I’ve been hard at work on The Legend of Mad Matilda over the
past five months. And in that time a lot has changed regarding the story.
Instead of calling it The Legend of Mad Matilda, I’ve
decided to change the title to The Legendary Mad Matilda. I felt the new title
had more of a Tim Burton vibe to it. And the Legendary Mad Matilda pays a nice
homage to oldschool Marvel comics like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Uncanny
X-Men, and The Invincible Iron Man. With Mad Matilda being an urban legend in
the Industrial Rave scene of the Goth Subculture I thought the title would tell
everyone who she is.
The Legendary Mad Matilda has come a long way in the last
five months. I’ve gone from outline to first draft in that time, and now that
I’m close to finishing the second draft I’m laying out the pages of the
paperback and I’m doing grammar and spell checks. The book reads very fast, likeSpellbound and Spinsterella it reads like a movie.
Legendary Mad Matilda takes place in 1995 and is the bridge
book between Spellbound which chronicles
Matilda’s Baby Bat years and Spinsterella, the story of Matilda as an Elder
Goth. In some ways its like The Empire
Strikes Back of the Spinsterella Trilogy, it’s the book that chronicles the
darkest period in Matilda’s life as she deals with the growing pains of being
in the adolescent phase of being a Goth. In the heyday of the 1990’s Goth
subculture Mattie is trying to get back on her feet after running into the
troubles she mentioned in Spinsterella, and trying to find her place in the
subculture as an adult.
The big challenge for me on the second round of edits is
trying to make reference to 1990’s current events and make references to things
going on in that era as Matilda’s story went on. While I was able to make
references to the OJ Simpson Trial, Rudy Guiliani’s Quality of life campaign, Harlem
and Union Square’s gentrification, trash talk shows like Jenny Jones, 90’s movies
like Clueless and The Crow and NBC’s Must See TV, it’s been a challenge making references to other
things going on in the decade. With Spellbound
readers were immersed in the year 1989, and I want them to be equally
immersed in the year of 1995.
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The other big challenge is making sure that all the
references to the Goth Subculture were in the story and they were as accurate
as possible. With The Legendary Mad Matilda I want people to learn as much as
they can about the subculture. Oftentimes when I read stories like Andi Watson
and Josh Howard’s Clubbing that feature Goth characters, the Goth subculture
isn’t really presented in an accurate way. When it comes to Goth, they just use
the dark aesthetic of a Goth’s appearance as window dressing and don’t dig deep
into the characters reasons for being a part of the subculture or their
motivations for staying in the scene. With Legendary Mad Matilda I wanted to
delve deep into Mattie’s motivations for wanting to remain a part of the
subculture as she struggles with life after college and the start of her first
full-time job.
And then there’s the music. With the foundation of the Goth
Subculture being the music, I make a LOT of references to Goth music. I had to
listen to a LOT of music to find songs that fit certain scenes. And when it
comes to Legendary Mad Matilda the music in the story is a fusion of Goth
music, and dark themed R&B songs like TLC’s Waterfalls. If I had to design a Legendary Mad Matilda soundtrack
for a movie it’d be that fusion of Goth, R&B and Rap. I want the music to
be like character in the story, in the background setting the mood for certain
scenes and setting the tone in others.
The concept for the Legendary Mad Matilda cover has also
come a long way since the original design I drew. I’ve pondered putting a
half-face on the cover because it would allow the reader to see themselves as
Mattie. So far the concept cover has received a lot of positive responses so
far on social media. People seem to like the Tim Burtonesque take on things.
I’d love to hire Bill Walko or Josh Howard to design
Legendary Mad Matilda’s cover because I believe it’d really POP. In the hands
of a professional artist I think the cover could really catch the attention of
readers and persuade them to pick it up.
I’d love to have The Legendary Mad Matilda out by Halloween
of this year like Spellbound so
readers can pick up ALL of the parts of the Spinsterella Trilogy for the
holiday season but the book is one of five titles that are currently delayed
due to a lack of funds to pay for the cover. I’m mulling over doing another
Kickstarter or some sort of campaign to pay for a cover, but I don’t know if
it’d be worth the time. We’ll see where things go.
In spite of my financial troubles I’m gonna do whatever I
can to release The Legendary Mad Matilda in some way shape or form this year. I
don’t want to leave Mattie’s story incomplete for readers
.
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