Ken Follett, sinister Willy Wonka-man Roald Dahl, and upright role model Dylan [...]