Author Spotlight with Lee Matthew Goldberg
Exciting new interview with Lee Matthew Goldberg.
Lee Matthew Goldberg, from NYC is the author of nine novels, which include 'The Ancestor' and 'The Mentor' and the fantastic YA series 'Runaway Train'. Goldberg's books are in various stages of development for film and TV off of his original scripts! (Eeeekk exciting!!). Lee has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the Prix du Polar. His new debut novel 'Vanish Me' was released in Feb 22, and is available to purchase at the bottom of this interview. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared as a contributor in Pipeline Artists, LitHub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, The Big Idea, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, Necessary Fiction, Hypertext, If My Book, Past Ten, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Maudlin House, Underwood Press and others. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. Lee is also the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series.
Hi Lee! Thank you so much for willing to take part in this author interview! You have so many accomplishments in your life so far, including your 'Runaway train' trilogy, you have six novels published and two novellas, how did you get the inspiration for writing all of these?
I’ve always been a writer ever since I was little kid. Characters and ideas just come to me, it’s hard to say. I constantly consume art in all forms and find a lot of inspiration in books, films, music, art, people.
I absolutely adored 'Vanish Me' and I'm so honoured that you got in touch with me to review it, it was something so different for me, and I wish I read the other two first, so that's on my next list to do! Are the character's in the series based on you or anyone that you know?
Thanks so much! Yeah, the books can be read in order or mixed up so I’d suggest going back and starting with Runaway Train to get to know Nico better. They’re not really based on anyone I know, probably a mash-up of a bunch of different people subconsciously.
I love the fact parts of your YA book 'Vanish Me' comprised of parts around the social media aspect for young children/teenagers, and the fact that people are glued to what you call their 'third arm', do you think modern society has changed from what it was before, and was your goal to encourage YA's to come away from social media and live in the real world for a while?
Definitely, it’s changed. Originally, with the first two books I wanted to write about the 90’s since I was teenager then. The main plot is about Nico running away, so it would’ve been very different with social media. Back then, she was able to really disappear and follow her dream of being a singer while she copes with the loss of her sister. As far as social media, I use it as book promotion and in a lot of ways it’s fantastic, but I do hope kids spend less time on it because it’s not real life. I hope young readers might in inspired by the way Love and her friends live.
Your books are in various stages of development for film/tv which I think is brilliant and it would make a fantastic film, especially all the research I have done on your series, what does literary success mean to you? Would you say this is your goal to get them turned into film/tv?
Yeah, it’s my biggest goal for all my books. For the Runaway Train series the hope is a TV show. We have an actress interested in playing the main role, so it would be shaped around her. But it’s a very early stage right now.
If this happened, who would you have to play your characters?
Get back to me soon when I might be able to announce this. Can’t fully say yet!
Can you tell us something that many people might not know about you?
Some know this, but I write all my books at a tree in Central Park. At least when the weather is nice enough.
Your books are translated in many different languages, can you speak a different language?
I speak Spanish. I used to be better but I’ve lost some of it. I’d like to learn French since one of my novels was translated in French and I’m hoping for more.
I see you love reading yourself, who is your favourite author at the moment, and who was your favourite as a child?
My favourite author of all time is F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was pretty young when I first read him and I remember wanting to write as well as him. So, he’s still my favourite. As a very little kid I loved James Howe who wrote Bunnicula and The Celery Stalks at Midnight.
If you could sit down with any author alive or dead, what would you ask them?
Probably F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’d be curious to hear if he was surprised by his success, since he didn’t get a chance to see it in his life.
Your reviews plastered all over the internet, Instagram, GoodReads and Amazon are all fantastic, I'm yet to see one bad review, if you have had any for any of your work, how do you deal with the negative opinions?
Oh, I’ve got some bad reviews. Publisher’s Weekly has slammed two of my books. One of them was so bad it sounded like a parody of a bad review. That once pissed me off, but you can’t really focus on it too much. It’s just someone’s opinion.
Do you google yourself? If so have you found anything intriguing that you didn't know about yourself? Ha!
Yeah, I totally do. More so, I have a google alert set to my name and I pay more attention to it when a book is coming out.
What is next for you? I'm sure our readers are so excited to hear what you have in store next, can you tell us something that you haven't yet told anyone? We will keep it a secret! (Sssshh)
I have a five-book thriller series called Desire Card that will be released in monthly instalments in the second half of 2022. It’s a gritty noir that will begin with the first book in the series, Immoral Origins.
Hmmm, another secret. One of my other books is about to be optioned and I’m very excited about who is involved so far. Nothing is a guarantee but I’m very hopeful for it to become a film.
Thank you so much again Lee, I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as me!
To follow Lee on social media, or to connect:
www.leematthewgoldberg.com Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LeeMatthewGoldberg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leematthewgoldberg/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/LeeMatthewG GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8001634.Lee_Matthew_Goldberg
To purchase Lee's work:
